India's Ladyboys

[Guest]

I did a post once on the Hijra, India's ladyboys.

I'd said that castration is performed with a knife in the kitchen essentially, by people with no medical experience, i.e., their friend Ladyboy.

So some asked for a reference, and there are tons of internet references, but I found a decent academic book now called "Hirra: Nither Man Nor Woman", which details it pretty well.

Basically, they tie a rope around the balls. The local Hijra leader cuts them off with 2 diagonal cuts. Doesn't stop the bleeding (because it is letting the maleness out), and then puts crap like seaweed on the wound to heal it. 40 days later, if they're alive, they are "Hijra", India's ladyboys, with the power to curse people, positively or negatively.

Beautiful, they're not!

Yikes!

[Guest]

Some are beautiful, but not many. It is an old tradition in India. Most of the time they are seen as powerful in a special way--to grant good luck to married couples seeking a child. Much of the time they hit up merchants for donations and they receive them because merchants dont want bad luck. Some are hookers, some not.