Dingboche is one of the most mesmerizing villages located in the Everest region, Nepal nesting at 4,410 meters (14468.504 feet) above sea level. Dingboche is a popular stop for trekkers on the way to Everest Base Camp, offering stunning views of mountains like Ama Dablam. Dingboche is also an acclimatization stop, helping trekkers adjust to the high altitude.
A sacred practice in Dingboche, people leave the village for a month. This practice is called ‘ding’. Dingboche consisting of around 13 hotels, and a population of 400 people sleeps for a month. All the people residing in this place leave this place for a month.
Ding means the practice of leaving the place for a month, between the month of mid-June to mid-August. For the right time to leave the village, they consult the Buddhist priest (lama Purhet) to perform the necessary worshiping and rituals and select the right time to leave the village, according to Buddhist culture. This time is considered off-seasonal time, that’s why also people select this period to perform “ding”.
Before leaving the village, the villagers go to the Gumba and perform rituals and take blessings from the Buddhist priest, according to Buddhist culture. By doing this it is believed that the animal raring and framing will bloom. During Ding, it is all the villagers go to the nearby villages like Pangboche, Khumjung, Namche Bazar, and Lukla. Some people even shift along with their animals during Ding.
It is customary for the community to choose two people as “Nawa” in the Sherpa language every year to spell Urdu for “Ding”. Those people who are chosen from the villagers (Nawa) decide when to leave the village, when to enter when to light the fire in the house, and when to enter the field. As Nava coordinates everything with Lama Gurus, it is customary for all villagers to obey.
Accordingly, this year too, the local Pasang Sherpa informed that everyone left the village after performing the puja from June 26th. It is believed that if rituals are broken, bad things will happen, people will die in the village, floods will occur, and crops will be damaged.
The local said, “This is a tradition from our generations, many tried to break it, but no one dared to do it because the big lama monks said it would be bad in the village. Everyone here obeys this rule, and no one opposes it. “Dwarika Prasad Ghimire”, Deputy Superintendent of Police, District Police Office, Solukhumbu, said that the police station had to be moved to Namche Bazar after there was no one in the village for a month.
Due to the off-season for tourism, some people go to places like Kathmandu, Pokhara, and Bodh Gaya in India. Off-seasonal trekkers stay at Pherice (a nearby village alongside Dingboche approximately 1.1km distant) during this time.