Brahmins burry dead buffaloes themselves

The shoemaker caste used to collect the dead bodies of buffaloes, eat the meat and use the skin for shoemaking. Today traditions have changed in Madan Pokhara VDC through radio programme from Community Radio Madan Pokhara.

By Malene Lærke

20. June 2007

In former times the shoemaker caste – also called Sarki - had an important role in the community. They collected the dead buffaloes and cows from other communities, brought the corpses to their own community, ate the meat and used the skin for shoemaking and other leather goods. That was how they made a living.

“This system has been running for generations and we had not thought of it as good or bad. We have one belief that when the cow is dead it is very holy and hygienically. It is good and healthy to eat. It is holy and therefore it must be good for you,” tells Raj Kumar Gaire, from Shikhardada, ward no.5 in Madan Pokhara VDC, Palpa district.

The members of the shoemaker community tell that the process of changing the tradition slowly began about 20 years ago and that the tradition has stopped from family to family over the years.

“I grew up in the village but then I came to the city and got new consciousness. I saw that what we were doing was wrong. I remember there was scolding within the community and people saying that if we continued this we would continue to be hated. That was the warning from person to person,” recalls Bishnu Bahadur Thadarai, ward no. 2 in Pandekharak, Madan Pokhara VDC.

The “Utpidit Awaj” programme from Community Radio Madan Pokhara broadcasted a programme about the issue which created further awareness in the community.

“After that programme we became frightened because we were following this bad culture but the development to stop the tradition had already begun in the community many years ago so it was only a step on the way,” says Raj Kumar Gaire.

Nowadays the tradition has almost stopped although it still takes place in remote areas of the district. Sometimes the shoemakers still take the skin of the dead animals to sell it and some old people still eat the meat, the members of the shoemaker community tell.

“The tradition has almost stopped because we have become conscious. We are hated in the society because of this tradition and we want to be safe. That is why we have stopped. This increased our social value and that is why we obey. We have been taught that if we eat the decaying meat it can be harmful and make us sick and we want equal respect,” says Raj Kumar Gaire.

If you were not discriminated by higher castes by following this tradition would you then eat the meat?

“We are still dominated by higher castes. In their mind we are still lower caste and we should be discriminated. The higher caste is dogmatic and they have not forgotten,” answers Raj Kumar Gaire.

The main benefit for the shoemaker community has been increasing respect from higher castes and less social discrimination. Today they can touch and sit down and eat with higher castes.

“We used to smell bad from carrying the dead animals. Today we don’t have that problem. The smell is out of the community,” says Bishnu Bahadur Thadarai.

However, there are also consequences. They have lost the income they got from selling their leather goods and they don’t have any meat to eat.

“We have had to change the way we earn money. We have begun to farm vegetables and some members of the community have gone to foreign countries to work but it would have been good to get some advice as to how we could get a new income,” says Raj Kumar Gaire.