<figure><img width="755" height="814" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a96159c7e80680e05dc49jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>The cover of Nepali Times Issue 478 (27 Nov-3 Dec 2009)</figcaption></figure>Mahagadimai Municipality of Bara district is preparing for an influx of millions of visitors next month for the practice of mass animal sacrifice that has <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Overkill-in-Gadhimai,1794">tarnished Nepal’s image</a> as a peaceful and compassionate nation.The little town of Bariyapur has gained international notoriety for the Gadimai Mela, where pilgrims from India and Nepal who have had their wishes fulfilled congregate every five years to offer mass animal sacrifice in gratitude. But the blood-letting has also sparked outrage and activists worked to get Nepal’s Supreme Court to rule against the wanton killings in 2016. "There are so many animals, and many are not even beheaded cleanly because the knives are blunted by the mass slaughter. Sometimes they have to hack the animal many times, and the animals take hours to die,” says media personality Saroj Nyaupane, who co-filed the writ petition at the Supreme Court with advocate Arjun Kumar Aryal.Nyaupane adds: “The animals are not even being killed for food. Nepalis take great pride in the Buddha being born in Nepal but such cruelty is against Buddhist principles.”Despite the court ruling, the government has not banned the practice. Bara's Chief District Officer Phanindra Mani Pokhrel told Nepali Times his administration is trying its best to discourage the sacrifices.Read also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://time.com/3609356/the-worlds-largest-animal-slaughter-festival-has-begun-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The World's Largest Animal Slaughter Festival Has Begun in Nepal</a>  <figure><img width="896" height="1280" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a96189c7e80680e05dc4ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>"We have held discussions, and spread the message discouraging animal sacrifice through local radio and newspapers. But we cannot suddenly stop it right now. Activists also need to work on it constantly rather than just before the festival," Pokhrel said. Mahagadimai Municipality is preparing in earnest for the festival scheduled to begin 3 December. Mayor Shyam Yadav says tents are being erected and toilet facilities built for the huge influx of devotees and their animals. In 2014, there were an estimated 6 million visitors, and roughly 250,000 water buffalos and goats killed.  This time, fewer animals are expected to be killed because of court decisions in India and Nepal and growing public awareness. Activists have raised issues of not just <a style="background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.15px;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16522">animal cruelty</a>, but also the lack of visitor accommodation, environmental impact, hygiene, pollution and the health and condition of the animals. This year, the government and the Gadimai Operation and Development Committee have promised to take care of these issues. In earlier years, the Chamar community used to consume the dead buffaloes, but younger members of the community are boycotting the meat this year. Says Dalit activist Manoj Ram: "It's not just about the meat, but also self respect. Society looks at us with distaste because we eat leftover sacrificed buffalos. We want to stop that.”Legend has it that the Gadimai Mela started about 200 years ago when a man sacrificed five drops of his own blood to the goddess for a fulfilled wish. Over the years people substituted defenceless animals for human blood.The temple committee has refused to budge on the practice despite the outrage in Nepal and globally. "We do not sacrifice animals-- people come from far away bringing their animals. If they are not able to fulfil their vow, their faith is broken, and we cannot have that,” says Ram Chandra Sah of the temple committee.The temple's chief priest Mangal Chaudhary adds that it is not necessary to sacrifice animals. "YOu can just as well sacrifice a coconut, or offer flowers and swets to the goddess," he says in an interview with Bloodless Gadhimai campagin.While activists say the festival has <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2014/11/17/no-sacrifice-gadhimai-nepal/">brought shame on Nepal</a>, the temple is proud that it has put Gadimai on the world map. Devotees see criticism of the festival as an attack on Hinduism, and accuse western activists of double standards for not being outraged when millions of turkeys are killed at Thanksgiving. Frensh actress Brigitte Bardot and British actress Joanna Lumley have spoken out against it, earning the festival further notice and international criticism.Read also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/29/world/asia/nepal-gadhimai-ritual-slaughter/index.html?fbclid=IwAR2uv0d-6x-e-CRFJRl6qyI2fXlVqkK1edzgsfNMg2QoXKf6Ejzlvz4dD_Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Death and the goddess: The world's biggest ritual slaughter</a>Yet, the strongest voices against the bloodletting are from Hindus, themselves who say the festival is not an ancient tradition and not deeply rooted in religion. Animal rights activist Pramada Shah says the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-sacrifice-of-animal-sacrifices/">sacrifices</a> go against religious teachings.She says: "They are done in the name of religion. But Hinduism does not teach people to torture animals. It is religious malpractice, like sati and untouchability, and we need to reform it. The Supreme Court decision is not enough. We need stronger laws, and an effective awareness campaign among communities who practise it."

