The Gadhimai Festival in Nepal - a particularly awful religious tradition carries on despite ban

in #life4 years ago

Warning, this is a graphic post that may disturb some people


I am not a religious person and I don't really care if other people decide to be. I'm all about freedom and think that people can do whatever TF they want as long as it doesn't harm other people (and i'm not talking about your feelings.) Worship whatever you want to is my motto.

I do however draw the line when the ceremonies, even if they are steeped in tradition result in a tremendous amount of cruelty and what in my mind (and I think most people would agree) is the senseless slaughter of animals.

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I am not an expert on this religion and I don't care to be. All i know is that this festival takes place every 5 years in a temple in Bariyarpur, which is near to the capital city of Nepal, Kathmandu.

During this festival, millions of people attend, and during that time thousands of animals are ritualistically slaughtered, many in a horrifyingly violent manor such as decapitations that take multiple strikes.

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Now I'm not a vegan or a member of PETA, but i think the line needs to be drawn somewhere and that line should be a bunch of buffalo standing in a field watching the other buffalo getting attacked and killed in a painful manner with zero regulation.

Other animals are sacrificed as well including, goats, ducks, pigeons, and rats. In 2009 it is estimated that 500,000 animals were sacrificed during the multi-day event. Because of societal pressure that number was reduced to somewhere between 30 and 200 thousand (no one is really sure) by 2014.

In 2015 the event organizers said that the next gathering in 2019 (that's now, if you aren't paying attention) would have no animal sacrifice.

The Nepal Supreme Court has also dictated that the ritualistic sacrifice must be phased out although I'm not really sure what that means - sounds like a half-assed attempt at appearing to care.

However, drone footage from a few days ago shows several thousand buffalo being lead to the grounds by locals. People on the ground at the event have stated that hundreds of men with sharpened swords and knives entered a large stadium and i think we can presume it wasn't for a knife sale.

I think it is safe to say that the ritualistic slaughter of thousands of animals is in progress or has already taken place despite the ban and government efforts to stop it.

Animal rights activist Manoj Gautam, who was a major proponent in bringing this event global attention stated "The officials have let their personal beliefs rule over the court orders, they did not do enough to discourage the slaughters."


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I'm all for people to be able to have religious freedom, but I honestly can not understand the mindset of a person, or group of people, let alone millions of people, that can look at this not with disgust, but in celebration and actually fight for it to be allowed to continue.

WTF is wrong with you people?

Am I a bad person for being judgmental about certain demographics' religious practices? Because if so, i don't care. This is dumb and i can't believe it isn't a story in a history book... this is happening right now.

Almost all religions at one point or another had some form of animal sacrifice involved but they have phased them out. I can't believe this goes on today. Color me outraged.

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Nah, it's not you. It's definitely dumb. It's quite disgusting actually. What's to gain!?

Absolutely horrible sight I must say. I'm a lot like you in that I don't believe in animal cruelty. In my locality, the local butchers taunt the cow before killing it; sometimes you'd see them slapping it, hitting it with blunt objects and all that. Its not right at all.

This religious festival is not only horrible, it is stupid and wasteful. I'm not going to tell anyone what to do with their money or buffalo but when I see bullshit, I call bullshit. That meat could have fed some hungry people in their immediate society.

Its the same thing that grinds my gears about Christians in Nigeria; every sunday you see then adorned in expensive outfits, driving to church in honour of Jesus but ignore people that can be helped. I know they say we're suppose to allow God judge but sometimes man, reality is a cruel bitch

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Shit, this is beyond barbaric. My gran use to kill a chicken which was then cooked to worship the gods and we ate it afterwards. But this is on totally different level.

Horrible story which only makes me only more thinking about human behaviour and meatfree diet.

This indeed is horrific
But the meat farms are no less brutal and some are even more horrendous

And what to say about lab rats and monkeys and I don't know what other animals are they torturing in labs for the sake of comfort and convenience of human being....

Some are killing animals for 'God' and others for their taste and other in the name of science....

The motivation behind all this is the that everything on this planet is to serve humans....human being are still in a constipated state towards life... it is sad!!

This conversation always arises and is a completely different discussion.

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But don't you think the underlying idea is same.....the idea that everything is for our consumption has resulted in disastrous outcomes

I was thinking the same thing about the farms as I was typing up my reply.

The government in Nepal should quickly take a bold step on this meaningless act of worship. I think animals also have the right not to be slaughtered anyhow and moreover, they're not using them as food but to be binned. This unfair and they shall account for their vileness act but only if they change their way.

This is some sort of religious animal sacrifice. It is done to appease some imaginary being purported to have special powers a.k.a a god. What's going on here is that it is hard for humans to accept that things happen randomly - some of them terrible. Therefore they are ascribed to the will of a powerful being, which has to be imagined because they can only be seen in altered states of consciousness or perhaps in the dark when our peripheral vision is playing tricks with us.

This type cognitive biases lead to belief systems that Occam's razor would cut off in a second when contemplated by a rational mind. When entrenched these belief systems can cause incalculable harm, sometimes for thousands of years and across continents. In this case, the harm is a whole bunch of dead animals that otherwise could've served as valuable sources of protein. Now they're wasted.

These people are their own worst enemy because of their dysfunctional belief systems. What they need is school.

Wow, I have no words. Okay, I think we all no better than that, I always have words, but I am a bit speechless to learn about this. In fact I was just getting ready to eat my yogurt for the morning, but my stomach has kind of turned. That is just horrible. I agree, I am not really in any position to question anyone's religion, but there has to be a bit of a line somewhere. You want to sacrifice "a" goat, okay, I can probably handle that. Kill a chicken or a calf a couple times a year and no one is probably going to care too much. This level of brutality is just gross. I'd be interested to know what they do with what is left over, hopefully they at least make use of it and not just throw it all away. And who TF has to clean all of that up? Ugh.

Oh my god! This is so hilarious! They don't have a heart man. Reading about this gave me goosebumps, how can they even do this!

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I have no words for this. Why would any "god" want to sacrifice so many for nothing. This really makes no sense why anybody would even participate in this kind of a ritual. These really are barbaric photos. Especially in 2019. I agree wtf is wrong with humans?

This is senseless as the meat is being wasted. I know that isn't the point as it is the way in which it is being done and this is just not right. I know abattoirs use electric shock which is far more humane but this is extreme cruelty. I wouldn't be able to keep quiet if I saw this as it was happening. The sick thing is they are saying that this is for religious beliefs and for the Gods

Truly amazing report gooddream and I'm sure everyone reading it agrees with you,it is literally astounding in these times that such things go on. I had no idea. I hope continuing pressure is put on the government there to stop this for real.