NEPAL! Stop Barbaric Festivals, Stop religious slaughtering of animals, Stop animal abuse and suffer

A widely popular performance is the running after a piglet who eventually is caught and barbarously killed as part of a religious ritual in the northwestern part called Byasi of Bhaktapur. Next to the current industrial estate in Bhaktapur, local farmers sow fenugreek seeds in the field at this area. The Navadurga troupe holds the performance of sacrificing a piglet once a year. A piglet is let loose at the fenugreek field for the members of the troupe to run after it.

The troupe moves to this area in the morning and performs various regular mask dances at this area. Local people make once-a-year offerings to the Navadurga troupe. After the several religious rituals and mask dances, the troupe performs a ‘running after a piglet on the fenugreek field’. A large number of curious people gather there to watch the sacrificing take place. The concerned responsible person for an association called ‘guthi’ set up for this event brings a piglet and following the instructions of the mask dancers lets it go free in the field. The confused piglet tries to escape from the circle of the curious onlookers while the mask dancers perform the dances of running after a piglet to the tune of music. After completing the rituals of the mask dances, someone catches the piglet and turns it over to the blue Bhairava or Brahamayani mask-wearing dancer to sacrifice it at the ‘Siffa deo’. He uses his fingernails as he cuts the skin of the live piglet at the armpit and reaches the heart of the piglet and pulls it out, and offers it to the main deity ‘Siffa deo’. Then, he mixes flattened rice and yogurt in a brass bowl and distributes it to all the people around him.