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Activists decry animal slaughter at Nepal temple

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a53d79c7e80680e052371jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/>Bhawani KC, 84, fastens a peacock feather in her hair, ties a green scarf around her neck and dons a green tika. She then pulls a green ribbon tied to a tiny swing on which sit silver idols of Krishna and his consort, Radha.For the whole month of Srawan, she has carried on this ritual in a prayer room where sit 1m tall figures of Radha and Krishna carved out of holy shaligram stone. Dozens of devotees chanted bhajans and danced to devotional songs on the harmonium and tabla.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a53da9c7e80680e052372jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3640" height="2730"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Among the supposedly 330 million gods in Hinduism, Krishna is one of the most visible, with millions of devotees across the world. In Nepal, Krishna has many followers who will be congregating at Krishna Mandir in Patan on his birthday on Friday, 23 August.Krishna first appears in Hindu mythology as a character in the epic Mahabharata. He is a friend of the heroes, appearing human at times and divine in others. In the Bhagwad Gita he inspires Arjun to go to war against his cousins. He is treated with awe for his erudition.In her book The Hindus, Wendy Doniger says Krishna served to bridge tension between rival Hindu schools of thought. The religion used to preach renunciation, but worldly duties were unavoidable. Along came Krishna who solved the conundrum by saying that one must practice one’s duties, but with the attitude of a renunciant. Today, this philosophy is the cornerstone of the belief of Krishna’s devotees.Bhawani KC is barely literate, but has a poster on her wall that summarises the Gita. “Our body is a mere cover for the soul, and our soul is immortal. It belongs to god, so we must do our duty with devotion to god,” says KC, quoting the Gita almost word for word.The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) played a big role in spreading Krishna’s teachings to the west at a time when young people there were disillusioned with war, racial inequality and consumerism. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/hare-krishna/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Krishna devotee Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada</a> founded ISKCON in New York in 1966, leading to waves of westerners clad in saffron and with shaved heads chanting and marching down streets of cities in Europe, North America and Australia. George Harrison recorded the popular song My Sweet Lord about Krishna, and helped spread Krishna’s appeal.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/hare-krishna/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hare Krishna!</a>, Prakriti Kandelhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP9wms6oEMoJulian Bliss was one of thousands of Americans who became a Krishna devotee. “I used to be a leader of a Christian youth group when I was a teenager,” recalls Bliss, who grew up among Sikh and Hindu communities in California. “Then I became more familiar with Krishna, and I found so much peace and tranquility.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a53de9c7e80680e052373jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="727"></figure>Jayananda at ISKCON NepalBliss now goes by his Hindu name, Jayananda, and is with ISKCON Nepal, leading a movement to protect cows, feeding destitute children and conducting spiritual lectures. Devotees believe the faith fills a spiritual vacuum left by modern life, through renunciation of the material world.Musician Bidhata Shah, 26, got involved with ISKCON four years ago after suffering bouts of depression, and finding that medications only made her drowsy and dull. “I started coming to ISKCON, and it changed my life,” she recalls. “We meditate by chanting the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra. That cured my depression. We eat very simple food here, and practice good behaviour. All that has changed the way I think, and now I am full of a spiritual love for everything in the world.”While Krishna appears as a full grown man in the Mahabharata, later texts furnished him with a childhood full of adventures, where he kills demons with superhuman powers. Others created thousands of gopini with whom Krishna flirts and dances. In the 12th century, the poem Gita Govinda introduced Radha as a heroine, after which Radha-Krishna became a symbol of romantic love. Krishna is therefore revered today in all these forms: a teacher and philosopher, but also as a mischievous child and ardent lover.The lover-boy image of Krishna seems contradictory, especially since traditional followers of Krishna are among the most austere sects in Hinduism, Vaishnavism. And yet, the most romantic and sensual Hindu scriptures are based on the frolics of Krishna with married gopinis. Why a deity is allowed — even celebrated — for having multiple romantic attachments is a question often raised today with retroactive judgement.Krishna devotees see his intimacy with older women as spiritual, not physical. “Krishna is not a playboy. He is a god, not a human, and he took thousands of forms so that he could be with all the women simultaneously and give them happiness. Their union was not physical but spiritual,” explains Sucharu Mata of ISKCON Nepal.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/buddhist-relics-in-western-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Buddhist relics in Western Nepal</a>, Sewa Bhattarai<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a53e19c7e80680e052374jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1149"></figure>Krishna Janmashtami celebrations by ISKCON Nepal. Photo: ISKCON/facebookBhagwat Manjari Radhika Dasi, a religious leader in Itahari famous for recitations of the purana, accepts Krishna’s dalliances. “Krishna is that supreme being who shows us how to act best in any situation. We learn from him about about life’s duties, about childhood, and what lovers and husbands should be like,” she says.Indeed, sensual bhajans about Krishna’s antics are still sung in our society, where romance and courtship are still repressed, especially for women. They accept the bundle of contradictions that Krishna has become: a man with thousands of lovers who preaches renunciation, and exhorts his cousin to go to war.Krishna represents the Hindu world: nothing is as it seems and there is more than meets the eye.<h2>Krishna's Kathmandu</h2><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814114/636a53e49c7e80680e052375jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="886"></figure>Photo: Kunda DixitAlthough Kathmandu is known as the abode of Lord Pashupatinath and Shaivism has deep roots here, as the eighth avatar of Vishnu, Krishna is a well respected deity as well. Krishna became popular during the Malla era 500 years ago, when kings like Siddhi Narsingh Malla commissioned Patan’s famous Krishna Mandir, where thousands of devotees will gather all day on 23 August, Krishna’s birthday.King Siddhi Narsingh Malla is supposed to have seen Krishna in a dream, and built a temple at a spot where he found a statue of Krishna. The stone temple took years to construct, and the devout king disappeared after the construction was completed in 1661.Today the three-storey, shikhar style structure stands in Patan Darbar Square, repaired after structural damage in the 2015 earthquake. Its stone walls and columns are adorned with intricate carvings that depict episodes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata.As for Siddhi Narsingh Malla, people believe he is still alive, still searching for his lord. “People say that when that bird on top of the serpent flies, then Siddhi Narsingh Malla will have died,” says the temple’s chief priest, Pratap Dhar Sharma, pointing to a tall statue of Malla’s grandson Yog Narendra Malla on the square, which has a golden bird on top of a guardian serpent.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/selective-outrage-about-heritage-loss/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Selective outrage about heritage loss</a>, Sewa Bhattarai

