Dasain celebrated in Nepal with controversial animal sacrifices

[Guest guest]

Revulsion over Nepal animal slaughter

Charles Haviland

BBC News, Kathmandu

 

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.

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7052543.stm

 

2007/10/19

[Guest guest]

How many animals are slaughtered daily in the west for meat alone? These

articles by westerners are part of the evanjihadism thats fostered by the

western evangelists and it is being taken up by gullible Indians.

 

 

 

msbauju <msbauju

 

Saturday, October 20, 2007 11:09:38 PM

Dasain celebrated in Nepal with controversial animal

sacrifices

 

Revulsion over Nepal animal slaughter

Charles Haviland

BBC News, Kathmandu

 

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.

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news. bbc.co.uk/ go/pr/fr/ -/2/hi/south_ asia/7052543. stm

 

2007/10/19

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

i think,

is more important if we can tell our Hindu Dharma brothers and sisters to do

the right path of the Durga Mata Puja. (India have many sect is not in right

path of Vedic compassion teaching)

Durga Mata not want to see Her childs in pain, Her childs is not only human,

Her childs is all beings!

Jai Mata Durga, Jai Karuna Mata

 

 

sankara menon <kochu1tz wrote:

How many animals are slaughtered daily in the west for meat alone?

These articles by westerners are part of the evanjihadism thats fostered by the

western evangelists and it is being taken up by gullible Indians.

 

 

msbauju <msbauju

Dasain celebrated in Nepal with controversial animal

sacrifices

 

Revulsion over Nepal animal slaughter

Charles Haviland

BBC News, Kathmandu

[....]

 

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.

 

[....]

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news. bbc.co.uk/ go/pr/fr/ -/2/hi/south_ asia/7052543. stm

 

2007/10/19

[Guest guest]

[Moderator's note: as the original article stated, this

is a controversial topic; we certainly aren't going

to resolve the controversy here. Let's end this conversation

at this point.]

 

Namah Tripurasundari

 

[....] All those killings were to filll the bellies of humans. I have never

found

the wrath of the Goddess on those who worshipped without blood.

[....]

 

* The scriptures which advise to give animal sacrifice:

But there are also much more scriptures advising the mild path, without

bloodshed. [....]