Tihar is a five-day-long Hindu festival celebrated in Nepal, and the second day is called Kukur Tihar or Khichā Pujā (worship of the dogs). The official day for Kukur Tihar in 2016 is Saturday, October 29th.
Dogs are believed to be messengers of Lord Yamaraj, the God of Death, and people put flower garlands on the local dogs, put a bit of dye on their forehead (called a tika) and feed them them special foods.
Unlike in Judeo-Christian religions, dogs are important characters in Hinduism. In the Rigveda, one of Hinduism’s most ancient texts, Samara — the mother of dogs — assists Indra, the ruler of heaven, in retrieving stolen cattle. At the close of the Mahabharata, the king of righteousness, Yudhishthira, refuses to enter heaven without his devoted dog. The dog is revealed to represent the concept of dharma, the path of righteousness.
Pity about South Korea and China. Terrible situation for dogs.
ReplyDeleteMore dogs and cats are killed in US shelters than in all of Korea, and we continue to breed more. Every year we toss well about 80 million pounds of intentionally killed healthy dogs and cats into our dumps, landfills, and incinerators. This is happening within 20 miles of where most of the readers of this blog live, no matter where they live.
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