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My Sweet Lord

Samsung Nepal has opened pre-orders for the Galaxy A57 5G and A37 5G. Both phones run Samsung’s One UI 8.5, featuring AI capabilities like voice transcription, Circle to Search, and photo editing. They feature a 50MP triple-camera system, a Super AMOLED display, and six years of OS and security updates.

Galaxy A series

The war in West Asia has exposed the fragility of the economic architecture Nepal has built on over two generations. If the conflict continues, growth across developing Asia will slow and prices will rise. For Nepal, this will be felt through higher living costs, weaker economic activity, and growing uncertainty for the millions of families who depend on remittances.&nbsp; Nepal now needs to structurally transform from exporting labour to investing in domestic job creation. &nbsp; The country's current path toward a knowledge economy has a blind spot. A <a href="https://iids.org.np/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/unleashing.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> by the Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS) in Kathmandu shows that IT export companies alone generated 7,228 jobs and income for 66,509 freelancers.&nbsp; We are building digital labour export, not an economy that accumulates institutional knowledge. The Nepali Upwork developer and a migrant construction worker in the Gulf are engaged in the same economic activity, but with different tools. Nepal’s reliance on a <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.TRF.PWKR.DT.GD.ZS?locations=NP" target="_blank">remittance-driven economy,</a> means the country has failed to create enough <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/nepal/publication/unlocking-nepal-s-growth-potential" target="_blank">quality jobs</a> at home. For millions of young people, leaving the country is not a choice but a necessity to survive and support families back home. <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/nepal/publication/unlocking-nepal-s-growth-potential" target="_blank">Remittances</a> have no doubt helped reduce poverty. Thirty years ago, 55% of Nepal’s population lived on less than $2.15 a day, now it is 20% after the absolute poverty line was revised upwards. This progress has come at a cost — &nbsp;an economy that depends more on exporting workers than creating opportunities at home. This development reflects a deeper political failure to create meaningful jobs within the country. Since the democratic transition in 1991, Nepal’s leadership has largely recycled the same faces, with limited progress on job creation or industrial growth.&nbsp; Nepal cannot build a <a href="https://nipore.org/accelerating-nepals-startups/" target="_blank">knowledge economy</a> while its most ambitious people are outbound to Doha and Tokyo. We are also not just losing ‘labour’. We are losing the entrepreneurial risk tolerance of our youth.&nbsp; If the most ambitious 25-year-olds are abroad, who is left to support innovation and entrepreneurship? The same people who are working tirelessly abroad, are our biggest asset for development. Their work ethic and the know-how inurban renewal could well fit into the new RSP government’s mandate of 7% annual growth.&nbsp; The <a href="https://english.biznessnews.com/posts/-nepal%E2%80%99s-it-exports-cross-1-billion-" target="_blank">$1B milestone</a> of IT exports is a celebratory moment for Nepal. However, that cannot lead to a pathway to a $100 billion economy without innovation ecosystems that go beyond individual labour export. Companies like SecurityPal and industry associations such as NASIT have made significant efforts in building such an environment, recently championed by private sector leaders as a &nbsp;<a href="https://www.securitypalhq.com/blog/silicon-peaks" target="_blank">Silicon Peaks</a> model that emphasises a home growth tech cluster. The need to accelerate this transition is even more urgent with the escalating conflict in West Asia. &nbsp;The recent International Labour Organisation (ILO) <a href="https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/2026-03/Nepal%20LDC%20Graduation%20Employment%20Impacts%20Report.