Becki Outside Reading 3

While looking for information on a temple in Nepal, called Swayambhunath Stupa, I stumbled across an article written in the American Anthropologist journal. It is titled "Sacrifice of Serpents: The Festival of Indrayani in Kathmandu." The article discusses two movies which depict the ritual of sacrificing snakes to a goddess named Indrayani. These take place at Swayambhunath Stupa and define the hierarchy of the Buddhist's who worship there. The killing of the snake is done by the Buddhist "king" who is not king but merely acts as one for the ceremony. The depiction of the ritual is quite intense and is revealing of the intricacies of the ritual.