The Real Pandora

Paganism is currently all the rage, and the Judeo-Christian (or more accurately, Judeo-Christian-Muslim, or ethical monotheist) tradition is openly opposed among the cocktail crowd. The noble savages of Avatar are thought models of what human society ought to be.

But are we really ready to take on board all that paganism entails? In Nepal, recently, I picked up a local book on Nepali mythology ("Gods, Goddesses, and Religious Symbols of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Tantrism"). The authors are themselves Nepali and Hindu, so one assumes this is a sympathetic portrait.

Yes, there are depictions of kinky sex positions on the temples; all to the good, no doubt. But that's not all. A celebration of the cycles of time rejoices not just in procreation and birth, but also death. There is usually a dancing skeleton there somewhere as well. Consider this, PETAphiles: animal sacrifice. Hundreds of animals sacrificed annually in the Hanuman Temple in Kathmandu; one hundred and eight of each species; the temple steps red with blood. There's your pagan respect for nature, eh? You eat 'em, you worship 'em, you murder 'em for your sport. Isn't pristine nature, after all, itself rather rose-tinted in tooth and claw?

And why not? I quote from the local experts: "As sacrifices were considered to be the harbinger of salvation to the sacrificer and the sacrificed, the ardent advocate of sacrifice was asked to sacrifice his own parents."

Hmm; I was wondering why there seemed to be no old or infirm people on Pandora. The British managed to suppress human sacrifice in India, through a long campaign against the Thuggi. But in closed Nepal, the British resident, the only foreigner allowed in the country, personally witnessed ritual human sacrifice in downtown Kathmandu as late as 1877.

Blood sacrifice, our authors explain, is specifically tied to worship of female deities: "The worship of female deities or Saktis has always been connected with bloody rites." Female deities like, say, "Nature" or "Gaia." "Mother Nature"--"nature," literally, is "that which is born": the cycle of birth and death. Comments, Greenpeace?

Human equality? Human rights? Forget about ethical monotheism, and you can forget about all that stuff too. In the Vedas, the different castes were created out of different parts of the primordial man. Brahmans come from the brain; sudras from the feet. No question of equality there: brains think; feet just stink. South African apartheid or Jim Crow in the US South had absolutely nothing on the apartheid traditionally practiced in India, and legally enforced in Nepal up to 1964. There is no brotherhood of man, without one Father. Tantric Hindus consider themselves "siddas," "perfect ones," and all other mortals "pasu," "beasts." Slavery was ended in Nepal only in the Twentieth century. The king is understood to be an incarnation of God.

You can see here a bit of the connection--the real, historical, connection--between Hinduism and Nazism. Hitler took the swastika, after all, and the term "Aryan," from this subcontinental context.

To be fair, Hinduism is more than paganism. Devotional Vaishnavas, for example, are not that different from ethical monotheists in the West. But Hinduism, by its inclusive nature, also still contains its full pagan context. It still features the heathen elements that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam determined to root out from their midst.

And to be fair, Nepal is a wonderful place for a tourist, filled with kind, friendly people.

But Pandora, don't open that box.