揭秘印度神之女奴

来源Prostitutes of god - Asia, World - The Independent
译者冬季恋歌

Prostitutes of god

Journalist Sarah Harris has made a documentary about temple prostitutes in south India - girls dedicated to the Hindu goddess Devadasi before puberty who spend their lives selling sex.

记者莎拉•哈里斯记录了南印度寺院妓女的生活——这些女孩们尚未进入青春期就做了神庙舞姬，终生卖淫。

Interview by Matilda Battersby

玛蒂尔达•巴特斯比采访

【译注：神奴是印度最古老的传统之一。devadasis（神奴）一词源头于梵语：deva的意思是“神”，dasi的意思是“女奴”。指一生侍奉神的女性，有时也叫神庙舞女。这个职业的性质随着地区和时代而改变。直到最近，多数神奴开始从事卖淫行业。】

Girls in parts of South India are dedicated to the goddess Devadasi before puberty

这些女孩们尚未进入青春期做了神庙舞姬。

Former Independent journalist Sarah Harris has made a documentary about India's temple prostitutes - young girls who are dedicated to the Hindu goddess Devadasi at a young age and support their families as sex workers.

《独立报》前记者莎拉•哈里斯记录了南印度寺院妓女的生活——这些女孩们尚年幼就做了神庙舞姬，成为性工作者，以养家糊口。

The first instalment of the four-part exclusively online documentary 'Prostitutes of God' goes live today on VBS.tv.

今天，四部中的第一期独家在线纪录片《神之女奴》在VBS.tv放映。

I first went to India after I left The Independent three years ago. I wanted to run away and do something really different, so I went to volunteer with a charity in southern India which rescues victims of sex trafficking.

三年前，我离开《独立报》后第一次去印度。我想逃跑,做点真正与众不同的事,所以我成为了印度南部一慈善机构的志愿者，该机构援助性交易受害者。

On my very first day there I stumbled into a meeting of Devadasi prostitutes. I was told that they were temple prostitutes, but didn’t have any understanding of what that meant. It sounded absolutely barmy!

第一天，我参加了一个关于神之女奴的会议。我被告知她们是寺庙妓女,但当时并没理解那是什么意思。但，它听起来绝对不正常!

I began to research it and in February 2008 was invited to northern Karnatakar, which is the centre of the tradition in India. I interviewed a few of the women and wrote an article about it for Vice magazine. But visiting them stayed with me, and I wanted to find out more.

于是，我开始研究它。在2008年2月，我被邀请到Karnatakar北部,那里是印度传统的中心地。我采访了一些妇女,给《罪恶》写了一篇关于神之女奴的文章。但，了解周围的这些人后,我想知道更多。

When you approach a Devadasi girl for interview the response varies hugely. There’s a huge spectrum of women. A really wealthy brothel madam in Mumbai would be quite proud to talk about what she does. But in very poor rural communities, like in Karnatakar, they’re much more difficult to talk to. These young women are ostracised and exploited and they’re ashamed of what they do. They wish they could get married, but they can’t and are in this dreadful prison.

对神之女奴采访时，她们的反应大不同。各种女性都有。在孟买，相当富有的妓院鸨母将会引以为豪。但，在非常贫穷的农村地区,像在Karnatakar,她们很不乐意谈这事。这些年轻的妇女被排斥、被剥削，对自己所做的行当引以为耻。她们希望能结婚,但身处这恐怖的监牢，她们不能。

The only thing that has changed since the Devadasi practise was made illegal in 1988 is that the ceremonies have been driven underground. It’s still very common in some parts of India. A Westerner wouldn’t know to look at the girls that they are Devadasi, but Indians know on sight who they are and what they do. Really it comes down to caste.

