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NP - Yak Blood Drinking Festival

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Pls note among all the cruel cultural rituals in Nepal this is one of the

least cruel ones. The yaks suffer but they survive and are otherwise well

taken care of. Other rituals include skinning of live piglets, tearing apart

of live goat by youngsters, burning of live snakes and others animals,

tearing out hearts of live piglets and the public sacrifice of hundreds of

thousands of animals. For more info go to www.stopanimalsacrifice.org (See

calendar).

 

The Animal Welfare Network Nepal this year too has written letters to the

media to express its concern regarding the blood drinking festival (see

www.awnnepal.blogspot.com)

 

One of the organisers of yak blood drinking festival is Himanchal Education

Foundation. You can send your email to contact

 

On Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 4:16 PM, khalid qureshi <knrm2 wrote:

 

>

>

>

> Animal Lovers

> S T O P IT.

>

>

>

> After three months Nepal came under fire from animal lovers worldwide for

> holding the biggest animal sacrifice fair in its southern plains, hundreds

> of people are now flocking to the west to participate in a festival to drink

> yak’s blood.

> Men, women and even children have been heading for Myagdi, a remote

> district in western Nepal, to take part in the khun khane ritual, which

> literally means drinking blood.

> The festival sees the local yak herders making money by selling the blood

> of live yaks to people who queue up in hundreds to drink it, in the belief

> their illnesses will be cured.

> While lactating female yaks are spared, other yaks above the age of two are

> chosen for the ritual.

> Pinned down by people who hold their tails and horns and their legs tied,

> the yaks are then bled by a professional bleeder, known as the aamji.

> The aamji pierces the jugular vein of the hapless animal and the streaming

> blood is collected in cups that are then passed among the crowd, who drink

> the warm, frothy liquid unwaveringly.

> Each yak is bled to collect between 20 to 40 cups of blood.

> The ritual is believed to be an old Tibetan one that originated in Mustang

> in northern Nepal, once part of an ancient Tibetan kingdom.

> The participants are mostly people suffering from chronic diseases who have

> given up hope of being cured by modern medicine.

> An American researcher, Zorina Curry, who studied the khun khane festival,

> correlates the ritual to the belief in witchcraft and the superstition that

> blood is effective as medicine as well as an aphrodisiac.

> However, Curry also warned that since the yaks were not inoculated, some

> had TB and the blood—drinking could infect the human drinker.

> The festival has been condemned by Nepal’s animal rights activists who last

> year urged the government to stop the slaughter of tens of thousands of

> animals and birds at the five—yearly Gadhimai Festival but to no avail.

> The Animal Welfare Network Nepal (AWNN) has termed the khun khane practice

> barbaric.

> “Can you think how painful it must be for these innocent creatures to have

> their necks and bodies pierced and to be drained of blood?” AWNN had said in

> an earlier statement.

> “Humanity as a whole must speak out against cruelty against living beings

> in the name of religion, culture or health.”

> Though Nepal prides itself on being the birthplace of the Buddha, the

> founder of Buddhism, the religion that preaches non-violence, local rituals

> abound in rank cruelty to animals without being banned by a succession of

> weak governments for fear of a backlash.

> Another local practice is the deer hunt in which the hunters wound the

> victim and then tear out its palpitating heart while it is still alive.

> with Love & Peace

> KHALID MAHMOOD QURASHI

> President,

> ANIMAL SAVE MOVEMENT PAKISTAN

> H#1094/2 HUSSAIN AGAHI MULTAN-PAKISTAN

>

> Hotmail: Powerful Free email with security by Microsoft. Get it now.

>

>

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Also note folks that the website Lucia mentions has a place for your stories and

opinions. The aim here is to document the torture at the grassroots level, to

include personal experience and opinions. See

http://web.me.com/studiosphoenix/stopanimalsacrifice/Stories.html

Cheers,

Jigs

 

 

 

On Mar 26, 2010, at 9:50 AM, lucia de vries wrote:

 

> Pls note among all the cruel cultural rituals in Nepal this is one of the

> least cruel ones. The yaks suffer but they survive and are otherwise well

> taken care of. Other rituals include skinning of live piglets, tearing apart

> of live goat by youngsters, burning of live snakes and others animals,

> tearing out hearts of live piglets and the public sacrifice of hundreds of

> thousands of animals. For more info go to www.stopanimalsacrifice.org (See

> calendar).

>

> The Animal Welfare Network Nepal this year too has written letters to the

> media to express its concern regarding the blood drinking festival (see

> www.awnnepal.blogspot.com)

>

> One of the organisers of yak blood drinking festival is Himanchal Education

> Foundation. You can send your email to contact

>

> On Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 4:16 PM, khalid qureshi <knrm2 wrote:

>

>>

>>

>>

>> Animal Lovers

>> S T O P IT.

>>

>>

>>

>> After three months Nepal came under fire from animal lovers worldwide for

>> holding the biggest animal sacrifice fair in its southern plains, hundreds

>> of people are now flocking to the west to participate in a festival to drink

>> yak‚s blood.

>> Men, women and even children have been heading for Myagdi, a remote

>> district in western Nepal, to take part in the khun khane ritual, which

>> literally means drinking blood.

>> The festival sees the local yak herders making money by selling the blood

>> of live yaks to people who queue up in hundreds to drink it, in the belief

>> their illnesses will be cured.

>> While lactating female yaks are spared, other yaks above the age of two are

>> chosen for the ritual.

>> Pinned down by people who hold their tails and horns and their legs tied,

>> the yaks are then bled by a professional bleeder, known as the aamji.

>> The aamji pierces the jugular vein of the hapless animal and the streaming

>> blood is collected in cups that are then passed among the crowd, who drink

>> the warm, frothy liquid unwaveringly.

>> Each yak is bled to collect between 20 to 40 cups of blood.

>> The ritual is believed to be an old Tibetan one that originated in Mustang

>> in northern Nepal, once part of an ancient Tibetan kingdom.

>> The participants are mostly people suffering from chronic diseases who have

>> given up hope of being cured by modern medicine.

>> An American researcher, Zorina Curry, who studied the khun khane festival,

>> correlates the ritual to the belief in witchcraft and the superstition that

>> blood is effective as medicine as well as an aphrodisiac.

>> However, Curry also warned that since the yaks were not inoculated, some

>> had TB and the blood˜drinking could infect the human drinker.

>> The festival has been condemned by Nepal‚s animal rights activists who last

>> year urged the government to stop the slaughter of tens of thousands of

>> animals and birds at the five˜yearly Gadhimai Festival but to no avail.

>> The Animal Welfare Network Nepal (AWNN) has termed the khun khane practice

>> barbaric.

>> „Can you think how painful it must be for these innocent creatures to have

>> their necks and bodies pierced and to be drained of blood?‰ AWNN had said in

>> an earlier statement.

>> „Humanity as a whole must speak out against cruelty against living beings

>> in the name of religion, culture or health.‰

>> Though Nepal prides itself on being the birthplace of the Buddha, the

>> founder of Buddhism, the religion that preaches non-violence, local rituals

>> abound in rank cruelty to animals without being banned by a succession of

>> weak governments for fear of a backlash.

>> Another local practice is the deer hunt in which the hunters wound the

>> victim and then tear out its palpitating heart while it is still alive.

>> with Love & Peace

>> KHALID MAHMOOD QURASHI

>> President,

>> ANIMAL SAVE MOVEMENT PAKISTAN

>> H#1094/2 HUSSAIN AGAHI MULTAN-PAKISTAN

>>

>> Hotmail: Powerful Free email with security by Microsoft. Get it now.

>>

>>

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