Los Angeles TimesLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, June 6, 2004: The spirit of the Ramayana has spread around the world from India to Cambodia, Thailand, Bali, Fiji and more. Every Asian country has claimed the epic and interpreted it to suit their needs. Now, a new version of the Ramayana called Ramayana 2K4 has been produced by Robert A. Prior and has…
SourceRANCHI, INDIA, June 24, 2004: Backward caste members of a village in India’s Jharkhand state have entered a temple without fear of retribution for the first time with police help, 16 years after its construction. “Today we have got real freedom. Now we feel proud of ourselves,” said Sukarmani Devi, 80, who was among the 12 women belonging to the…
SourceBHUBANESWAR, INDIA, June 23, 2004: Police were deployed in an Orissa village following communal tension after two men allegedly threw eggs at the idol of Lord Jagannath. The two youths allegedly threw the eggs at a religious procession carrying an icon of Lord Jagannath rolling down a street in Kosamuguda village in Nabrangpur district, 510 km from here, last week.…
SourceSYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, June 27, 2004: Dr. A. Balasubramaniam (“source” above), chairman of the Hindu Council of Australia, wrote protesting an article in “The Diplomat,” an Australian magazine: “We wish to place on record our extreme displeasure at what seems to us as a caricature of a Hindu deity in your magazine (June- July 2004), an illustration for your article on…
SourceKATHMANDU, NEPAL, June 24, 2004: The temple of Lord Pashupatinath here, one of the holiest Hindu shrines, is also a haven for the dying. If you die there, according to popular Hindu belief, you are freed from the cycle of rebirth and pain. The Pashupati Arya Ghat Sewa Kendra is a three-storey building housing the very old and the terminally…
SourceSIEM REAP, CAMBODIA, June 8, 2004: Up until recently archaeologists were focused on studying the carvings on the stone walls of Angkor City’s temples that depict Hindu mythologies. The articles elaborates, “Angkor City, the capital of several Hindu kings who ruled over large swaths of Southeast Asia, flourished from the 9th to the 14th centuries, leaving a legacy of architectural…
SourceVALPARAISO, ILLINOIS, June 21, 2004: On a winter day in 1894, a train dropped off a lone Hindu monk in Valparaiso, not far from Chicago. It was Swami Vivekananda and he gave a talk to the largest audience ever at the Memorial Opera House. Local physician Arjun Gupta hopes to celebrate Swami’s talk at the opera house, 104 Indiana Avenue,…
SourceLONDON, ENGLAND, June 22, 2004: This rather cynical report from the BBC starts off, “Outsourcing gets religion in India. A Hindu puja: Now just a click away. Is nothing sacred? The hard-nosed commercialism that has spawned a boom in international business outsourcing is catching on in the religious world. In the West, there is a growing shortage of holy men…
SourceBHUBANESWAR, INDIA, June 19, 2004: For the second consecutive year, there were no elephants at the famous car festival of Lord Jagannath held June 19. As per tradition, an elephant is used to lead the procession of the Puri king, when he comes for ‘chherapanhara’ (the ritual sweeping of the chariot floor) on the ‘Ratha Yatra’ day. Getting an elephant…
SourceBHUBANESWAR, INDIA, June 19, 2004: Dasi Nayak is the King of Koraput, though for only one day in a year. He is a tribal chief of Rangabali Kumbha village near Koraput. He will be performing the ritualistic sweeping of the chariot of the three deities this year. Tribals have been given their due importance in the car festival at Koraput,…