Suryabinayak - Devotion and animal sacrifices

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.