HINDU MASS SACRIFICE OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF ANIMALS
A Devotee carries a baby goat, as she heads to Gadhimai temple in Bariyapur about 70 kilometers south of Katmandu, Nepal, Monday, Nov. 23, 2009. A Hindu festival in which hundreds of thousands of animals are expected to be sacrificed will go ahead as scheduled in southern Nepal despite protests, organizers said Friday.
Associated Press
A Devotee carries a baby goat, as she heads to Gadhimai temple in Bariyapur about 70 kilometers south of Katmandu, Nepal, Monday, Nov. 23, 2009. A Hindu festival in which hundreds of thousands of animals are expected to be sacrificed will go ahead as scheduled in southern Nepal despite protests, organizers said Friday.
Enlarge Associated Press
A butcher prepares to slaughter a buffalo with his knife during a mass sacrifice ceremony at Gadhimai temple in Bariyapur, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gathered at a temple in southern Nepal on Tuesday for a ceremony involving the slaughter of more than 200,000 animals, a festival that has drawn the ire of animal-welfare protesters.
Associated Press
A butcher prepares to slaughter a buffalo with his knife during a mass sacrifice ceremony at Gadhimai temple in Bariyapur, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gathered at a temple in southern Nepal on Tuesday for a ceremony involving the slaughter of more than 200,000 animals, a festival that has drawn the ire of animal-welfare protesters.
Enlarge Associated Press
A butcher chases an injured buffalo which survived his first attack during a mass sacrifice ceremony at Gadhimai temple in Bariyapur, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gathered at a temple in southern Nepal on Tuesday for a ceremony involving the slaughter of more than 200,000 animals, a festival that has drawn the ire of animal-welfare protesters.
Associated Press
A butcher chases an injured buffalo which survived his first attack during a mass sacrifice ceremony at Gadhimai temple in Bariyapur, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gathered at a temple in southern Nepal on Tuesday for a ceremony involving the slaughter of more than 200,000 animals, a festival that has drawn the ire of animal-welfare protesters.
Enlarge Associated Press
Butchers with butcher knives participate in religious rituals before slaughtering buffalos during a mass sacrifice ceremony at Gadhimai temple in Bariyapur, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gathered at a temple in southern Nepal on Tuesday for a ceremony involving the slaughter of more than 200,000 animals, a festival that has drawn the ire of animal-welfare protesters.
Associated Press
Butchers with butcher knives participate in religious rituals before slaughtering buffalos during a mass sacrifice ceremony at Gadhimai temple in Bariyapur, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gathered at a temple in southern Nepal on Tuesday for a ceremony involving the slaughter of more than 200,000 animals, a festival that has drawn the ire of animal-welfare protesters.
Enlarge Associated Press
Butchers with butcher knives participate in religious rituals before slaughtering buffalos during a mass sacrifice ceremony at Gadhimai temple in Bariyapur, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gathered at a temple in southern Nepal on Tuesday for a ceremony involving the slaughter of more than 200,000 animals, a festival that has drawn the ire of animal-welfare protesters.
Associated Press
Butchers with butcher knives participate in religious rituals before slaughtering buffalos during a mass sacrifice ceremony at Gadhimai temple in Bariyapur, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gathered at a temple in southern Nepal on Tuesday for a ceremony involving the slaughter of more than 200,000 animals, a festival that has drawn the ire of animal-welfare protesters.
BARIYAPUR, Nepal November 24, 2009, 12:00 pm ET
The ceremony began with prayers in a temple by tens of thousands of Hindus before dawn Tuesday. Then it shifted to a nearby corral, where in the cold morning mist, scores of butchers wielding curved swords began slaughtering buffalo calves by hacking off their heads.
Over two days, 200,000 buffaloes, goats, chickens and pigeons will be killed as part of a blood-soaked festival held every five years to honor Gadhimai, a Hindu goddess of power.
