Print this post.AFP, Kathmandu | HINDUSTANI TIMES
Unquestioned traditions, appalling ignorance, and attachment to dominionistic religious dogmas facilitated the death of millions of animals in a brutal ritual over the centuries. Rivers of pain in the altar not of Ghadi Mai, but of human superstition.
A herder stands inside an enclosure for buffalos awaiting sacrifice on the eve of the sacrificial ceremony for the “Gadhimai Mela” festival in Bariyapur. (Reuters File Photo)
In a victory for animal rights activists, Nepalese temple authorities said on Tuesday they would end a centuries-old Hindu tradition of mass animal slaughter during Gadhimai festival that attracts hundreds of thousands of worshippers.
The festival, held once every five years, sees hordes of devotees from Nepal and India flock to a temple in the Himalayan nation’s southern plains to sacrifice thousands of animals in the hope of appeasing the Hindu goddess of power, Gadhimai.
“We have decided to completely stop the practice of animal sacrifice,” said Motilal Prasad, secretary of the Gadhimai Temple Trust, which organises the celebrations.
“I realised that animals are so much like us — they have the same organs as us… and feel the same pain we do,” Prasad told AFP.
The practice of ritual sacrifice has a long history in Nepal, with devotees offering goats and buffaloes to gods during major festivals in the hope of finding health and happiness.
Some 2.5 million worshippers sacrificed an estimated 200,000 animals during the most recent instalment of the Gadhimai festival held last November in the village of Bariyapur near the Indian border.
“It won’t be easy to end a 400-year-old custom… but we have four years to convince people that they don’t need to sacrifice animals to please the goddess,” Prasad said.
Animal rights activists applauded the decision, which came after years spent lobbying temple authorities and the Nepal government in a campaign that attracted support from celebrities including British actress Joanna Lumley and French movie legend Brigitte Bardot.
Cultural deformities: The senseless killing fields of Gadimai
“While we find many people rejoicing over the news on the Gadimai Temple trustees announcing end of animal sacrifice at Gadimai, released today at the press conference we organized in Delhi, the hard grinding negotiations continue with the Khokana festival people for a similar step from them. Khokana people are more positive now than ever and I believe that with much needed push we will succeed in it like with Gadimai. This week might register itself as the week of beginning of the end of sacrifices in Nepal. Very much proud of all our team and thankful towards partners like HSI INDIA. We will always be indebted to Animal People, Kim Rogers Bartlett, One Voice, AS Stifling, Compassion in World Farming, Kindness Trust, Dr. Jane Goodall, Smt. Manea Gandhi and all who have helped us make this possible.”—Manoj Gautam
“It has been a long effort… we took a firm stand and it has finally worked,” said Manoj Gautam, president of Animal Nepal Welfare Network.
“We realise that people have been victimised by superstition so building mass awareness is critical, but I am very hopeful that we will see a bloodless festival in 2019,” Gautam told AFP.
According to legend, the first sacrifices in Bariyapur were conducted several centuries ago when Gadhimai appeared to a prisoner in a dream and asked him to establish a temple to her.
When he awoke, his shackles had fallen open and he was able to leave the prison and build the temple, where he sacrificed animals to give thanks.
It bears repeating. These horrors should have been stopped and denounced—broadly— long ago, but lack of media coverage and the constant political disorder in the world, the venality of politicians across the globe, and the sheer weight of ignorance and religious traditions kept the massacres going. Let this be a lesson for other crimes against animals still being committed under different pretexts and in all latitudes. —Editor
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FACT TO REMEMBER:
IF THE WESTERN MEDIA HAD ITS PRIORITIES IN ORDER AND ACTUALLY INFORMED, EDUCATED AND UPLIFTED THE MASSES INSTEAD OF SHILLING FOR A GLOBAL EMPIRE OF ENDLESS WARS, OUTRAGEOUS ECONOMIC INEQUALITY, AND DEEPENING DEVASTATION OF NATURE AND THE ANIMAL WORLD, HORRORS LIKE THESE WOULD HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED MANY YEARS, PERHAPS DECADES AGO. EVERY SINGLE DAY SOCIAL BACKWARDNESS COLLECTS ITS OWN INNUMERABLE VICTIMS.
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1 comment
MORE THAN SPLENDID NEWS, COLOSSAL NEWS. My eternal gratitude to Mr. Gautam and his associates who made this victory possible. Nepal is (contrary to hippie folklore) a very perturbed society. Ceaziness in many aspects of life is more common than outsiders think. One of the royal princes massacred his entire family at dinner, for starters. Maybe this will give the animals a respite. What can;t be denied is India’s enormous influence on Nepal, which she views as a sort of unofficial protege nation.