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9/11/09
Unmoved by protests, Nepal set to host animal sacrifice fair
Hindustan Times
Kathmandu,
India’s animal rights activist and politician Maneka Gandhi’s
protest and Nepal’s ‘Budhha Boy’ Ram Bahadur Bomjan’s
appeal won’t be able to prevent the sacrifice of nearly half-a-million
animals at this month’s Gadhimai Mela in this Himalayan nation. Billed
as the world’s largest animal sacrifice fair, the event — held
every five years at Bariyapur in Bara district of southern Nepal —
is expected to attract about five million Hindus from across the country
and neighbouring India.
But despite protest from several quarters, the Nepal government has refused
to intervene in the religious custom meant to appease Goddess Gadhimai.
Instead, it has decided to provide adequate facilities for the two-day ritual
beginning November 24.
On Sunday, Home Minister Bhim Rawal assured the development committee of
parliament that 1,150 additional security personnel would be deployed in
the mela area for security of the pilgrims. “Security could be a cause
of concern as a large gathering would congregate at the fair and there is
difference of opinion among the local populace as well on whether the custom
should continue,” said chairman of the committee Jitendra Sonar, who
had visited Bariyapur recently.
According to estimates, nearly 500,000 animals, including buffaloes, goats,
ducks, roosters and pigeons, would be sacrificed at the fair to appease
the goddess. Some say the number has increased because of several Indian
states banning animal sacrifice for religious purposes. “Since many
devotees come from India, we have asked the administration in Bihar and
Uttar Pradesh, states that border Nepal, to stop smuggling of animals and
birds for the fair,” said D.B. Bomjan of Tamang Rashtriya Mukti Morcha,
an NGO.
Last month Maneka Gandhi had written to Nepal’s Prime Minister Madhav
Kumar Nepal seeking government intervention to stop the mass sacrifice.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7052543.stm
Revulsion over Nepal animal slaughter
The people of Nepal are celebrating their biggest national festival, Dashain.
The 15-day annual religious feast marks the victory of the Hindu goddess
Durga over a feared demon and symbolises the triumph of good over evil.
There are a wealth of rites in the goddess's name, and sacred grass is being
grown in special pots all over the country to be used as a blessing this
Sunday, the 10th and most important festival day. Every Hindu home has been
cleaned and decorated to welcome the goddess. The markets have been heaving
as shoppers seek out new clothes and foodstuffs, and many thousands are
returning to their home villages from the cities and from foreign countries
to spend time with their families.
Mass
slaughter
But increasingly voices are being heard questioning what takes place on its eighth and ninth days - this Friday and Saturday - when hundreds of thousands of animals are ritually slaughtered as a sacrifice for Durga. Visible in the Kathmandu traffic among all the shoppers are youths walking with herds of goats; motorbikes with live chickens dangling from the sides; and trucks crammed with buffaloes arriving from India. On Friday and Saturday, and especially during the night in between, known as "Kal Ratri" or the "Dark Night", thousands of these animals as well as sheep and ducks will be slaughtered across the nation. Animals are killed in the smallest villages or in cities like Kathmandu, where the courtyard of the Taleju Temple, opened just once a year, will end up flowing with blood. It will yield a feast of meat. But it is also said to have a religious meaning - the killing being a sacrifice to honour the goddess and prevent her anger in the year ahead. The new dissenters are questioning both the scale and the methods of the killing. An article in the Nepali Times weekly says most buffaloes, like smaller animals, are decapitated but the bigger ones are battered to death with a heavy hammer on the forehead.
'Such cruelty'
A respected botanist, Dr Tirtha Shrestha - writing in the same paper - says
that in Bhaktapur, near Kathmandu, pigs are skinned alive and their beating
hearts offered to the temple, while in a nearby village people tear apart
a live goat. He asks what kind of people take pleasure in such cruelty,
even suggesting that a society which treats animals so brutally will be
brutal to human beings too. "Decapitating a bleating buffalo or goat
should not be the symbol of the Nepali civilisation," he says. "Why
are we exhibiting such cruelty, and how does this reflect on our society?"
Dr Shrestha accepts that to eat meat, animals must be killed. "But
why do we have to inflict such pain before we do so? This is not just inhuman,
it is also against the law in many countries. It is morally wrong to torture
fellow creatures under any circumstances, but to do so in the name of religion
is a sin."
Another Nepali man, Arun Poudel, sending a mass email, picks up on this
last theme.
Animal sacrifices
He says people should stop killing animals in the name of Hinduism's respected
goddesses and gods. “Maybe the deities will start wanting human blood
soon," he muses grimly. Such sentiments are spreading. Although animal
rights are not a major concern in Nepal, an animal protection group recently
held a rally in the capital against the yearly tradition of animal sacrifices.
And, speaking to the BBC, one Nepalese journalist who has been a vegetarian
for many years said he was delaying his visit to his village to avoid the
killing. "I can't stand the slaughter," he said. "If a goat
is killed, I run away. When I was a small kid, I'd hide indoors all day
or go to the jungle." He believes about 1,000 animals will die in his
small village in the hills where, he says, certain men have taken up the
"hobby" of Dashain slaughtering and will provide the service for
many households. The Kathmandu Post newspaper reports on another group of
dissenters. It says two entire villages in Gorkha, in west-central Nepal,
have shunned sacrifices for as long as 90 years and gone largely vegetarian
as they believe in non-violence. At the moment, however, these voices are
still few and far between. Nepal is a country where most people are too
poor to eat meat regularly and regard it as a great treat. There is not
as strong a tradition of vegetarianism as there is in neighbouring India,
which also has a Hindu majority.
For the time being at least, The feast-day spilling of animals' blood looks
set to continue.
See also:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/nepal-slaughter-ritual-condemned/story-e6frg6so-1225794113259
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Nepal-set-to-host-animal-sacrifice-fair/H1-Article1-474675.aspx