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> shows that LDC graduation is expected to adversely impact manufacturing with losses of $1 billion by 2030.&nbsp; If manufacturing takes such a large hit from losing trade preferences, then Nepal’s services and IT sectors need to structurally transform and shift from exporting individual talent to building firms. &nbsp; A generation’s frustration has finally forced a shift in Nepal’s political structure, handing the new government a clear mandate to fix failures. But the question still persists: what prevents Nepal from achieving sustained, productivity-driven growth? &nbsp;&nbsp; RSP is in the right place at the right time to put Nepal's economy on a firm footing. At the heart of Nepal’s economic underperformance lies a major development binding constraint: low returns to investment on projects.&nbsp; The government invests like a high-growth economy, with gross capital formation at around <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.GDI.FTOT.ZS?locations=NP" target="_blank">25–30 percent of GDP</a>. Yet economic growth remains modest. The problem is not how much the country invests, but how little it gets in return. One way to see this is by looking at how much investment is required to generate growth.&nbsp; Nepal needs large amounts of capital to produce relatively small gains in output (graph, below). For instance, in 2024, the ICOR was 8.29, this suggests that Nepal had to invest more than 8 units of capital to produce a one unit of additional economic output.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260406040412_605dc527641d2ff2dc5723ed8bbec946898331d5538a55b9941e32a0725bf811.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20260406040412_605dc527641d2ff2dc5723ed8bbec946898331d5538a55b9941e32a0725bf811" data-rendition-name="original" width="1827" height="925" loading="lazy" alt="Economy graph"> <figcaption>Source: Author's calculation based on a Growth Diagnostic simulation</figcaption> </figure>  This reflects a deeper issue in how investment is allocated and executed. Capital is often locked in low-productivity sectors or diluted by delays, inefficiencies, and policy uncertainty.&nbsp; As a result, even high levels of investment fail to translate into sustained growth. Until investment shifts toward productive, firm-building activities, higher spending alone will not deliver results. &nbsp; To reverse this, the government must focus on raising the returns to investment by enabling firms to grow and compete. This requires a shift from managing scarcity to creating an environment where capital can generate consistent and predictable returns. A central priority should be given to attracting and retaining both domestic and foreign private investment. Investors do not just respond to direct incentives, but also to policy stability in the country. Nepal’s economy cannot sustain high growth if its human capital continues to leave the country.&nbsp; The goal should not simply be to create jobs, but to build companies that scale, innovate, and compete beyond Nepal. This requires supporting sectors with strong productivity potential and ensuring that firms can expand without being constrained by infrastructure gaps or regulatory friction. Finally, the state must improve the quality of its own investment. Public spending should focus on lowering the cost of doing business through reliable electricity, efficient logistics, and digital infrastructure.&nbsp; The GenZ movement took two days to bring change. The economic transformation of Nepal might take a generation. The RSP can accelerate this transition, but only if it focuses on building a better investment climate for business and not just feeding the global labour pool. Kailash Raj Pandey is an MPA/ID and MBA candidate at Harvard Kennedy School and MIT Sloan School of Management and a fellow at MIT Kuo Sharper Center for Innovation and Prosperity.&nbsp; Siddhartha Raymajhí is a policy researcher based in Kathmandu.