While cows are sacred and protected by law in Nepal, animal sacrifice has a long history in this overwhelmingly Hindu country and parts of neighboring India. The Bariyapur festival has become so big, in part, because such ceremonies have been banned in many areas in the neighboring Indian state of Bihar.
And while it is criticized by animal-rights protesters, the festival is defended as a centuries-old tradition.
Many Nepalis believe that sacrifices in Gadhimai's honor will bring them prosperity. They also believe that by eating the meat, which is taken back to their villages and consumed during feasts, they will be protected from evil.
Taranath Gautam, the top government official in the area, estimated that more than 200,000 people had come for the ceremony in Bariyapur, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Katmandu. Some brought their own animals to sacrifice.
"I am here with my mother who had promised the goddess she would sacrifice a goat. It was her wish and promise and I am glad we were able to fulfill it," said Pramod Das, a farmer from the nearby village of Sarlahi. "I believe now my mother's wishes will come true."
Animal rights groups don't have much power in Nepal, but they have staged repeated protests in recent weeks. Local news reports say some activists set up stands in towns on the way to the Bariyapur temple, offering Hindu pilgrims coconuts and other fruits to sacrifice instead of animals.
There was no sign of them Tuesday.
"We were unable to stop the animal sacrifices this year but we will continue our campaign to stop killings during this festival," said Pramada Shah of the group Animals Nepal.
The ceremony, which goes back for generations, has enormous resonance in a country where per capital income is about $25 a month, illiteracy is widespread and vast social divides have left millions working as tenant farmers for feudal landlords.
Even many educated Nepalis see value in the tradition.
Om Prasad, a banker from the nearby city of Birgunj, brought offerings of fruit and flowers to the festival, but said he believed people should be able to sacrifice animals if they want.
"It is their tradition and it is fine if they continue to follow it. No one should try to tell them they can't follow what their ancestors did," he said.
Experts say it will take many more years before there are changes in these deeply rooted traditions.
"They continue these animal sacrifice rituals because they believe it is a tradition that can't be broken," said Ram Bahadur Chetri, an anthropology professor at Katmandu's Tribhuwan University. "The people who follow these traditions believe that if they discontinue, then the gods will get angry and there could be catastrophe in the country."
Buffaloes, goats, chicken and ducks are sacrificed at most Hindu homes in Nepal during the Dasain festivals, which fell in September this year.
THE GUARDIAN:
'The mass sacrifice of animals is barbaric'
21st century life
Monday November 23rd 2009
Pramada Shah,
president of the Animal Welfare Network Nepal and wife of the king's nephew,
explains what will happen during the Gadhimai Jatra festival on November
24-25, at which half a million animals and birds are expected to be sacrificed
¥ Comment
on this article
Monday November 23rd 2009
Pramada Shah with the high priest of Gadhimai. Photograph: Lucia de Vries
Animal sacrifice is an everyday occurrence
in Nepal. One could visit one of the countless temples and suddenly find
oneself witnessing the beheading of a goat, a chicken, a duck, or even
a young buffalo. The visitor might catch the last sounds of a dying animal
or find oneself wading through a stream of blood.
The Ômother of all sacrificesÕ is at Gadhimai Jatra in Bara district in the
south of Nepal. This festival is held once every
five years. Last time 20,000 buffaloes were killed as
well as an unknown number of other animals, including rats, snakes, pigeons,
chicken, ducks, goats and sheep. The total number of animals killed in the
span of just two days was estimated to be 200,000.
This year the organisers aim to sacrifice no less than half a million animals.
Local communities are being pressurised to increase the numbers; each village
committee is supposed to pledge one thousand animals.
Some 70 per cent of devotees come from India, which is just across the border
from Gadhimai. One reason for the event's huge popularity is its proximity
to India, where some states have now banned sacrificial slaughter. In India
today there is greater awareness about animal sacrifice and animal suffering
so it is sad to see that Nepal caters to those devotees who will be able
to conduct sacrifices that are illegal in their home states.
