Today I and my father went to pay our
homage to Lord Suryabinayak, our Kul
Devata, or ancestral God, at Bhaktapur.
In bid to stop my fast eroding bank balance
we opted to take cheaper modes of transport.
I was mulling whether to take my bike, but
I knew that it was having problem with the
side indicators since the battery started to die
out. On top of that in chat with Shashi the early
morning he strongly advised mom not to send
me and dad on the bike. I called my bike mechanic
if he could look at it, he seemed still in bed and
said he would be at his workshop in couple of
minutes and asked me to bring the bike there.
But I thought I would not take it for the trip this
morning, so thought about going there later.
In our family tradition, every new born male
has to be brought here to the God to take
his blessings. I still have my pictures taken
when I was brought here as a young kid.
Discussing which way to go, we took a taxi
up to Maitighar and as suggested by the taxi
driver, waited for a bus to take us to Suryabinayak.
It turned out, no buses go up to the Temple
itself, all the buses stop at the highway only.
Its a 20 minute walk from the highway to the
temple. So we took the public bus. But the
inconvenience soon got us and we got off the bus
at Koteshwar from where we took another taxi.
It was about 400 rupees, about 8 Australian dollars.
Bit too expensive.
When I last came here about 6 years ago ,
the way from the highway
to the temple was open on both sides with beautiful
view of farms, laden with their crops, all gold,
green and yellow. A small newari style shelter built
for the benefit of the pilgrims still stand on the midway.
But now, the sideways are all lined up with ugly
cocrete buildings, shops and restaurants. The whole
area looks like another shanty town. I felt
devastated to see the whole natural beauty turned
into this mess.
I could feel dad laboring to reach the top of the
temple climbing the stone stairs. It was a bit
taxing even for me, thanks to lack of exercise
for months now. It was moderately crowded
and there was a short but very slow moving
queue to reach the God's statue. There was even
a small marriage taking place at the temple
which just stalled the line. A woman right behind
me was complaining all the way and asking
the temple carers to clear up the queue breakers
and devotees who were taking too long.
What struck me was a couple of animal sacrifices
that were made in front of the temple. First there
was this goat that had its throat slit. The
executioner let it stand still for a while, then with
a bolt he grabbed it by it skin on its uppper neck
and body and stuck its fore and hind limbs between
a large rectangular rock. Then he bent the head
backwards and just cut its neck with his knife.
Blood shot from the animal got into the shirt of
a young boy standing nearby. Most of the people
in the queue with me looked away, I did keep
watching against the advise of dad.
Little later, a large rooster was similarly butchered.
I did not feel particularly struck by the sacrifices,
as I have watched this all my life, but this time
I felt totally alien to it, and shameful.
Dunno how and if the fruits of such brutal killings
at sacred places like temples can be materialize,
or satisfies Gods. Its merciless and inhumane.
Its totally un-necessary, ugly and disgraceful.
I might sound a bit hypocritial as I am not a vegetarian,
but I still think sacrifices should be stopped in temples.
People here make sacrifices for various reasons -
religious rituals that are done in particular Hindu
festivals like Dashain, as 'Bhakals' - a promise
made to Gods if they fulfil what the devotee asked
for, on occasions like the birth of a male child and
so forth. Its still a kind of medievel thrill for many,
like some Inca sacrifices in South America.
For me its just barbaric, a tradition unfit for
a modern society.
Now, more than the scared animals that were sacrificed, face of
the young executionar looms on my mind. He was
a young fair fellow with a protuding belly, looked
built for the job with his pockmarked cruel looking
face. His mother and sister, I guess from their
appearance were taking care of the
businesses of the Temple.
We had a small meal of Sel roti and some
chana in a nearby restaurant. We took the same
taxi that took us from Koteshwar to the Temple
earlier to get back home.