Creating a firm future for Nepal

Know your Ministers

Prime Minister Balendra Shah on Wednesday broke tradition and met with 17 foreign envoys collectively, a move that was a notable departure from how his predecessors operated.&nbsp;
Shah had already set himself apart by talking less, listening more, and delegating to trusted friends. But by meeting all ambassadors at one go in the presence of the Foreign Ministry, he signalled a paradigm shift in how he wants Nepal to be seen: no longer just balancing India and China, but as a country confident about its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-editorial/tripolar-contestation-over-nepal">strategic importance and place in the world</a>.
In just two weeks, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rsp-dos-and-don-ts">RSP has sprung into action </a>on multiple fronts to implement its ambitious 100-point, 100-days action plan. It has taken short-term measures to mitigate the impact of the Gulf war, as well as medium- and long- term measures to streamline the bureaucracy. A few high-profile figures have been made examples of to drive the message home.
Earlier this week, the government recalled six politically appointed ambassadors, the most notable being long-serving Shankar Sharma from New Delhi. The Kathmandu District Court issued arrest warrants against former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his former foreign minister wife Arzu Rana on charges of money laundering and corruption.
Each ministry has been trying to clean up the accumulated rot from the past three decades: regulatory overhaul of microfinance, education, health and service delivery.&nbsp;
These actions widely disseminated campaign-style on YouTube and TikTok have made most Nepalis hopeful that the party they installed in power means business.
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BACKLASH
But such attempts to overhaul a long-entrenched political culture were bound to face backlash. In their impatience and enthusiasm to get things done, some of Prime Minister Shah’s ministers have over-reached.
It was common knowledge that government-paid advertising in the mainstream press was kickback-driven, but the PMO’s directive that official notices be published or broadcast only on state-run media has been denounced — especially as the media industry struggles to stay afloat.
More serious are some recent appointments by ministers of relatives and figures closely associated with the RSP to key positions. This has rankled because this party built its political plank on ending nepotism and graft.&nbsp;
News that Home Minister Sudan Gurung allegedly had not paid rent on leased land, which illegally encroached on the lake in Pokhara did not help. &nbsp;
Prime Minister Shah himself has come under scrutiny for appointing a kitchen cabinet full of male buddies from his time as Kathmandu mayor. To douse criticism he brought in as adviser investigative journalist Deepa Dahal, who has exposed corruption in high places of the previous coalitions.&nbsp;
Shah’s appointment of another political adviser Asim Shah to the head Constitution Amendment Task Force, is also seen as problematic. He is a filmmaker and former lawmaker, but does not have a background in constitutional law.&nbsp;
Even more controversial is the Cabinet’s decision to appoint RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane’s legal counsel, Narayan Kandel, as Attorney General. Kandel used to be a UK permanent resident, and does not have as much experience practicing law in Nepal.&nbsp;
Kandel’s appointment drew flak and raised eyebrows, and with the pending legal cases against Lamichhane this appointment represents a flagrant conflict of interest.
Health Minister Nisha Mehta was also accused of favouritism after reappointing Junu Shrestha, wife of Labour Minister Dipak Kumar Shah, as member of the Health Insurance Board which had earlier suspended her. The Labour Minister’s rambling rant at the Board’s meeting on Tuesday has not helped the RSP’s image.&nbsp;
(UPDATE: On Thursday, Prime Minister Shah sacked the Labour Minister after the RSP found him in breach of the party's code of conduct and discipline. He served 14 days in the Cabinet, one of the shortest tenures for a minister in Nepal )
It is hard to know what <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/ball-in-balen-s-court">Balendra Shah is thinking</a>, and how Rabi Lamichhane is going to justify some of these moves. After all, making politics, governance, and bureaucracy a meritocracy has been the core tenet of the RSP, and it risks alienating its mainly youth base if these missteps persist.
But at least for now, most RSP supporters seem to be giving the party the benefit of doubt.

devotee

Activists decry animal slaughter at Nepal temple

My Sweet Lord

Galaxy A series

Creating a firm future for Nepal

Know your Ministers

Nepal’s new government springs into action