Neupane transporting a stray calf on his motorcycle. Photo: dpa
While growing up in a high caste Hindu family near Kathmandu in the 1960s, Ram Bahadur Neupane could see how important cows were to his family.
Like other households in Namobuddha, a village on the outskirts of Kathmandu valley, his family depended on cows for milk and oxen to plough land. They would worship cows during Hindu festivals like Gai Tihar, Gaijatra and Govardhan Puja. No ritual would be complete without cows; even the urine and dung of cows were considered sacred and essential for religious rituals.
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