Sacrifice in itself is gruesome. Unsystematic mass sacrifice such as the
one in Gadhimai is no less than barbaric. The worst killings are those of
panchhbali
– five offerings – in which the throats of five kinds of animals
(buffaloes, goats, pigs, roosters and rats) are slit with
a knife. It is not done quickly. The animals die
a slow, extremely cruel, violent death while the priests sprinkle the blood
across the idol and its surroundings.
Right after the panchhbali, it is the buffaloesÕ turn. Wielding swords, men
enter a fenced yard where around 20,000 buffaloes are kept,
and start hacking at the buffaloesÕ necks. As the killers cannot chop off
the buffaloesÕ heads at once, they first cut the hind legs. After the animal
falls on the ground the men hack until the buffaloÕs
head is separated from the body. It takes up to twenty
five attempts to kill a big buffalo. The suffering is unimaginable.
Campaigners have protested against the widespread public sacrifice in Nepal
for the last two decade, but I am a late entrant
to this movement. Despite the fact that I have been involved in the womenÕs
movement for long, I had to give it some thought before becoming equally
vocal about another sensitive issue. But I have
always been against sacrifice.
I remember creating a scene when I was about eight when I realised that a
goat I used to play with was going to be killed.
What upset me even more was that the fact that the goat would be beheaded
in the name of God. In my Hindu upbringing I was
taught that God was the Creator; even as a child I could not understand why
God would want His creatures to be killed.
After seeing how upset I was my family stopped sacrificing
animals. My relatives are animal lovers too so they might have been secretly
relieved to be offering coconuts instead of animals. When I married a member
of the royal family, my in-laws kindly agreed to abandon animal sacrifice
and introduce the offerings of fruits and vegetables. They too are aware
of the futility of animal sacrifice.
Since then I have talked to numerous people about
this issue. I have come to realise that pledging animals to get oneÕs wishes
fulfilled is a deep-rooted tradition. Children grow up witnessing numerous
public sacrifices; people are made to believe that
killing animals in a temple is a short cut to becoming successful. Even well-educated Nepalese, social campaigners and development
agencies continue the tradition.
When I ask educated people why they donÕt stop sacrifice,
at least in their own family, they answer that bad luck could be the outcome
and that a tragedy might occur. They feel it is better to continue the age old traditions and be safe. With such widespread deep-rooted superstition it
is easy to imagine how hard it is for campaigners to address this issue.
The superstitious nature of the Nepalese people stands in the way of abolishing
archaic practices such as animal sacrifice as well as witchcraft, racial
discrimination, womenÕs suppression and others.
NepalÕs leaders might be concerned about the image of the country when the
worldÕs largest sacrifice starts next week, but they will not want to interfere.
They regard the issue as Ôtoo sensitiveÕ and claim they do not want to hurt
the sentiments of religious groups.
Animal sacrifice benefits the business community involved in fairs such as
Gadhimai. This year the organising committee expects to raise about 2 million
euros from selling animal hides and carcasses as well as payment for logistics
and recreational facilities. In contrast, the poor do not do well out of
it. Some will have to spend up to two months' salary to buy an animal to be sacrificed at the fair.
Another issue that is overlooked is that cruelty against animals harms
society as a whole; it signals and normalises insensitivity in children who
can become numb to the suffering of living beings. Now that the armed conflict
has ended, Nepal needs peaceful practices that educate the next generation
for a harmonious society.
The involvement of the international community is crucial to the campaignÕs
success. The support of the world at large will act as a catalyst by creating
an atmosphere of shame among those who continue to sacrifice innocent creatures
and motivate lawmakers to introduce a legal and administrative framework.
The movement is already gaining momentum and will continue to grow after
images from the killings fields of Gadhimai are
broadcast across the nation and the world. Animals cannot speak for themselves.
Until now it has been the priests and business community to speak
for them: bring more, kill more animals. It is high time for every concerned
citizen to speak out and stop inhumane killings in the name of religion.
