Thousands gather to perform ritual sacrifice at active Indonesian volcano

[Eldorado]

Thousands of Hindu worshippers scaled an active Indonesian volcano on Monday to toss livestock, food and other offerings into its smoking crater in a centuries-old religious ceremony.

Swarming the thin rim around the basin of Mount Bromo, devotees heaved goats, chickens and vegetables slung across their backs up to the dusty peak as part of the Yadnya Kasada festival.

Every year Tengger tribe members from surrounding highlands gather at the top of the volcano - famed for its stunning sunrise views - in hope of pleasing their gods and bringing luck to the Tenggerese, an Indigenous group in eastern Java.

Slamet, a 40-year-old farmer who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, brought a baby cow as an offering.

'We have a lot of cows back home and this one can be considered excess, so we are bringing it here... to return it back to God,' he told AFP.

Nice pics: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/thousands-gather-to-perform-ritual-sacrifice-at-active-indonesian-volcano/ar-AA1c9v4G?

Yadnya Kasada

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yadnya_Kasada

[pellinore]

From the headline I thought they were jumping in it, like lemmings.

[Piney]

31 minutes ago, pellinore said:

From the headline I thought they were jumping in it, like lemmings.

They should.....

[jmccr8]

Holy cow

[Occupational Hubris]

What a waste of resources. 

[Tatetopa]

Luckily very few tourists are virgins, so they should be safe.

[pellinore]

2 hours ago, Occupational Hubris said:

What a waste of resources. 

It's probably stuff donated by international aid. Easy come, easy go...

[Occupational Hubris]

2 minutes ago, pellinore said:

It's probably stuff donated by international aid. Easy come, easy go...

Do they donate goats, chickens, and baby cows? 

[psyche101]

Astounding in this day and age. How ridiculous.

[pellinore]

14 minutes ago, Occupational Hubris said:

Do they donate goats, chickens, and baby cows? 

Indirectly, yes. Foreign aid is factored in as part of their economy. Don't you agree it is rather silly to be throwing food into what is essentially a land-fill?

New Lowy South-East Asia Aid Map finds China overtaken as largest provider of development money in region - ABC News

Edited June 6 by pellinore

[Tatetopa]

Some of our ancestors threw valuable swords and other weapons into lakes and bogs for some reason, others still drink grape juice and eat a cracker to represent blood and body of a god.  We all have our foibles.

[pellinore]

5 hours ago, Tatetopa said:

Some of our ancestors threw valuable swords and other weapons into lakes and bogs for some reason, others still drink grape juice and eat a cracker to represent blood and body of a god.  We all have our foibles.

You're conflating two different kinds of rituals I think. Wine and crackers, prayers, etc are neither here nor there. That's just symbolic. With regard to religious/funeral rites involving destroying valuables- that's different, imo. Vikings burning long boats, gypsys burning caravans, burying the dead with treasure and even poor servants sometimes- I have never really agreed with that. And throwing food into a volcano- bonkers, I reckon. If they want to burn a calf or a pig, they could do it in the village square and invite everyone to join the BBQ.

[Tatetopa]

7 hours ago, pellinore said:

You're conflating two different kinds of rituals I think. Wine and crackers, prayers, etc are neither here nor there. That's just symbolic. With regard to religious/funeral rites involving destroying valuables- that's different, imo. Vikings burning long boats, gypsys burning caravans, burying the dead with treasure and even poor servants sometimes- I have never really agreed with that. And throwing food into a volcano- bonkers, I reckon. If they want to burn a calf or a pig, they could do it in the village square and invite everyone to join the BBQ.

I do get your point friend, it is pragmatic.   Some might be, but I think few spiritual practices are pragmatic.  It would be disturbing and cruel to throw live animals into the crater.  Religion does have a way of channeling human emotions like gratitude, supplication, and maybe a human wish to show devotion to a principle or spirit to strengthen the hold of religion.  All three of the Abrahamic religions have some traditions of sacrifice, even if they be small ones.  Lent and Ramadan and Passover come to mind. 

I am not arguing in favor of it, just trying to understand the motives.

[Abramelin]

15 hours ago, psyche101 said:

Astounding in this day and age. How ridiculous.

Astounding like believing in gods in this day and age.

[psyche101]

4 hours ago, Abramelin said:

Astounding like believing in gods in this day and age.

Honestly, that surprises me too.

