Eid al-Adha: Bulls on Parade

Well all those cows from the market did not go to waste. The Eid al-Adha celebrations took place over the last couple days in Dhaka, and I had the days off to check out the festivities. The second Eid is one of the most holy times in the Islamic faith, and occurs one day after the end of the Hajj in Saudi Arabia.

In Dhaka, the sparing of Ishmael by the Judea-Christian-Muslim God is commemorated by sacrifice livestock. In many Arab countries this means goats or sheep, but in Dhaka it means cows. Lots of them. The bigger the cow or in some cases Brahman bull, the more expensive it is (up to $2,500 US), and therefore it is a kind of status symbol to sacrifice the most and biggest cows. Some families had a couple cows and four or more goats. I even saw a camel, which had to be imported, in Gulshan 2. It was tied to a tree by one of the main roads, and must have stood 11 feet tall. It's hard to imagine wrestling that thing to the ground in order to slaughter it.

I have refrained from embedding pictures into the text in case some people do not want to see all the gory details, but I'll outline the program for the day of slaughter in words. At about 7:30AM all of the Muslims go to mosque to have the sacrificial blades blessed and have Eid services. At about 8:20AM (when I got out of the house to walk around and take pictures), hundreds of people poured out of the mosque, many carrying two foot blades. By about 9:30AM the killing was in full swing, and it lasted until noon.

To sacrifice a cow, about four men are necessary. The first order is to tie the bovine's back hooves together and then tip it on its side. This was done with varying success, but for the most part the cows were docile, although I saw some vicious kicking. Once the cow is on its side (it cannot get back up without its hind legs free) a few people put their weight on different parts of the cow and the head is twisted so that the cow's face is on the ground, exposing the neck. A holy person makes the first cut across the cow's neck, making the sacrifice Halal (equivalent in significance to "Kosher"). Another man then finishes severing the cow's windpipe and major arteries, being careful not to damage the spinal cord so that the heart keeps beating for as long as possible. The idea is to get as much blood out as possible, which makes for quite the scene as this all occurs at the foot of people's driveways, and in the streets.

Once the cow has expired, a few men set about skinning the animal (a cow with no skin is a strange sight), and then butchering it. Nothing is thrown away. After the animal is completely butchered, poor people arrive to take the guts. Then there is a break for a couple hours to dress the meat and then more poor people come to beg for food. It was common to see someone walking down the street carrying a enormous rack of ribs, or a whole leg. As I stayed in relatively affluent neighborhoods, so there was a lot of meat and a lot of begging.

Reflecting on this experience, which was my first encounter with slaughter and butchering, I was a bit rattled, but somewhat steadied by the knowledge that literally every part of each cow would be used or consumed by someone. Ironically, this day of death was probably the happiest this city has felt to me since I've been here. People were dressed to kill (I couldn't help myself) in their finest clothes, and had a certain spark to their step. The festive atmosphere and excitement of the people was palpable, and there was a certainly energy that Dhaka often seems to lack. Like Christmas, Eid al-Adha brought joy and even some short lived abundance to this land.

Later in the day, I went to the American Club with a couple friends for a late lunch. For maybe the second time since I've been here, I didn't order a hamburger. Jimmy and Jason chowed down, but I decided to forgo the cow for now.

Here are some pictures, for those who wish to see:

My housemate Sara also took some great pictures in downtown Dhaka. They are much better than mine and you can check them out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/homeplacedrive/

People exiting a park at about 8:30 AM; beggars lining up for alms

A man walking down the street with a typical Eid knife

There were cows tied up everywhere... The choice of this place was particularly amusing, it must be a hard school to get into.

A group of teenagers strain to control a couple of cows who have caught onto what's happening.

The view from the roof of my friend's apartment. There were five cows in front of his building and the adjacent one on the right.

A group of people work on butchering a cow. This is not an especially remarkable scene, except for the fact that the window to my room at school is the one on the first level, far right.

This is how they hold the cow before slaughtering. A river of blood flows down street as workers cut the rope around the cows neck in preparation for the holy person.

Two men skin a cow in Baridhara DOHS

An enormous Brahman bull in Baridhara. There was a second, identical white bull earlier in the day... here's what happened to it:

All that's left is the head at this point. The people working on this bull invited me into the garage to see how they were butchering it. They were very proud of the size and beauty of the bull.

The butchering assembly line

A great visual representation of the word "innards" resting on a rickshaw cart.

The rest of the cow. This picture gives a decent account of the amount of blood involved in each slaughter.

Cow Shopping

In the next week or two, Americans throughout the country will get in their cars and drive off to grocery store parking lots and once vacant spaces to pick out the perfect Christmas tree. Fathers, mothers and children assess the trees for their basic properties: how tall, how long ago was it cut down, what kind of tree is it (a fir, perhaps a Noble Pine?). Then come the more specific, personalized questions: can we get this through the front door, can we arrange the tree so that the weird hole will be facing the wall? After some haggling and some posturing, a tree is selected, purchased and strung to the top of a car by a gloved and red cheeked employee.