¥ Interviewed by Anthony Dias, a Kolkata-based freelance
journalist.
REPULICA
WORLD ANIMAL DAY
Crossborder campaign against Gadhimai butchering |
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AKANSHYA SHAH KATHMANDU, Oct 4: Animal welfare campaigners have
initiated a coalition with the Indian NGOs and networks of animal
rights activists, including Hindu and Buddhist leaders, especially
from the Indian state of Bihar, for a joint action to halt animal
sacrifices at the the Gadhimai festival in Bariyarpur, Bara district.
The festival falls on November 24 this year. |
Drive against animal sacrifice at Gadhimai gathers steam
Last Updated : 2009-11-17 12:25 PM
Himalayan News Service
KATHMANDU: The state is set for the worldÕs one of the largest animal sacrifice fair in BaraÕs Bariyapur VDC-1. But a week before the fair kicks off, Ram Bahadur Bomjan, who came to limelight for his Buddha-like penance in a jungle, allegedly without water and food, is all set to stop the animal carnage.Top Story: Today is the beginning of the Gadhimai Mela in Nepal, a massive festival that occurs every five years in honor of the Hindu goddess of power, involving the mass-ritualized slaughter of over 250,000 animals.
http://wildhunt.org/blog/2009/11/gadhimai-mela-and-other-pagan-news-of-note.html
ÒThe worldÕs biggest animal sacrifice began in Nepal today with the killing of the first of more than 250,000 animals as part of a Hindu festival in the village of Bariyapur, near the border with India. The event, which happens every five years, began with the decapitation of thousands of buffalo, killed in honour of Gadhimai, a Hindu goddess of power É The dead beasts will be sold to companies who will profit from the sale of the meat, bones and hide. Organisers will funnel the proceeds into development of the area, including the temple upkeep É Chandan Dev Chaudhary, a Hindu priest, said he was pleased with the festivalÕs high turnout and insisted tradition had to be kept. ÒThe goddess needs blood,Ó he said.Ó
The high-profile ritualized slaughter of so many animals has gained international attention from animal rights activists, including French actress Brigitte Bardot, who told the Nepalese Prime Minister that Òhundreds of horrified tourists report their disgust at witnessing ritual sacrifices at various festivals in NepalÓ. Also attempting to halt the animal sacrifices was Ram Bahadur Bomjon, the famous ÒBuddha BoyÓ, who met with organizers and plans to appeal directly to participants. Local opponents included the Anti-Sacrifice Alliance and the Animal Welfare Network Nepal. But the appeals have fallen on deaf ears and rural Nepalese along with throngs of Indian tourists have flocked to the gathering, animals in tow, to gain the blessing of the goddess, whom they believe will grant their wish within five years.
ÒKushawa, who belongs to the opposition Maoist party that claims to be atheists, said almost 75 percent of the visitors at the fair – whose main attraction is the slaughter of tens of thousands of birds and animals – are from India. ÒWhile they are mostly from Bihar, there are others from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and other Indian states neighbouring Nepal,Ó he said.Ó
This rite no doubt shocks the sensibilities of many Westerners, who see them as unnecessary and barbaric. Then again, the slaughtered animals are cooked, sold, and eaten, so the main differences seem to be the religious aspect, and the fact that the slaughter is open to the public. America, by contrast, doesnÕt (usually) allow people to attend or sanctify their slaughter-houses. To compare scale, perhaps a half-million animals will be ritually killed at the Gadhimai Mela, while Americans will eat 45 million turkeys for Thanksgiving alone, with 250 million grown in 2008. We also killed and consumed over 34 million cows. Is context king? If they were kept out of sight, not ritualized, would we not care? I donÕt think Bardot or the ÒBuddha BoyÓ are planning a trip to AmericaÕs meat-packing plants any time soon. How much of this outrage stems from people not conforming to what we consider civilized?
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