Thursday, June 21, 2007

Human bones in demand at Bhutan monasteries



Kolkata: Police have discovered a stash of hundreds of human skulls and thigh bones (femurs) and arrested a gang for allegedly smuggling them to the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan for use in Buddhist monasteries.

"During interrogation they confessed that the hollow human thigh bones were in great demand in monasteries and were used as blow-horns, and the skulls as vessels to drink from at religious ceremonies," investigating officer Ravinder Nalwa said yesterday.

It was the second cache of bones found in eastern India since April and police now believe the region could be the centre of a much broader trade in human bones. They suspect some bones may even have ended up as far away as Thailand and Japan.

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