Nepal temple bans centuries old mass animal slaughter

Kathmandu, July 29: A centuries old tradition of animal slaughter at a temple festival in Nepal has been banned, media reported.

The festival, organised once every five years at Gadhimai temple in Bariyapur sees hordes of devotees from Nepal and India flock to the temple to sacrifice thousands of animals in the hope of appeasing the Hindu goddess of power.

"We have decided to completely stop the practice of animal sacrifice," said Motilal Prasad, secretary of the Gadhimai Temple Trust, reported The Guardian.

Nepal is known for practice of ritual of animal sacrifice to appease the god.

Around 200,000 animals were sacrificed during the Gadhimai festival held in November 2014 in the village of Bariyapur near the Indian border.

The Animal rights activists applauded the decision to stop the animal sacrifice.

According to legend, the first animal sacrifices in Bariyapur were held several centuries ago. The legend says that one night the goddess Gadhimai appeared to a prisoner in a dream and asked him to build a temple to her. The prisoner, when he woke up from the sleep, found that his shackles had fallen open. He got out of the jail, built the temple and sacrificed animals as a gesture of thanks.

OneIndia News