Animal sacrifice in Nepal

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Sacrifice in Nepal by Richard S. Ehrlich

 

DAKSHINKALI, Nepal — Hindus are sacrificing live animals by slitting the

throats with shiny knives and aiming the thrashing beasts' spurting blood at

this ancient, red-splattered shrine.

 

Or they simply chop off the heads and hold decapitated torsos so a stream of

ruby fluid pumps toward the deity.

 

When a generous amount of life-bearing liquid is shaken out, the men drag

the dead animals across the floor of the roofless, outdoor temple to a

nearby chopping chamber.

 

The shrine's washable, white-tile gutters and floor overflow with the

massacre's blood.

 

In 1780, Nepal outlawed human sacrifice. Animals, however, are allowed to be

killed to satisfy the goddess Kali, and for other ceremonies.

 

Devotees who cannot afford to sacrifice a goat, pig, lamb or waterbuffalo,

offer a less expensive chicken or duck.

 

The temple's executioners don't care, and slice the skinnier throats and

splash the Hindu deity in much the same way.

 

Carcasses remain the property of the believers who brought them, and are

carried home or taken to the chamber where the temple's butchers skin and

debone the meat for a small fee according to devotees' requests.

 

Amid the chaos of hundreds of people offering live animals, the crowd pushes

and shoves as they near the sacrificial spot, walking barefoot in huge

puddles of blood.

 

Everyone seems to think the slaughters will please the gods and grant a boon

to whoever makes such an offering.

 

Animal sacrifice is common in Nepal, the world's only Hindu kingdom. The act

is part of various " pooja " ritual offerings performed when Hindus worship

idols.

 

Nepalis kill animals to sanctify weddings, new homes or religious festivals.

 

 

Upon purchasing a new car or truck, the owner sometimes splashes its

exterior with fresh animal blood, to ensure the vehicle doesn't crash

whenever it is driven.

 

Many times, pooja is merely symbolic -- an offering of butter, yogurt, money

or flowers.

 

When an animal is to be sacrificed, however, it should be an uncastrated

male which is killed, apparently as a display of life's potency.

 

This death to please the gods is also interpreted as doing the animal a

favor by releasing it from a life of suffering, amid hopes that it may be

reborn as a much more fortunate human.

 

Sacrifices are also performed as a mass bloodletting, such as during the

Durga Pooja festival when, once a year, soldiers in the center of Kathmandu

hack off the heads of hundreds of waterbuffalos and goats -- trying to

dispatch each with a single stroke.

 

And during Nepal's most spectacular festival, the Dasain feast in early

autumn, up to 10,000 goats and other animals are slaughtered.

 

Nepal's Buddhists and animists also occasionally perform animal sacrifices,

along with a bit of sorcery.

 

But here at Dakshinkali, on the outskirts of the capital Kathmandu, the Kali

Temple arranges Nepal's biggest number of animal sacrifices -- hundreds

every Saturday and Tuesday, totaling tens of thousands throughout the year.

 

Other less fabled temples, shrines and courtyards elsewhere in Nepal usually

allow the slitting of throats in sacrificial pits on Fridays and Saturdays.

 

At Dakshinkali's temple complex, set amid trees in a tiny valley between two

mountains, swarms with men, women and children carrying their squirming

prey.

 

Hindu symbols, including brass tridents and snakes, adorn the shrine's walls

and canopy.

 

Many believe the animals' blood is an attempt to feed the goddess Kali's

eternally insatiable stomach.

 

Kali, often depicted with a long tongue dripping blood, and wearing a

necklace of human skulls, traditionally devours demons, beasts and people --

which has prompted Kali worshippers to murder people to please her.

 

During the 1800s, British colonialists and others in neighboring India

feared gangs of " Thugs, " including some who worshipped Kali by murdering

victims to gain her blessings.

 

" It is by the command, and under the special protection of the most powerful

goddesses that the Thugs join themselves to the unsuspecting traveler, make

friends with him, slip the noose round his neck, plunge their knives in his

eyes, hide him in the earth, and divide his money and baggage, " wrote Thomas

Macaulay, who served in India during the 1830s and drafted the basis of

Indian criminal law.

 

Today, devotees of Kali are usually much more peaceful.

 

Sita Pathak, a Hindu banker in Kathmandu, said in an interview, " I didn't

sacrifice any animals because I don't like to do all that, but my husband

sacrificed a goat.

 

" He sacrificed it because he wanted something to gain, physical power. He

was sick before that, and after the sacrifice he was healthy and strong.

 

" We bought the goat for 3,000 rupees (44 US dollars). It was just a small

goat. Afterwards, they cut it up, and we took it home and ate it.

 

" I cooked it. The goat tasted good. We are Brahmins, so we sacrifice goats,

not chickens. The lower castes sacrifice chickens. "

 

She was referring to Hinduism's vicious caste system in which people born

from Brahmin parents dominate all others, while lower castes are trapped for

generations in often miserable jobs, lifestyles and other forms of public,

private and religious behavior.

 

At Dakshinkali, meanwhile, some devotees don't wait to return home to dine

on the dead meat.

 

Instead, they picnic in the forest next to the shrine, roasting their meals

on campfires while the slitting and hacking continues below amid clanging of

bells and shouts of prayer.

------------------------------

 

Richard S. Ehrlich has a Master's Degree in Journalism from Columbia

University, and is the co-author of the classic book of epistolary history,

" HELLO MY BIG BIG HONEY! " -- Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their

Revealing Interviews.

 

His web page is located at http://www.geocities.com/asia_correspondent and

he may be reached by email: animists *at* dot com

 

 

 

*from The Laissez Faire City Times

Vol 3, No 36, September 1999*

 

Copyright by Richard S. Ehrlich