2. Biska: as a structural focal sequence.

The Biska: sequence, as we have described it, differs sharply from the majority of miscellaneous annual events in ways that lead us to characterize it as of focal importance for Bhaktapur. The first evident difference is quantitative. It has more events and more deities and consumes more time than do the events we presented in the last chapter; the closest being the Saparu events. Biska:'s mass of events is not just a disconnected collection, however; its actions and themes are woven together and related in var-

ious ways. This adds formal complexity to quantity. In contrast to many other events, the entire city is represented, not just an area, and there is a representative range of actors from king to untouchable, not just some one or some few social segments. Furthermore, the themes and actions of the sequence make use of those representative actors and spaces to make general and basic statements about the city in itself , and not about just one element of life in the city, a shared anxiety, for example, about disease. We call such elaborated festivals "focal." While Saparu with its emphasis on death and carnival may be thought of as an antistructural focal festival, Biska:, like Mohani (in its own and different way), emphasizes urban order, and thus is a "structural focal festival."