唯一改变的一件事便是,自1988年以来，神之女奴的行业变成为了违法行为，这种仪式便被转入地下，但在印度的一些地区仍然很常见。西方人看不出来哪些女孩子是神之女奴,但是印度人一眼就能看出来,知道她们是什么身份、做什么行当，这都归结于种姓制度。

【译注：印度种姓制度是以印度为主的南亚各国印度教居民中存在的一种彼此严格区分的社会等级或集团制度。梵语为瓦尔纳，意为色、种、质。中国古代的汉译佛经或旅印高僧的著作中，称为种姓或族姓。依葡萄牙语音译为卡斯塔，世界上则多用卡斯特一词。现在已逐渐废除。但在一些民族中依然存在。

在种姓制度下，古代印度人被分为四个种姓：婆罗门、刹帝利、吠舍和首陀罗。 婆罗门是祭司贵族。它主要掌握神权，占卜祸福，垄断文化和报道农时季节，在社会中地位是最高的。 刹帝利是雅利安人的军事贵族，包括国王以下的各级官吏，掌握国家的除神权之外的一切权力。 波罗门和刹帝利这两个高级种姓，占有了古代印度社会中的大部分财富，依靠剥削为生，是社会中的统治阶级。吠舍是古代印度社会中的普通劳动者，也就是雅利安人的中下阶层，包括农民、手工业者和商人，他们必须向国家缴纳赋税。 首陀罗是指那些失去土地的自由民和被征服的达罗毗荼人，实际上处于奴隶的地位。 
　　
各个种姓职业世袭，互不通婚，以保持严格的界限。不同种姓的男女所生的子女被看成是贱民，或叫不可接触者，贱民不包括在四个种姓之内，最受鄙视。】 　

Caste is a massively complicated issue still in India. My understanding of it is that originally when the Devadasi tradition first came about, the women dedicated were from high caste families, even royalty. They held a very special place in the Indian culture: were incredible dancers, poets, artisans. They had specific religious roles to play within the temple performing various sacred religious rites. They were almost like nuns and it had nothing to do with sex. It was more like being a priestess.

在印度，种姓制度依然是一个庞大而又复杂的问题。我对它的理解是,当神之女奴的传统最初起兴之时，用来献身的女性来自高阶层的家庭,甚至是皇室。这在印度文化中举足轻重：她们是不可思议的舞者、诗人、工匠。她们以特别的宗教角色在庙内执行各种神圣的宗教仪式。她们和修女很相似,宗教仪式也与性完全无关，她们或者更像是女祭司。

As film shows how much the tradition has deteriorated over the centuries. Specifically in the 19th Century when the Christian missionaries came, the Devadasi became less well thought of. These days it’s very much a low caste tradition. Girls from the Madiga caste, otherwise known as the “untouchable caste,” have really limited prospects. They can be agricultural labourers, sewage collectors or prostitutes, essentially. As prostitution is the most lucrative, a lot of Madiga women get into sex work.

许多电影也展示了这一传统历经几个世纪已经变了质。特别是在十九世纪，当基督教传教士到来时,神之女奴在人们眼中变得轻浮。那时，神之女奴已是一个非常低俗的传统。来自Madiga种姓的女孩,或被称为“贱民阶层”,她们才真算得上是前途无亮。基本上她们都是农民、拾荒者或妓女。因为卖淫赚钱最多，很多女性都从事性工作。

Some girls are dedicated to the goddess at age two or three. They won’t actually enter into sex work until they reach puberty at around twelve. The girls most at risk of being dedicated will have grown up in very matriarchal Devadasi communities. There aren’t any men. They don’t have fathers. So there probably is some understanding from a young age that they’re not from traditional families, they don’t have husbands.

有些女孩子在两三岁时就入这一行了，但直到大致在十二岁进入青春期时，她们才会真正开始从事性工作。最有可能从事这一行业的女孩将会成长在母系神之女奴的群体中。那里没有男人。她们没有父亲。所以，她们从小就知道自己不是来自传统家庭,因为她们没有丈夫。

The girls probably won’t have a real understanding of the sex work element until what they call their ‘first night’. This is when their virginity is sold to a local man, normally the highest bidder. He might be a local farmer, landowner or businessman. Some of them say, “I was dedicated to the goddess, but I didn’t know this was what was expected.”