Things are much the same in Dhaka, except instead of Christmas, the Muslim nation celebrates the second Eid. Instead of tree shopping, it's cow shopping. Eid al-Adha (also called Id-ul-Azha in Bangladesh) is the second and longer of the two Eids, and is The Festival of Sacrifice, celebrating the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son for God. In appreciation of Abraham's decision to sacrifice his most loved relationship for God, God replaced Abraham's son with a lamb. To replicate this biblical event, thousands of goats, sheep, and cows will be slaughtered on the streets of Dhaka and throughout the Muslim world. Since my arrival I have been hearing about the day of slaughter, when the whole city smells of blood and city goers and villagers alike feast on the sacrificed livestock. Well these cows don't really grow on trees, so people, and often groups of people, have to buy a cow or goat specially for the occasion. We checked out the impromptu cow market just outside of Baridhara, where hundreds of bovines and goats are on display in front of Car dealerships and auto repair shops. The market had a quite different smell from that of fresh cut pine trees, but then again you can't eat a tree (or at least shouldn't try). Here are some pictures:

A man tends his group of cows with a thin piece of bamboo. Behind him you can see the traffic from the six lane road running along the market.

A couple of kids that followed me for a ways hoping I would take a picture of them. I am quite used to this now, and tried to get one of them in which the proximity of cow to auto-repair shop would be evident.

Moo.

Some guys selling snacks outside the market. The yellow signs proclaim that yes indeed, you may buy these cows.

As always in Dhaka, there were plenty of people at the cow bazaar just hanging out. It was unclear if these gentlemen had anything to do with the proceedings, or were just there to be there.

There were a few of these little platforms in the bazaar; the man appeared to be some kind of book keeper, recording the sales.

Some hungry goats attack a few branches. This was a feeding frenzy... if I was the goat keeper I would probably hold the food a little farther from my lungi.

30 Seconds in Dhaka

This morning I was pulling out of my parking spot at the American Club, fretting about the possibility that I wasn't getting a real Bangladeshi experience. I had just polished off a ham and tomato omelet, hashbrowns (served in a perfect 5x5 inch square), and some fresh fruit and yogurt in the club's dining area with Jimmy. As I put the car into drive and rolled forward, I noticed that a man was crouched on the right of the road about 20 yards ahead of me, and a small gathering of 10-15 people were watching him from the opposite side of the road. As we crept forward, I saw that he was charming a 5 foot cobra. Holding it's tail off of the ground in one and in one hand, he baited the snake to strike with his other. The snake came within three of four inches each time. I could see some tails hanging out of a basket where he had what looked like a couple other serpents. We rolled by slowly but didn't want to obstruct his audience's view, and didn't get out to watch because Jimmy, who was wearing jeans, had been complaining about the heat that morning.

This was our first encounter with a snake charmer in Bangladesh, and we were talking about how crazy the charmer must be as we rolled down the straight road 69 that runs parallel to Gulshan Avenue. At the end of road 69 the way bends to the left and joins the end of Gulshan Avenue, which I get on to get back home. Well as I came around the corner I was confronted with two Macaque monkeys, passionately fornicating in the middle of the road. The two amorous primates stared at us with a look that said "Oooo, I'm a human, I can do whatever I want, even disturb us monkeys." After about five seconds the male lept from his mate and joined the rest of the crew in the trash that is piled at the end of Gulshan. As we made our way onto Gulshan, we drove past about 25-30 monkeys on walls, the sidewalk, in the trash, in the tree lined island separating the traffic, and at the feet of armed guards who dropped seed and crumbs to the greedy monkeys.

I have to say, these monkeys, with the exception of the tiny baby monkeys, are not cute. Not one bit. They look like the mean monkeys that scientist use in military experiments, only to accidentally let one free to terrorize the human population, beginning some terrifying outbreak. That being said, I plan to go watch them next Friday at around sunset, which is apparently when there are just tons of monkeys in this trash heap by the entrance of Baridhara DOHS, where my friend lives.

All of this happened in about half a minute, reminding me that I am in a strange and exciting place. For the rest of the day I think I am going to go check out a cow market, where the bovines are being sold to be slaughtered during the upcoming Eid.

BollyHood: Snoop Hits the Subcontinent

Rap Megastar Snoop Dogg has made a major leap into the hearts of the Indian subcontinent by appearing in a song for the upcoming Bollywood movie Singh is Kinng. (The extra "n" is at the advice of a numerologist, many Bollywood films add the "n" for good luck). The movie stars one of Bollywood's biggest actors, Akshay Kumar, and was released in August of this year. The film itself appears to be an improbable action-comedy that takes place in India, Australia and Egypt.

In the video, which I caught on MTV India this week, Snoop dons a Sikh turban and adds his typically smooth flow to the amateur stylings of his counterpart. One notable difference in Snoop's rap is a lack of swearing, but his street cred as a black American rapper is probably tough enough. The video itself is kind of silly, alternating between classic rap video close up shots of the rappers' scowling faces, and Bollywood dancing and humor. The song's beat and some of the lyrics were written by the British Bhangra (Hindi Rap) Group RDB. Snoop keeps it in English for the most part, but the other voice (which does not belong to the person in the video, who is just the actor... that's how it works in Bollywood music videos) goes between Hindi and English, a common practice for "hip" Indians.

