Gadhimai Temple () is a

Hindu temple A Hindu temple, also known as Mandir, Devasthanam, Pura, or Kovil, is a sacred place where Hindus worship and show their devotion to Hindu deities, deities through worship, sacrifice, and prayers. It is considered the house of the god to who ...

of Gadhimai

Devi ''Devī'' (; ) is the Sanskrit word for 'goddess'; the masculine form is Deva (Hinduism), ''deva''. ''Devi'' and ''deva'' mean 'heavenly, divine, anything of excellence', and are also gender-specific terms for a deity in Hinduism. The concept ...

, an aspect of

Kali Kali (; , ), also called Kalika, is a major goddess in Hinduism, primarily associated with time, death and destruction. Kali is also connected with transcendental knowledge and is the first of the ten Mahavidyas, a group of goddesses who p ...

, the

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

goddess of power. The temple is situated in Mahagadhimai Municipality in

Bara District Bara District ( ) is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal, located in the western part of the Madhesh Province. The district is third richest district in Nepal after Kathmandu and Morang with 3.3% share of total GDP of Nepal and highest ...

of south central

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

, though the term usually refers to

Gadhimai festival Gadhimai festival is a Hindu festival held every five years in Nepal at the Gadhimai Temple of Bariyarpur, in Bara District, about south of the capital Kathmandu, and about east of the city of Kalaiya, near the Indo-Nepal border. The event ...

, conducted at the Gadhimai temple area in central

Terai The Terai or Tarai is a lowland region in parts of southern Nepal and northern India that lies to the south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas, the Sivalik Hills and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. This lowland belt is characterised by ...

The festival at the Gadhimai temple in Bariyarpur, Nepal, sees tens of thousands of animals sacrificed to please the goddess Gadhimai, provoking national and international outrage. According to the International Organisations working for Animal Protection, the mass sacrifice at Gadhimai Temple is one of the cruellest forms of public animal slaughter. Despite outcries from activists and social media protests, a mass sacrifice of animals is scheduled for December 8th and 9th, 2024. This event, known as the bloodiest festival in the world, sees an estimated 2.5 to 3 lakhs animals sacrificed by more than 2000 butchers, with approximately 70% of these animals coming from India.

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{{Hindu temples in Nepal Kali temples Hindu temples in Madhesh Province Hindu temples practicing animal sacrifice Buildings and structures in Bara District

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