Indian documentary exposes cannibalism among secret Hindu sect

Associated Press:

A new Indian documentary focuses on a secretive sect of Hindu ascetics who eat corpses in the belief that ingesting dead flesh will make them ageless and give them supernatural powers.

"Feeding on the Dead," a 10-minute documentary, delves into the little-known world of the Aghori sect, whose holymen pluck dead bodies from the Ganges River in northern India.

While the sect has been written about, they've rarely been filmed performing rituals.

The director of the documentary said it took him more than three months to gain the trust of an Aghori and persuade him to be filmed while performing a cannibalistic ritual.

Hindus generally cremate the dead, but bodies are sometimes ceremonially disposed of in the Ganges, and the Aghori find the corpses they need in the river.

Indian doc focuses on Hindu cannibal sect