The festival of Dashan, also known as the Durga Festival, is the biggest festival in Nepal every year, with solemn sacrifices and rejoicing temple fairs to celebrate the fertility of the land and the victory of the good over the wicked, symbolically represented by the goddess Duerhi Bhavani, who defeated the demons. Each house became a shrine for the goddess to live in, and everyone looked forward to a holy bath at dawn by the special sacred river.

Before the festival, every Nepalese household washes their house with clean water!

The festival lasts for seven days, but the most impressive thing about this festival is not the usual rituals, but the bloody rituals that begin on the eighth day.

Because the festival celebrates Goddess Duga's victory over the evil incarnation of the buffalo demon king Mahisasura, and because Durga (also translated as Gatima) loves blood, the festival also features a massive bloodletting ritual and is the largest animal sacrifice of the year in Nepal.

Therefore, on this day, with "rivers of blood"

It is said that more than 250,000 buffalo goats and chickens were slaughtered during the 2009 festival of Tashan (and many were even imported from neighbouring countries because Nepal did not have enough of them), which is only held once every five years.

(In Hindu teachings, only cattle are sacred, buffaloes are not protected, so all those who are slaughtered are buffaloes.)

Although Shakru did not make it to Dashan, he did catch up with the Taleju Temple's own festival, which is held once a quarter, and as guests from afar, Shakru and Alok were naturally invited (Kabaeva and Mustafina were not eligible to participate in the festival because they were women).

However, they could have watched from the outside, and there were a lot of onlookers at the festival, and there were even people who climbed up to the nearby trees to watch> and in the first half of the festival, Shakru almost fell asleep because he couldn't stand the rituals, and at the end of the offering part he came to his senses.

I saw eight buffaloes and eighteen goats arranged in two rows.

Six butchers with big shoulders and round waists armed with brand-new Gurka scimitars (also known as the famous Nepalese ******), these poor buffaloes seemed to know that they were about to die, and they had already shed tears of beans, and Shakru could not help but sigh in a low voice: "These cattle and sheep are pitiful." ”

"There have been cases where foreign animal protection groups have intervened, saying that this kind of behavior violates animal protection laws, but local officials say that this ritual has been passed down since ancient times and is a way for Nepalese believers to connect with their faith. So it is not possible to hurt their feelings and prohibit this practice. Originally, our Indian government also announced a ban on the export of buffalo and goats to Nepal during the Dashan Festival, but there are still many people who secretly sell them at high prices. Therefore, this ritual is expected to continue forever. ”

The two were talking.

The Grand Master's prayer was over, and the butcher fell to the ground with the knife in his hand, and the buffalo fell to the ground, blood flowing down the knife.

"This butcher's knife skills are really good!"

Alok nodded and said, "Of course, ordinary butchers on this occasion are not qualified to participate at all, and those who come are all butchers with very good skills and experience." Because this slaughter requires that the life of the sacrifice must be ended with one sword, if the second knife is moved, the blood will not be pure, and the goddess Durga will be unhappy! ”

Shakru was speechless about this.

He didn't think that the goddess Dugar would be happy to do this, he had never heard of a positive god who liked blood all over the ground, and how troublesome it would be to clean it up later.

In fact, the clean-up process was far more than Shakru imagined, and as soon as the sacrifice was over, a large number of people came up to collect blood in various containers, and then Shakru was stunned by the fact that these people actually scattered all the blood collected on the wheels of cars and motorcycles and even tractors.

So Shakru asked, "What's going on?" Why do they want to spray blood on their wheels? ”

"It's because the locals believe it. Sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice on the wheels ensures a safe and smooth journey, so many people with cars will collect the blood while waiting for the end of the festival, and the priest will not interfere with this situation. It is said that even the Royal Air Corporation of Nepal prepares a goat for each plane as a sacrifice. ”

Alok explained lightly.

Shakru muttered under his breath, "yes, they won't stop it, so someone is going to help them clear the ground." ”

Then he pointed to a group of people who were happily surrounding the carcasses of cattle and sheep and asked, "Then what are they doing here?" ”

"Naturally, it's a division of meat. Temples are not allowed to eat meat. For these poor devotees, every festival is a rare good day for them to improve their food, usually they will treat the meat with spices, and then wait until the evening to eat meat and drink wine in large bowls to celebrate. ”

Alok went on to explain.

"I said why there were so many onlookers, it turned out that it was because they could share the meat for free."

Shakru complained in his heart.

In the evenings, there are parades and masked dancers dancing in the streets.

Monks dressed up as gods and demons will knock on your door, and if you give some money, they will dance and chant in front of your house, and Nepalese people believe that this will banish the demons in their homes and keep them safe.

Eshakru wanted to spend a few more days in Nepal, but an impromptu incident led him back to India and started another business of his kind!

PS: I feel that everyone doesn't seem to be interested in Nepal, the second gathering place of Hinduism, so I won't write about Nepal from the next chapter, let the protagonist return to India and continue the strange life of India.

PS2: I'm coding in an Internet café in this chapter, can you guess what the environment was like when I coded the words?

A buddy on the left is in LOL, and the one on the right is live (uh, I also glanced at it from time to time, and it was really domineering...... In this case, the quality must be a little worse, please bear with me!

(To be continued.)

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