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Faithfuls have no qualms about slaughter
- aftermath of Gadhimai Fest
BARIAYAPUR, BARA, DEC 04 - The ritual killing of thousands of animals at the Gadhimai festival last month drew huge media attention from all parts of the world, consequently opening the floodgates of condemnation from animal rights groups and animal lovers worldwide. Indian politician and noted animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi and former French actor Brigitte Bardot and Ram Bahadur Bomjan, the ‘Buddha boy’, from Nepal were to name a few.
Their call to put an end to the bloody ritual, however, was no match before the fervent Gadhimai faithful.
Notwithstanding the clamour from animal rights groups, the festival on Nov. 25-26 faced no hiccups and was witness to sacrifice of over 200,000 animals with 800,000 devotees attending the event.
The festival venue in Bara’s Bariyapur VDC, some 20 km east of Birgunj, still reeks of animal carcasses. But the stench in the air has hardly deterred the Gadhimai faithful.
“With the goddess’s blessing there is nothing to worry,” says Mangal Chaudhary, the main priest of the temple. “This (the pollution and smell at the site), in fact, is a blessing of the deity. We’ve done our best to manage the carcasses. Everything will just be fine.”
Chaudhary is the 10th generation priest at the Gadhimai Temple. The temple
was set up by his ancestor, Bhagwan Chaudhary, more than 500 years ago.
Legend has it that Goddess Gadhimai, believed to be the forest deity of the Sen Dynasty of Makwanpurgadhi, visited Bhagwan in his dream and ordered him to set up a temple and make human sacrifice to get his wishes fulfilled. “The Devi actually wished for human sacrifice,” Chaudhary says. “Since that is impossible today, we sacrifice animals. We offer human blood before convening the ritual of animal sacrifice though.”
Dukhan Kachhadiya of Simaragaon is assigned with the job of offering his blood to the Gadhimai Temple during the festival. Every five years, he cuts open his forehead, his right ear, tongue, right chest and his right thigh and offers blood to Gadhimai. “The Devi asks for human blood. If I do not offer my blood, people will die vomiting blood,” he says.
What Chaudhary’s ancestor started as the family temple built after a dream, is today a popular destination for Hindu pilgrims. Not to forget the venue for the world’s largest animal sacrifice. “We’ve people coming from far and wide, including Tamilnadu and Assam of India. Their faith brings them here and they sacrifice animals as their offering to the Devi,” says Chaudhary.
Chaudhary believes, as the temple’s main priest, he is entrusted with the responsibility of continuing his forefather’s legacy. His faith and sense of responsibility towards Gadhimai seems to have gotten stronger after one particular incident during his childhood that he recalls: “Forty years ago, my father refused to conduct prayer at the temple and our house caught fire. There is no question of breaking the custom.”
Today, Chaudhary is preparing his
15-year-old son to be the future priest of Gadhimai Temple. “My father taught me to slaughter buffalo for sacrifice when I
was young. I’m teaching the same to my son today.”
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