Source: Star TV, December 10, 2000 KANPUR, INDIA: Mrs. Asha Rani Rai of Vidya Mandir Women’s College, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, has started training girls as purohits, Hindu priests, based on the curriculum of University Grant Commission [UGC]’s Sanskrit course. Everyday for seven hours these would-be female pundits learn about Vedic rituals. In an interview to Star, Asha Rani Rai said…
GO TO SOURCE CHENNAI, INDIA, December 8, 2000: Normal activity in more than 36,000 temples in Tamil Nadu, India’s southern-most state, was interrupted as temple employees went on a day’s stay-in strike in support of their 15-point charter of demands. They are asking for pay parity with other temple staff, pension and other benefits. According to official sources, the strike…
GO TO SOURCE NEW YORK, NEW YORK: Imagine travelling thousands of miles away from home to marry a man in a country where the language and culture are foreign, only to find out that your husband, supported by your in-laws, is a wife-beater. Isolated and terrified, many of these Asian women from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are battered, beaten…
Source: Frontier Post, December 4,2000 LAHORE, PAKISTAN: The government of Punjab, Pakistan’s second largest state, joined other countries in eliminating hitting of children in school. The Frontier Post states,”Directives have been issued to all private and public sector educational institutes strictly banning teachers from awarding corporal punishment to students.” If non-compliance persists, disciplinary action will be brought against the teachers…
GO TO SOURCE USA: Time Magazine has named a black Pentecostal megachurch leader in Dallas and the founder of the Internet’s hottest religion-based Web site among its six “innovators” in the world of religion and spirituality. Cable network CNN is preparing a televised companion to the 18-month series, which Time launched in June. Spiritual leaders cited by the magazine and…
GO TO SOURCE SUGAR LAND, TEXAS: Houston is home to over 100,000 Vietnamese immigrants. The city’s Vietnamese population is second only in size to that of Los Angeles. Helping to unify the large immigrant population is the Vietnam Buddhist Center located on 10 acres in suburban Houston. Along with an 8,000-square-foot temple containing a 35-foot-high Buddha, the property houses a…
GO TO SOURCE JAMNAGAR, INDIA: The second international seminar on ayurveda is being held in Jamnagar, India from January 5-7, 2001. This will coincide with the Gujarat Ayurved University’s 35th Foundation Day. Taking a leading role in ayurvedic medicine, the university has advocated that a “Memorandum of Understanding” to create uniform standards for ayurvedic practice and medicines be signed between…
Source: Sunday Times, London CAMBODIA, VIETNAM: In the jungle of Cambodia, at the site of Phnom Kulen, 20 miles from the temple complex at Angkor Wat, a priceless devotional work of art, the “River of a Thousand Lingas,” has been discovered. Carved in the rock of a riverbed, the Siva Lingas blessed the water flowing over them from the mountain…
Source: Express & Star News Paper, November 30, 2000 SMETHWICK, ENGLAND: Vandals have smashed down the walls of a US$1.6 million temple and community centre being built in Smethwick, causing damage put at $16,000. Community leaders have condemned the “misguided, weak minded” thugs and say they are very much hurt by the attack on the Durga Bhawan site in Spon…
GO TO SOURCE BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND, October 26, 2000: Epics are everywhere. Theatre critic Micheal Billington was captivated by a new version of the legendary Sanskrit saga, the “Ramayana,” adapted by Peter Oswald and produced by Indhu Rubasingham, hailing it “witty and inventive” delighting the large, multiracial audience. He wrote, “What struck me was its blend of the spiritual and the…