Interestingly, Snoop's last US hit was the sexually explicit "Sensual Seduction" (that's the censored title), and was debuted at a LA strip club. Bollywood movies do not contain any kissing.

Here is the hilarious video

South/South East Asian Civil Conflict: Not just for Bangladesh and Burma!

Finally the situation in Thailand has been resolved. The protesters who have locked down the airport for the last week have agreed to leave as the current government has been dissolved. I wonder if this is going to become a trend for protesters, airports are an ideal place for protesting in countries like Thailand that rely so heavily on foreign investment and tourism. Any flying in or out of Bangkok's beautiful and futuristic airport for the past week has been impossible, directly engaging the current government's international reputation as well as garnering more than the attention of the 100,000 tourists who were in effect non-violently held hostage by the protesters.

A brief summary of the conflict: in 2006 Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in a military coup. However by 2007 his old coalition regained party amid widespread charges of voter fraud and general corruption. Further, Thaksin, widely reviled, has been accused of trying to oust the beloved Constitutional Monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The constitution that had been set up by Thaksin's "proxy government" has been dissolved by the courts. The government was unable to repel the protesters because the armed forces refused to intervene, leaving the police to handle the masses.

Thaksin's proxy government won in a landslide democratic election in 2007, winning enormous amounts of the rural populations, where vote buying and fraud are easier to pull off. This sounds suspiciously like a simple struggle between newly powerful and modernized city goers and the rural communities that are far different. Thaliand has a parliamentary government, and the three deposed parties plan to reboot and reenter electoral politics this year. Several key members from these parties are banned from national politics for the next three years.

The end of the airport drama was especially great news for me, as I will be flying through Bangkok in two weeks on my way home to Seattle. I had become a bit nervous that I would have to find alternate means to get to Tokyo. At this point it appears I am going to be escaping South Asia without running into a major government upheaval (I'm counting on you, Japan!). I will be getting out of Bangladesh a couple weeks before the national election here, but a few days after the end of emergency powers. Hopefully there won't be any major fracases before I depart.

Before I came to this part of the world, and indeed before this past week, I was under the impression that this part of the world, and especially Thailand and India, was up and coming economically, politically and socially. In reality, it appears that economic advancements and strengthened tourist industries have obfuscated some serious conflict within these nations. For my first three months in Bangladesh I gazed enviously to the East and West, seeing two countries that seemed to be accomplishing things and traveling on a productive path to open, prosperous and safe societies. What the last week has done is remind me how very influx the future of this region still is. In some ways it is inspiring to see the Thai people put themselves on the cogs and gears of a system they passionate believe to be corrupt, on the other hand it is frightening that even Thailand is still in the learning phases of representative democracy. When I think of India and Thailand, I think of ancient cultures and religions; the serenity of Buddhism and the passion of Hindu. In reality, the countries as we know them today are still quite adolescent, learning how to control and nourish its constituent parts.

While Bangladesh stumbles towards an election that, while it may not impact any of this countries many ills, is not insignificant. A functional government is the first step to an effective government, and a system that assists rather than preys upon its people. I am almost sad that I will miss the election, as volatile as the situation may be. It may not look like it does in America, but even this Frankenstein democratic election is an unsteady step in the right direction.

Road 86

The leader of the Bangladesh National Party, Khaleda Zia, has recently moved her offices to Road 86 in the Gulshan II neighborhood. As you may have guessed from the Roman numerals, Gulshan in a planned community. It was built specifically for diplomats, ex-patriots and wealthy Bangladeshis. Road 86 intersects with a road that I drive on any time I am going to the American Club, and is right next to an apartment full of teachers on Road 84.

We have been issued warnings from the embassy's Regional Security Officer and the school to stay away from the BNP headquarters. I'm not sure exactly what these people plan to accomplish, but at night there is often a relatively large congregation of people in the streets. Perhaps it is to raise the party's profile, to be close to the leaders, who knows, but people are expected to be around up until the December 29 election. In response, our school has been sending a kind of scout car ahead of all buses that regularly use the route to make sure it is secure.

A few days ago, I forgot about this warning and drove through Gulshan II on my way home from the A.C. As I drove down the road I saw a stopped car and, with the lack of street lights, could not tell exactly why it wasn't moving. As I rolled up behind the car I realized that it was waiting to turn onto Road 86, and that a throng of people was blocking its advance. Soon the crowds surrounded my car, and a fear of the notorious Bangladeshi mob action creeped through my body. There were people tapping on the car from all around, and though I have no reason to think that the gathered people meant any ill will (a tap on the car does not mean the same thing here, in the land of no personal space), the voices and the tapping and the energy of the scene made me uncomfortable. After a minute or so we finally we able to roll through the people and out onto the empty streets beyond.