Posted on 11/24/2009 5:22:06 AM PST by JoeProBono
UP to a million Hindu devotees have gathered in a village in Nepal to witness the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals in a mass sacrifice that has drawn widespread criticism. Worshippers travelled long distances, many coming from India, to attend the two-day Gadhimai festival, which honours the Hindu goddess of power and takes place once every five years in southern Nepal.
A huge cry of "Long Live Gadhimai!" went up after the village temple's head priest launched the event with the ritual sacrifice of two wild rats, two pigeons, a rooster, a lamb and a pig.
The crowd then rushed to a nearby field where 250 sword-wielding butchers were waiting to begin the mass slaughter of about 20,000 buffalo, brought by devotees to be sacrificed near the holy temple.
"This is a very special day for Hindu devotees," head priest Mangal Chaudhary Tharu told AFP as the Gadhimai festival began.......
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
One big food kitchen!!
It is good to be a cow in India.
I’m not quite sure I believe this...
It even says they eat the meat, hello, we’re talking Hindus?
I guess Hindus eat Buffalo meat.
Tihar, the five-day Hindu festival of lights, has concluded. The second day, Kukur Tihar, is dedicated to worshiping dogs. Dogs -- even strays -- are given choice foods and decorated with garlands. It's believed they guard the underworld for Yamraj, the god of death, so they're asked to guard homes, and their ancient loyalty is also honored. Yet in a month, hundreds of thousands of Hindus are expected to travel to Nepal for another festival -- this one a mass animal sacrifice.
With that many buffalo, they should have twice as many butchers. aka; The Hindi 500.
The Romans had a variation where they ended up with a rhinoceros stuffed with all sorts of stuff, and then roasted inside an elephant. Hindus also practice "the burnt offering" ~ just like the good old days.
BTW, there's a misunderstanding that Hinduism is a unified, uniform religion ~ it's not. Rather it's simply an agreement among all the various ancient religious groups in India to not violate caste lines, nor to seek members among the others.
Christians, Moslems and Buddhists are not part of the deal although there are frequent attempts made by your more classically oriented Hindus to FORCE them to accept the deal ~ that's where you get your "Hindu mob burns Christian missionary with tires" stories or "Hindus run rampant through Moslem quarter murdering women and children".
The Buddhists have mostly relocated to the perimeter of India proper. More recently tens of millions of Moslems gave up trying to suppress Hinduism and formed their own countries at the perimeter ~ to wit: Pakistan and Bengladesh.
or so I'm told.
But, but, but, but I thought that Hindus were peaceloving lovers of all animals, respectors of the sacredness of all life, even of mosquitos and tarantulas.
A bunch of Godless savages.
That would be Buddhists.
HOTEL VAISHALI - P.O. Box: 206, Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal. Tel: 00977-1- 4413968, 4423934, 4423935, 4700847, 4700849 Fax: 977-1-414510
And I hasten to add, your life may depend on it. ;-P
Animal rights people, are you watching this?
Nepal’s government has refused to put a stop to what it says is a centuries-old religious tradition, despite a vocal opposition campaign from local animal rights activists who say the slaughter is needless cruelty.
Their cause is supported by the well-known Indian animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi and by the French film star turned campaigner Brigitte Bardot, who this month wrote to Nepal’s president urging him to put a stop to the festival.
Armed police have been deployed around the temple grounds and there were fears of clashes between animal rights activists and festival-goers.
I don’t know why but I thought it was going to be some kind of satire on Thanksgiving by the title.
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