[darkmoonlady]

Please, we throw cockerel chicks into grinders right after they hatch, cull cattle and send animals to their deaths every day. We can call these people primitive savages and say how backward they are but wasting resources? Come on. We do far worse in the name of industry and expediency every day times a thousand. 

[Ajay0]

 I am not sure whether this is related to Hinduism. Cows and calves are considered sacred in Hinduism, and there are laws banning their killing in India.

Such ritual killings goes against the ideals of ahimsa (nonviolence) as well, and most Hindus are vegetarian. There was a phase of ritual killings of animals and birds in ancient India, but they were significantly reduced due to the efforts of Buddha, Mahavira and Vaishnavism, a sect of Hinduism.

In ancient times Hinduism was spread to other parts of Asia by Hindu traders, and it is possible that Hinduism had mixed with indigenous religions where such animal slaughter rituals were predominant.

'Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah' is an ancient sanskrit religious saying meaning, 'Nonviolence is the supreme religious duty'.

 The Mahabharatha states that the person abstaining from vicious violence and cruelty and preventing the same, accumulates inexhaustible spiritual merit.

Edited June 7 by Ajay0

[Piney]

On 6/7/2023 at 4:47 AM, Ajay0 said:

 I am not sure whether this is related to Hinduism. Cows and calves are considered sacred in Hinduism, and there are laws banning their killing in India.

Such ritual killings goes against the ideals of ahimsa (nonviolence) as well, and most Hindus are vegetarian. There was a phase of ritual killings of animals and birds in ancient India, but they were significantly reduced due to the efforts of Buddha, Mahavira and Vaishnavism, a sect of Hinduism.

In ancient times Hinduism was spread to other parts of Asia by Hindu traders, and it is possible that Hinduism had mixed with indigenous religions where such animal slaughter rituals were predominant.

'Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah' is an ancient sanskrit religious saying meaning, 'Nonviolence is the supreme religious duty'.

 The Mahabharatha states that the person abstaining from vicious violence and cruelty and preventing the same, accumulates inexhaustible spiritual merit.

Hinduism and other Indo-European religions have a common origin and the Hindus once practiced a similar horse sacrifice ceremony (Ashvamedha) as the Celts where a new king pretended sex with the horse, then slaughtered and ate it. It's described in the 14th book of the Mahabharatha.

[Ajay0]

49 minutes ago, Piney said:

Hinduism and other Indo-European religions have a common origin and the Hindus once practiced a similar horse sacrifice ceremony (Ashvamedha) as the Celts where a new king pretended sex with the horse, then slaughtered and ate it. It's described in the 14th book of the Mahabharatha.

The Ashwamedha horse sacrifices happened in ancient India, and was a practice of  ancient Indian kings who strived to expand their empires. 

These kind of vile animal sacrifices happened then, but most of it came to an end through the efforts of Buddha, Mahavira and the Vaishnavites. Even the Charvaks or Indian atheists of that time criticized this practice as irrational.

The Arya Samaj, a reformatory Hindu sect considered the Ashwamedha horse sacrifice as well as other animal sacrifices to be merely symbolic in the scriptures, and misinterpretation of the scriptures lead to the actual sacrifice and was actually erroneous.

The Indians, Greeks, Romans and Celts had similar religious practices , and belief in reincarnation was there amongst the orphic religion of the Greeks as well as the celts.

Edited June 10 by Ajay0

[Piney]

7 minutes ago, Ajay0 said:

The Ashwamedha horse sacrifices happened in ancient India, and was a practice of  ancient Indian kings who strived to expand their empires. But there is no 'pretended' or unpretended sexual activity of any sort with the horse. Have no idea where you got that from ! 

The Celtic version in Topographica Hibernica.

7 minutes ago, Ajay0 said:

These kind of vile animal sacrifices happened then, but most of it came to an end through the efforts of Buddha, Mahavira and the Vaishnavites.

The Indians, Greeks, Romans and Celts had similar religious practices , and belief in reincarnation was there amongst the orphic religion of the Greeks as well as the celts.

It was revived in the Shungra Dynasty and performed later by Gupta kings up until the 11th Century.

[Ajay0]

25 minutes ago, Piney said:

The Celtic version in Topographica Hibernica.

It was revived in the Shungra Dynasty and performed later by Gupta kings up until the 11th Century.

Yes, you are correct. In both the Indian and Celtic versions, there seems to have been some association with the rites of a fertility festival.

Edited June 10 by Ajay0