The holy cows in Kathmandu, Nepal

The efforts to make Kathmandu a holy city are everywhere.  Temples, shrines, holy men, monks and holy cows.  From the airport in a taxi, way over its normal usage,  I raced through the city.  Our way is suddenly obstructed by holy cows.  Yes, I know many use the term to describe events but these are real cows.  They walk around as if they know that people consider them special.  They lie down in the middle of the roads and chew their belched up dinner.  They refuse to move so the taxi weaves around as if that is what is expected.  I am amused by this and question the driver.  "Is there a law that allows the cow to move about at their will?"  "Yes, a religious law."  It is a "law" stronger than the law of the land.    If you happen to kill a man you go to prison for 7 years..  If you kill one of these cows it will cost you 20 years.  The cows are a part of the reincarnation process.  The cow could very well be one of your relatives.  It could even be your grandmother.

On one of my taxi trips I ask the driver, "Do you ever eat a part of these cows?"  He looked around him as if someone might be listening.  I was the only one in the car.  "At night Sir, at night."  The holiness of these cows was brought into question.

I ask another about the cows. " Would you eat the meat of a dead cow?"  If they have died was his carefully guarded answer.  I ask about the way a cow might die.  "Sometimes they fall off a cliff."  I could not help but ask how that might happen.  In a guarded answer I understood that sometimes the holy cows are helped to fall.

So there you have the holy cows of Kathmandu.  Decide for yourself just how holy they are.