There must be a better way to do this…

I have always known Nepal to be a beautiful and spiritual country. It is a nation full of old and powerful pilgrimage sites for Hindus and Buddhists alike. I have travelled there for like 6 times already over the last 10 years.

However, behind the spiritual facade lies the heart of a very bloody tradition of sacrificing thousands of animals to the goddess Gadhimai. I find this distressing because not only are they sacrificed in the tens of thousands, the dead carcasses as just strewn all over the place.As a Buddhist, I feel really sad and cannot imagine the amount of negative karma accrued through this form of sacrifice. Nepal, there must be a better, more humane way to appease the goddess. The Buddhist offer red-colored ritual cakes to the wrathful Tantric deities. It is made out of barley flour, butter, sugar, honey and molasses and painted red to resemble symbolic flesh of our embodied negative karma. I am sure the High Priest of Gadhimai can institute something like this too.

That’s just my opinion and I don’t mean to be disrespectful but I think any from of divine worship should be done without harming of animals especially in this 21st century. I have also been reading and I am surprise to read that the site of Gadhimai worship used to be a place where coconuts were offered. Perhaps, this tradition could be revived as well. The government of Nepal should do more to intercede and ensure that the image of Nepal does not become more tarnished by this practice. After all, Nepal relies quite heavily on tourist dollars.

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A staggering 500,000 animals are expected to be slaughtered this coming November at the Gadhimai Festival.

Every five years, Hindus celebrate the Gadhimai Festival at a temple in southern Nepal. There, over a two-day period, the world’s largest sacrifice of animals takes place. Hundreds of thousands of animals including water buffalo, pigs, goats, chickens, pigeons and even mice, with the goal of pleasing Gadhimai, the goddess of power.

Often given no access to food, water or shelter for days prior to being killed, many die before the main event even begins.The survivors are beheaded or have their throats cut with all manner of weapons by people with no training in humane slaughter, resulting in a slow, painful death.

Please click this to sign and support the stopping of the Gadhimai Festival

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