news.bbc.co.uk BURMA, October 1, 2007: Thousands of Buddhist monks detained in Burma’s main city of Rangoon will be sent to prisons in the far north of the country, sources have told the BBC. About 4,000 monks have been rounded up in the past week as the military government has tried to stamp out pro-democracy protests. They are being held at…
www.clicanoo.com REUNION, FRANCE, September 28, 2007: The kumbhabhishekam (dedication) of the Chinmaya Mission temple occurred on Sunday, September 9, at the Vedanta Studies Center (Centre D’Etudes Vedantiques) of Quartier Francais, in Sainte-Suzanne. The ceremony to “infuse the vital breath into the temple’s new Deities began on the 7th. Construction of the temple dedicated to Ganesha and Siva started on May…
www.ncicj.com JAMAICA, September 30, 2007: Indian culture is one of the oldest cultures. It came to Jamaica with Indians after the abolition of Slavery. Indians were brought as indentured laborers by British plantation owners between 1845 and 1917 to work on sugar estates and banana plantations. The first ship, SS Blundell, carrying 261 Indians arrived at Old Harbour Bay on…
theseoultimes.com SEOUL, KOREA, September 16, 2007: Ganesha Visarjana has been celebrated in Korea in recent years as a means to bring a taste of Indian culture to the country. This year 500 Indians and 100 Koreans gathered to enjoy Indian culture. The news release elaborates, “The Ganesha Festival started on Saturday (September 15) evening with great stage decorations of flowers…
www.iht.com MUMBAI, INDIA, September 21, 2007: If you are vegetarian and live in Mumbai, you would most likely live in an apartment in one of Mumbai’s strictly vegetarian only residential complexes. “While Mumbai is one of India’s most cosmopolitan cities, much of its housing is splintered along ethnic and religious lines. There are predominantly Muslim, Roman Catholic and Hindu areas.…
www.themuslimweekly.com UNITED KINGDOM, September 15, 2007: The UK government has make plans to expand the number of faith schools where religious groups can provide state approved education. However the plans have met opposition from the Bolton branch of the National Union of Teachers (NUT). Barry Conway, secretary of the Bolton branch of the NUT, said, “Religious groups have no part…
www.nst.com.my MALAYSIA, September 30, 2007: (HPI note: “What is Hinduism?” was produced by the staff of Hinduism Today magazine and HPI. It was reviewed in this article by journalist R. Gowri.) Someone passed me a copy of “What Is Hinduism?” recently. Anyone from my generation could be forgiven for not faithfully turning the pages of any publication that pronounces in…
timesofindia.indiatimes.com EDMONTON, CANADA, September 22, 2007: Four statues of Lord Ganesha, including one depicting the elephant-god in the nude, are being removed from an exhibition in the Canadian city of Edmonton after protests by Hindus who called them “disrespectful.” Ryan McCourt’s sculptures, which have been on display for 10 months, were put up at the Shaw Conference Centre under a…
www.canada.com EDMONTON, CANADA, September 19, 2007: (HPI note: this is an earlier article on the sculptures.) Mayor Stephen Mandel wants four sculptures outside the Shaw Conference Centre taken away immediately after local Hindu leaders complained they’re disrespectful of one of their faith’s beloved gods The works by Edmonton artist Ryan McCourt use castoff industrial material to depict the elephant-headed Ganesha…
www.nytimes.com WASHINGTON, U.S., September 26, 2007: Facing pressure from religious groups, civil libertarians and members of Congress, the federal Bureau of Prisons has decided to return religious materials that had been purged from prison chapel libraries because they were not on the bureau’s list of approved resources. The bureau had said it was prompted to remove the materials after a…