Rebirth of India: Superior

Darshan, also known as the Durga Festival, is the most grand festival in Nepal every year. There are grand, sacrificial and joyful temple fairs to celebrate the fertility of the land and the victory of good people over evil people. The symbolic representative is the goddess Duerxi who defeated the devil. Bhavani. Every house became a temple to house the goddess, and everyone looked forward to taking a holy bath at dawn in a special sacred river. Before the festival, every Nepalese household cleans their houses with clean water! The festival lasts for seven days in total.

However, the most impressive thing about this festival is not these common sacrificial activities, but the bloody sacrifice that begins on the eighth day. Because this festival celebrates the victory of Goddess Durga over Mahisasura, the buffalo demon incarnation of evil. Since Durga (also known as Gadhimai in another translation) loves blood, this festival will also have a large-scale bloodletting ceremony, which has become Nepal's The largest animal sacrifice of the year.

Therefore, on this day, it is most appropriate to describe it as "a river of blood", because no matter where you go on this day, you will see people on the street dealing with killing scenes. It is said that during the Dashan Festival in 2009 , more than 250,000 buffaloes, goats and chickens were slaughtered (many buffaloes were even imported from neighboring countries because there were not enough local ones in Nepal). Fortunately, this kind of slaughter is only held every five years. . (In Hindu teachings, only cattle are sacred, and buffaloes are not within the scope of protection, so all buffaloes are slaughtered.)

Although Shakru did not catch up with the Dashain Festival, he did catch up with the Taleju Temple's own festival. This kind of festival is held once every quarter. As distinguished guests from afar, Shaklu and Alok naturally They were invited (Kabaeva and Mustafina were not eligible to attend the celebration because they were women). However, they can watch from outside. There are especially many people coming to watch this celebration. There were several circles inside and outside, and some people even climbed up the nearby trees to watch.

In the first half of the ceremony, Shakru almost fell asleep because he couldn't stand the trivial rituals, but he became more energetic when it came to the final part of offering sacrifices.

I saw eight buffaloes and eighteen goats arranged in two rows respectively. Six big and round butchers were holding brand-new Gurkha scimitars (also known as the famous Nepali swordsmen). These poor buffaloes It was as if he knew he was about to face death. They were already shedding tears. Shakru could not help but sigh in a low voice: "These cattle and sheep look so pitiful."

"Some foreign animal protection organizations have come to intervene, saying that this behavior violates animal protection laws. However, local officials said that this ritual has been passed down from ancient times and is a connection between Nepalese believers and their beliefs. Therefore, we cannot hurt their feelings and prohibit this practice. Originally, our Indian government also announced a ban on exporting buffalo and goats to Nepal during the Dashan Festival, but many people still sell them secretly for high prices. This ritual is expected to continue forever.”

While the two were talking, the great master had finished his prayer. The butcher slashed his knife, raised the knife and dropped it, causing the buffalo to fall to the ground. Blood flowed out along the knife edge.

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

Alok nodded and said: "Of course, ordinary butchers are not qualified to participate in such an occasion. All butchers who come are very skilled and experienced. Because this kind of slaughter requires that the sacrifice must be finished with one knife." Life, if the second knife is used, the blood will not be pure, and Goddess Duga will be unhappy!"

Shakru felt very speechless about this. He didn't think that Goddess Duga would be happy by doing this. I have never heard of any positive god who likes blood all over the floor, and it will be very troublesome to clean up later.

In fact, the progress of the cleanup far exceeded Shakru's imagination. As soon as the sacrifice ended, a large number of people came up to collect blood in various containers, and then a scene that stunned Shaklu happened. These people actually spread all the collected blood on the wheels of cars, motorcycles and even tractors. .

So Shakru asked: "What, what's going on? Why do they spray blood on their wheels?"

"This is because the locals believe that spreading the blood of the sacrifices on the wheels can ensure safe driving and a smooth journey. Therefore, many car owners will wait for the end of the ceremony to collect blood, and the sacrificial master is very concerned about this. They will not interfere in this situation. It is said that even the Royal Nepal Airlines will prepare a goat for each plane as a sacrifice," Alok explained calmly.

Shaklu muttered in a low voice: "That's right, they will definitely not stop them, and someone will help them clean the ground." Then he pointed to a group of people happily surrounding the corpses of cattle and sheep and asked: "Then what are they doing?"

"Of course the meat is divided. Meat is not allowed in the temple, so the meat is distributed to the believers who come to watch. For these poor believers, 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 celebrate with a big piece of meat and a big bowl of wine." Alok continued to explain.

"I just said, why are there so many people watching? It turns out it's because we can share the meat for free." Shakru complained in his heart.

At night, there will be parades and masked dancers dancing on the streets. Monks will dress up in costumes, pretending to be various gods and demons, knocking on doors from house to house. You only need to give them some money, and they will dance and chant in front of your house. Nepalese people also believe that this will drive away the demons in the house and keep safe.

Shakru's original intention was to play in Nepal for a few more days, but an incident that happened suddenly made him return to India, and he started another industry from then on!

ps: Feeling that everyone seems to be uninterested in Nepal, the second gathering place of Hinduism, I will not write about Nepal from the next chapter, and let the protagonist return to India and continue his wonderful life in India.

ps2: I wrote this chapter in an Internet cafe. Can you guess what the environment was like when I was writing? A buddy on the left is playing lol, and the one on the right is watching a beautiful girl live broadcast (well, I also glanced at it from time to time, it was really domineering...), in this case, the quality must be a little worse, please forgive me!