benefit from good fortune five years from now, apparently. But it’s not good enough to open one of your own veins. At least 10,000 buffalo have to die in order for a whole country to benefit. And that’s not all. 250,000 animals from rats, to chickens, to pigs and bigger get the chop for this twice-a-decade ritual.
With up to a million worshippers on the roads near the festival grounds, this year’s fair seems more popular than ever, despite vocal protests from animals rights groups who have called for it to be banned. “It is the traditional way, ” explained 45-year old Manoj Shah, a Nepali driver who has been attending the event since he was six, “If we want anything, and we come here with an offering to the goddess, within five years all our dreams will be fulfilled.” .
Gadhimai is a Hindu goddess of power. So the people get dreams coming true. What do animals get? They get their heads sliced off and their bodies sold to meat markets and anyone else who can make a profit off their remains
On the eve of the event, protesters made a final plea to organisers by cracking open coconuts in a nearby temple as a symbolic sacrifice. “It is cruel and inhumane. We’ve always been a superstitious country, but I don’t think sacrifice has to be part of the Hindu religion,” said the protest organiser, Pramada Shah.
The campaign has the support of the French actor Brigitte Bardot, who has petitioned the Nepalese prime minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal, about the issue. But the government, which donated £36,500 to the event, has shown no sign of discontinuing the centuries-old tradition. An attempt by the previous government to cut the budget for animal sacrifice provoked street protests.
I think if it’s possible to fight this tradition, it needs to be fought. It’s harder when a government backs it, obviously, but it’s still necessary to try.
