Hundreds of Nepali youths spent this year's Bada Dashain not in the courtyards of their family homes but in the departure halls of Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, flying out of the country for foreign employment, study and other purposes even as the nation celebrated its biggest festival. Crowds of outbound passengers remained a constant sight at the airport throughout the festival days, and the majority of those leaving were young people headed abroad in search of jobs, according to a report published in Rajdhani Daily.
Crowded Departure Halls in the Middle of the Festival
Dashain, the greatest festival in the Nepali calendar, normally reverses the flow of travel in and out of Kathmandu. Offices close, buses and planes fill up, and large numbers of people return to their villages and ancestral homes to receive tika and blessings from their elders. This year, however, the scene at Tribhuvan International Airport told a parallel story. Even as families gathered across the country, crowds of outbound passengers stayed at the airport, waiting to board flights out of Nepal.
As the country's main international gateway, the airport handles the bulk of Nepal's outbound travel for work and education, and the festival period proved no exception. The departures did not slow for Dashain, and the queues at the terminal were a visible reminder that for many young Nepalis the search for opportunity overrides the festival calendar.
Who Was Leaving
The outbound passengers included youths travelling for a range of reasons, though the report notes that most were leaving in search of jobs. Others departed for:
- foreign employment in overseas job markets,
- academic studies at foreign institutions,
- other purposes that took them out of the country during the festival.
Whatever the destination, the common thread was youth. The crowds that passed through the departure gates during Dashain were overwhelmingly made up of young people at the start of their working lives, a generation for whom the road to a job or a classroom more often begins at an airport counter than at a local office.
A Future Built Abroad, a Festival Left Behind
The report describes the motivation behind the Dashain departures in plain terms: the departing youths were driven by the goal of building their own future and improving their families' economic condition. For hundreds of households, the most important festival of the year coincided with the moment a son or daughter set out on that journey, trading the familiar rituals of Dashain for the promise of life abroad.
The timing underlines how deeply many families have come to rely on opportunities overseas. Money sent home by Nepalis working abroad has long sustained household spending across the country, covering daily needs, education, healthcare and the building of homes. When a young person secures a job or a place to study abroad, the whole family often shares in the expected returns. Measured against that expectation, the pull of the festival, however strong, could not hold everyone home.
The departures also carried a human cost that is easy to picture. Dashain is the season when elders apply jamara and tika to the foreheads of the younger generation, when families sit down together for festive meals and reunions that many members travel great distances to attend. For the hundreds of youths who flew out during the festival, those rituals were replaced by airport goodbyes, with farewells said at the departure gate rather than at the family altar.
A Familiar Pattern That Does Not Pause for Festivals
The Dashain exodus was not an isolated event but the continuation of a well-established pattern. Foreign employment has become a central pillar of Nepal's economy, with a large share of the working-age population spending years working in countries abroad, particularly in the Gulf region and Malaysia, while students commonly travel to destinations such as Australia and Japan for higher education. Year after year, the flow of young people out of the country has continued, and the crowds at Tribhuvan International Airport during this Dashain showed that the festival season is no exception.
Behind that flow lies a persistent gap between aspiration and opportunity at home. The young passengers leaving during Dashain were, in effect, answering the same question that families across the country confront whenever a member departs: where can the best available chance to secure the family's economic future be found? For now, the answer for most remains a job or an education abroad.
What the report captures, ultimately, is a moment that has become routine in Nepal: young people with bags packed, choosing opportunity over celebration, and families letting them go in the hope of a better life for everyone left behind. Until the calculus of opportunity changes, the departure halls of Kathmandu's international airport can expect festival crowds of their own, even when the rest of the nation is gathered at home.
