DELHI––Did a two-justice bench from the Supreme Court of India on October 17, 2014 strike a mighty blow against animal sacrifices at the Gadhi Mai festival, to be held in the village of Bariyarpur, Nepal, on November 28-29, 2014? Or did the Supreme Court justices just hand the government of India and a coalition of […]
Exposing the truth of the Gadhi Mai sacrificial slaughter
by Merritt Clifton KATHMANDU, WASHINGTON D.C.––Even by the frequently hyperbolic standards of activist alerts and fundraising appeals, an alert distributed on October 2, 2014 by Humane Society International chief executive Andrew Rowan was grossly exaggerated. “Next month,” Rowan wrote, “the Gadhi Mai Festival will take place at a temple in southern […]
Books shed light on sacrifice in Nepal
Elephant Polo: the Rise and Fall of a Hotel in Nepal by Cas de Stoppelaar Translated from the original Dutch by Adriaan Verheul Vajra Book Shop, 2007: http://www.elephantpolonovel.com/ 296 pages, paperback & audiobook Religions In Nepal (2013 edition) by Trilok Chandra Majupuria & Rohit Kumar (Majupuria) Modern Printing Press, Kantipath, Kathmandu, Nepal 401 pages, […]
The origin of the Gadhi Mai sacrifice
KATHMANDU––Animal sacrifice clearly has been practiced at Bariyarpur in honor of the local goddess Gadhi Mai for centuries, even if not in anything like the numbers of recent years. But what was the actual tradition? Anil Bhanot, general secretary of the United Kingdom Hindu Council, offered the best-known version of the origin of the Gadhi […]