Get your goat

Get your goat

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People lean on balconies, peer out of windows and gather in crowds to get a good view over the green-tinged water of a pond in the Nepalese village of Khokana, where an unusual event is taking place.

This is a scene from the annual Deopokhari festival, during which a live goat is thrown into the water and teams of devotees compete to retrieve it.

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Slideshow

A devotee smokes a cigarette as he swims during the festival.
. LALITPUR, Nepal. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

A devotee smokes a cigarette as he swims during the festival.

A man throws a live goat into the pond during the event, in which the team of devotees that retrieves the animal first is named the winner.
. LALITPUR, Nepal. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

A man throws a live goat into the pond during the event, in which the team of devotees that retrieves the animal first is named the winner.

A man dives into the pond.
. LALITPUR, Nepal. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

A man dives into the pond.

Devotees compete to retrieve a goat.
. LALITPUR, Nepal. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

Devotees compete to retrieve a goat.

Two men tug a goat by the legs.
. LALITPUR, Nepal. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

Two men tug a goat by the legs.

Devotees compete over the soaking animal.
. LALITPUR, Nepal. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

Devotees compete over the soaking animal.

Men crowd around to grab the goat.
. LALITPUR, Nepal. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

Men crowd around to grab the goat.

A crowd watches the festival from the roof of a house.
. LALITPUR, Nepal. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

A crowd watches the festival from the roof of a house.