Dashian rituals record mass animal sacrifices at Shakti Peeths

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Oct. 18: Dashain, Nepal’s major Hindu festival is widely known for the tradition of receiving Tika and Jamara from elders as blessings for properity, happiness and good fortune. 

During Navaratri, devotees visit various Shakti Peeths to worship and pay homage to the different manifestations of Goddess Durga. However, Dashain is also associated with large scale animal sacrifices at several temples and religious sites, where animals such as he-goats, buffaloes, sheep and chickens and ducks are offered to the goddess as part of traditional religious rituals. 

Besides the worship, the mass sacrificial ceremony is specially organised at the Taleju Temple of Hanuman Dhoka of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur to offer to the goddess during Maha Ashtami and Maha Nawami.  

Pension Management Office (PMO) and Guthi Sansthan have provided four-legged and two-legged animals to be sacrificed in the name of goddesses across the nation. 

As per the tradition, PMO manages 162 he-buffaloes and 187 he-goats every year to sacrifice during the 15-day Dashain festival in several Shakti Peeths.  According to the PMO, a mass sacrificial ceremony is organised at the Mul Chowk of Hanumandhoka, then in other areas like Taleju Bhawani.