UNITED STATES, September 23, 2024 (Robb Report): In recent years, there’s been buzz in the art world about smuggled antiquities being returned to their countries of origin. Now, a trove of artifacts from India stolen centuries ago is finally coming home. On Saturday, 297 cultural relics dating back from 2000 BCE to 1900 CE were handed over to Indian Prime…
NEW DELHI, INDIA, September 30, 2024 (MSN): Amid growing concerns among devotees about the purity of world-famous Tirupati laddu prasadam, the trust managing a famous temple dedicated to Vindhyavasni Beejasan Devi in Madhya Pradesh has called for a ban on laddus being sold by a self-help group on the premises. This comes amid claims of adulterated ghee being used for…
JABALPUR, RAJASTHAN, INDIA, October 3, 2024 (Free Press Journal): The Hindu Seva Parishad has introduced a dress code to secure entry in the temples across Jabalpur. The organization has begun putting up posters outside various temples in the city, informing devotees of the new rules. The Hindu Seva Parishad has also urged temple priests to enforce the new guidelines. Devotees…
INDIA, September 28, 2024 (MSN): The calls to end the involvement of the government in the administration and control of Hindu temples in India have gained momentum in the past few weeks. The controversy over Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s allegation that the prasad served to devotees at the Tirupati temple contained animal fat has led to questions being…
INDIA, September 16, 2024 (The Intel Drop): Nearly a century ago, in an era before steroids, there was an Indian who was both a yoga master and an accomplished bodybuilder. Named Bishnu Charan Ghosh, he was the younger brother of Paramahansa Yogananda (originally Mukunda Lal Ghosh), famously the author of perennial spiritual best-seller, Autobiography of a Yogi. Ghosh has seen…
JAFFNA, SRI LANKA, September 9, 2024 (island.lk, by Dinasena Rathugamage): Devotees from around the world gathered at the Nallur Kandaswamy Temple in Jaffna to witness the parade of the temple’s principal Deity, Murugan. This revered Hindu temple, dedicated to Lord Murugan, the God of War and Victory, is the focal point of the annual Nallur Festival. Spanning 25 days, the…
CHINA, August 10, 2024 (SCMP): A top university law graduate in China has been arrested for stealing donation money from Buddhist temples in a number of provinces by changing their receipt QR codes to his own. The man, whose identity was not released, confessed to the police that he had stolen more than 30,000 yuan (US$4,200) from temples in the…
BALI, INDONESIA, September 27, 2024 (Surfline, by Nick Carroll): Ulu Watu. The name triggers a deluge of images for surfers worldwide. Dream-like visions of long peeling lefts, trade-winds, sunsets. Images of Bali as Paradise, the ultimate escape. As one surfer we spoke to while researching this story told us: “It’s one of the holiest places on earth, and one of…
JAKARTA, INDONESIA, September 20, 2024 (Independent Observer): The Kingdom of the Netherlands is returning hundreds of objects of Indonesian cultural value that have been kept in the country since the colonial era, based on the recommendation of the Dutch Colonial Collections Committee. The Dutch Education, Culture, and Science Minister Eppo Bruins explained that the repatriation of the cultural objects would…
USA, September 24, 2024 (Religion News Service, by G. Jeffrey MacDonald): As many as 100,000 Christian church-owned buildings are expected to be sold or repurposed by 2030, according to an analysis in a new book, “Gone for Good? Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition.” Though Sunday attendance has recovered in part from COVID-19 restrictions, a decades-long decline has…