这个女孩们对性工作并不完全理解，直到经历所谓的“初夜”。也就是当她们被卖给通常给出价最高的当地人破处的时候。那人可能是当地的农民、地主或者商人。她们中的一些人说,“我是献身给女神,但我不知道究竟该不该这么做。”

When I first went to India I thought some of the women might consider it a kind of honour to be a Devadasi, because of it is an act of religious devotion. Sexuality and divinity are very closely entwined in the Hindi faith. Religion is closely linked to sexuality and beauty. But I think there’s very little religious link left now. Most of the women that we spoke to don’t even pay any heed to the traditional religious practises of the goddess. They see it as a business.

第一次去印度时，我以为有些妇女可能对成为神之女奴引以为荣,因为它是一种宗教虔诚的形式。在北印度人的信念中，性欲与神性紧密地联系在一起，宗教与性欲和美息息相关。但，现在我认为它们和虔诚联系几乎无关。我们所交谈过的大部分女性根本不去留意传统的女神宗教仪式，她们仅仅把它视为交易。

HIV is very prevalent in the community. Our translator, who works very closely with these communities, describes HIV as being like plucking a bunch of grapes. As soon as a woman is infected then her whole family becomes infected. Every man she sleeps with then becomes infected. Then the men pass it onto their wives. It’s very difficult to measure the disease’s prevalence because many don’t understand what that they’ve got.

艾滋病在群体内非常普遍。我们的一位与这些群体走得挺近的翻译把人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）比作摘葡萄。当一个女人被感染后,她全家都会被感染。那么，和她睡过的每个男人都会被感染。然后，男人传染给他们的妻子。难以估量这种疾病的发病率,因为许多人并不知道自己得病了。

There is widespread ignorance about AIDS and HIV in those communities. And a huge stigma attached to using condoms. People die of HIV related illnesses and they call it “dying of a fever.” The infected often go undiagnosed. There’s also huge disparity. One of the towns we went to had a huge NGO which was campaigning for the rights of sex workers, distributing condoms and educational materials, so the Devadasi were quite switched on about it.

在这些群体中，人们对爱滋病和HIV普遍地一无所知，而使用避孕套则是个极大的耻辱。人们常常死于HIV相关疾病,他们称之为“死于发烧”。被感染的人常常无法得到确诊。其中也有巨大的差距。我们去的一个城镇就有一个庞大的非政府组织（NGO），它为性工作者争取权利、分发避孕套和教育材料,所以很受神之女奴们的欢迎。

It’s very difficult for girls to leave the profession. You see groups of former Devadasi becoming social activists and campaigners against the tradition. That’s one way out. Another is to become an educator or a social worker. There is a huge movement to try and stop dedications happening, and the impetus for that is coming from the grass roots. The former Devadasi women.

让女孩们走出该职业非常困难。你会看到许多前神之女奴都成为反对这一传统的社会活动家和竞选者。另一个条出路就是成为教育工作者或社会工作者。我们需要用庞大的运动努力去阻止献身的继续发生,从而激发来自普通大众、前神之女奴的反对的动力。

Living a normal life in India after having been a Devadasi prostitute is extremely, extremely hard because they're seen as damaged goods. In India marriage is everything. If there’s any suggestion that a girl has had sex before marriage then she's ostracised from society. Women are still stoned to death in some villages for those kinds of transgressions. So it’s very difficult for them to rebuild their lives.

在印度，对神之女奴来说，过正常的生活非常非常困难,因为她们被视为已破损的货物。在印度，婚姻就是一切。如果任何信息示意一个女孩有婚前性行为,那么她将被社会排斥。在一些乡村，妇女甚至会因这种罪过被人们用石头砸死。因此，回头是岸对她们来说非常困难。