Lakhey

Also Known As: Lākhe, Lākhay; the famed civic guardian is Majipa Lakhey
Region/Culture: Himalayan Region — the Newar people of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
Mythos: Himalayan Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Carnivorous forest demon turned sworn civic protector
Mythical Attributes: A fanged, red-maned demon whose appetite for human flesh is bound by a pact into guardianship, above all of children.
Role in Mythos: The sworn protector of a Newar community, embodied each year in a whirling masked dance through the streets during the Yenya (Indra Jatra) festival.
Relation to Humans: Once a devourer of townsfolk, the Lakhey now shields them from other demons and from disease, and is worshipped as a living deity. In return the city feeds him, offers ritual gifts, and gives his masked dancer the freedom of its streets.

The drum lands first, a flat wooden thud that ricochets off the brick walls of the old city, and then the crowd splits and he comes barreling through the gap: a towering figure in red, the face a slab of crimson crowded with teeth, a mane of coarse hair swinging as the body beneath it stamps and spins. Children scream and bury themselves in their mothers’ skirts, caught somewhere between terror and glee. For one week of the year, the alleys of Kathmandu belong to him.

A lakhey, in Newar folklore, is a carnivorous demon. The word itself marks the appetite. These were beings said to haunt the forests around the old settlements of the Kathmandu Valley, flesh-eaters who slipped into towns after dark, and the stories set them apart from the valley’s other spirits by that one plain fact: they hunted people. A male is a lakhey; a female is a lasin. They are recognized everywhere by the same features, a ferocious face, jaws hinged wide over fangs, and a great tangled mane of red, white, or black hair.

The most beloved of them is the Majipa Lakhey of Kathmandu, and his story turns the whole idea on its head. The name Majipa descends from Manjupattan, the city of Manjushri, the being credited with draining the ancient lake that once filled the valley and opening the ground for a city. In that quarter, the legend says, a lakhey fell in love with a local girl. Unable to keep away, he took human shape and walked into the settlement to be near her, night after night, until he was found out and seized. The king did not have him killed. He offered a bargain instead. The demon could keep his place in the city and his life with the girl, on the condition that he give up eating human flesh and turn his strength to guarding the townspeople, above all their children, from the other demons that preyed on them.

The bargain was simple: stop eating people, and you can stay.

So the man-eater became a warden. Majipa Lakhey is now honored as the Peaceful Bhairava, a serene face of the fierce tantric deity Bhairava, his destroying energy rerouted into vigilance. He is called the protector of children. And each year during Yenya, the festival better known as Indra Jatra, he is made present again in the one way the tradition allows, through a masked dancer who carries him into the streets. In Kathmandu that dancer comes from the Ranjitkar community, and the Lakhey moves through the city with a band of musicians hammering the dhime drum and clashing the bhushya cymbals, stopping at the great crossroads and market squares to perform. City dwellers set out food and ritual offerings as he passes. A mother will lift her child toward the swaying red mask for a blessing, the same figure that a moment earlier sent the child howling.

The performance has a second character, and he is the one who exposes the demon’s limits. A small boy in the guise of a lesser sprite, Jhyalincha, darts in to jeer and provoke the Lakhey, needling him with gestures and taunts until the great figure breaks into a furious chase. The boy always wins. He ducks and weaves and vanishes into the packed crowd, leaving the demon stamping and empty-handed. A being who once emptied a forest of its prey cannot lay a hand on one laughing child.

Up close the Lakhey is craft as much as creature. The mask is built from layered papier-mâché, painted a deep terrifying red, its eyes bulging, its serrated teeth bared, and its hair is real yak tail, heavy and coarse. Beneath it the dancer wears a matching red-and-gold bhoto and a long skirt, the costume weighed down further by ornaments and the ankle bells that mark each stamp. It is hot, blind work, spun through the flicker of torchlight and mustard-oil lamps in the cool of an autumn night.

Not every lakhey is a redeemed guardian. Older tellings hold that the forest demons agreed to protect the towns only after epidemics like cholera thinned the population, trading their hunger for a role. Others still keep their menace outright. The Gunla Lakhe comes out during the monsoon month of Gunla. The Michyah Lakhe, whose name means the fire-burning demon, is blamed for houses that catch alight by themselves, and a person it is said to possess may set fires without touching a flame.

His powers are the powers of the thing he used to be, turned outward: raw strength, a ferocity that frightens off rival demons and drives back sickness, and the standing to be fed and worshipped as a god. His weaknesses are written into the same pact. He may no longer eat human flesh. His fury can be baited and outrun by a child. And his power surfaces only in its season, bound to the ritual calendar and to the mask and the man who wears it, present in the streets for a handful of festival days and then gone until the drums call again.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Lakhey?

A Lakhey is a carnivorous demon from the folklore of the Newar people of Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley. Recognized by its ferocious fanged face and mane of red, white, or black hair, the Lakhey was said to live in the forests and prey on townspeople before some entered pacts to become protectors instead.

Who is Majipa Lakhey?

Majipa Lakhey is the most famous Lakhey, the guardian demon of Kathmandu, honored as the Peaceful Bhairava. According to legend he fell in love with a local girl, and the king allowed him to stay in the city on condition that he stop eating human flesh and protect the community’s children from other demons.

When and where does the Lakhey dance take place?

The Majipa Lakhey dance takes place in Kathmandu during the Yenya festival, also called Indra Jatra, held around the September full moon. A masked dancer from the Ranjitkar community carries the Lakhey through the streets to a band of dhime drums and bhushya cymbals, stopping at crossroads and squares to perform while people offer food and ritual gifts.

Who is Jhyalincha?

Jhyalincha is a small boy who plays a teasing sprite during the Lakhey dance. He taunts and provokes the Lakhey into chasing him, then slips into the crowd and escapes every time, a comic counterweight to the demon’s fury.

Is the Lakhey good or evil?

The Lakhey began as a man-eating demon but is now regarded as a protective figure and even a deity, especially the Majipa Lakhey, who guards children. Some other Lakhes, such as the fire-causing Michyah Lakhe, remain purely dangerous, so the answer depends on which Lakhey the story means.