painted goats

[Narayan S. Raja]

On Tue, 3 Dec 1996, Ruth Laila Schmidt wrote:

> >Can somebody provide me with more information and/or reference on the
> >custom of painting the goat's fur before sacrifice? It seems to be use
> >in Nepal, and somewhere else??
> >For an example view http://www.webart.com/asianart/mustang/goats.html
> 
> In the mountains of northern Pakistan, such goats have a patch of pink dye
> on them. I asked why it was done and was told only that it identified the
> goats to be sacrificed.
> 
> Of course, if it has non-Islamic connotations, people might not know about
> them, or might not feel like discussing them.


I don't know the significance of it, but
I've seen goats with a spot of pink dye all
the way from Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu (the
region I'm most familiar with).  They were 
not elaborately painted like the Nepal goats; 
they just had a patch of pink dye.

FYI,


Raja.