Shifts in a Traditional Buffalo Butchery Practice in the Kathmandu Valley: The Khadgis’ Reorganization of Newar Foodways

Speaker: Kanako Nakagawa

ka-nakagawa@otemon.ac.jp

Department of Sociology, Otemon Gakuin University, Osaka Japan

This presentation examines the shifts in the traditional buffalo meat processing practices within both the commercial and ritual worlds in Newar Society. In Nepal, hygiene concepts and animal welfare discourses are penetrating into the wider society. Particularly after the 2015 earthquake, public health management has been strengthened. In Kathmandu the local government is leading the modernization of the meat sector as a part of making ‘the clean and healthy city’ campaign. 

In Newar society, the Khadgis have traditionally been engaged in buffalo slaughter and animal sacrifice as part of their caste-based roles. I will discuss both these processes: 1) how the Khadgis have come to terms with these social shifts within their commercial world, and 2) how they legitimize their traditional animal slaughter within their ritual world.

The traditional processing of buffalo meat by the Khadgis is mainly done by hand in simple abattoirs that are open-air or have tin roofs. The buffalo meat market has rapidly expanded, and the government estimates that more than 1000 buffaloes are consumed per day in Kathmandu valley. The Kathmandu municipality estimates that almost 70% of the meat shops in Kathmandu are owned by Khadgis. In the meat market, the Khadgi negotiate with others outside their caste and ethnicity, especially with the Muslim community, who play a leading role in the global meat market.

However, in 2016, the government of Nepal announced a ban on buffalo slaughter within the Kathmandu Valley, deeming it “pre-modern” and “unhygienic.” The meat distributors who slaughter buffaloes in a traditional manner within their residential areas are expected to convert to becoming workers in modern slaughterhouses situated outside the Kathmandu Valley.  

In response to the government policy, the Khadgis established a company in partnership with the local government to provide customers with healthy and hygienic meat. The Khadgis have their caste association, and this association has nationwide networks. They have utilized their nationwide caste network to construct a system that is compatible with both modern industrial slaughterhouses to produce frozen meat in the plains along India/Nepal border, and continue traditional manual slaughtering to produce raw meat for the Kathmandu Valley.

The Khadgis are also enthusiastic about keeping their ritual practices. So simultaneously, they maintain their traditional butchery to provide buffalo raw meat and intestines especially for rituals. They legitimize their caste-based role of slitting the necks of animals through ritualistic practices by reinterpreting their roles as “self-devotional service for the deities,” or “as guardians of the Newar community.” They continue justifying their role in blood sacrifice for the goddess Taleju, and claim that only they can legitimately perform this role.Previous research has elucidated that through modernization, people engaged in animal slaughtering are marginalized or regarded as outsiders. Contrarily, this study argues that the Khadgis are maintaining their important roles in Newar society by reorganizing a folk knowledge of buffalo butchery practice. Thus, the Khadgis have fought to preserve their identity within both the ritual and commercial worlds.