US Museum Won’t Give Cambodian Statue Back

Source CAMBODIA, May 15, 2014 (by Laignee Barron, Phnom Penh Post): Buoyed by a series of recent antiquity return agreements, Cambodia hoped it would soon restore the full panoply of statues looted from a 10th-century temple north of Angkor Wat. But an Ohio art museum announced yesterday that a sculpture it houses will not be making the return trip just…

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Daily Inspiration

Source Life should be dynamic, full of movement, flowing endlessly like the mighty Ganges. Life’s movement should be channelled in the right direction. Life becomes a burden for many people because it has lost its dynamism. For them life is not like a flowing river. It is a static, turbid puddle.Understand that action gives movement to life, knowledge gives it…

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India Unveiled: Spirit, Tradition, People

Source CHICAGO, USA, May 15, 2014 (by Tim Sommers): India Unveiled’s author Robert Arnett and Editor, Smita Turakhia have done it again. The sixth edition of the beautifully produced, multi-award winning coffee table book will be released by Publisher Atman Press on May 22, 2014. The new volume contains 308 pages and 307 photographs reproduced on acid-free archival paper. With…

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Temple Consecration within Precinct of Mauritius Prison

Source MAURITIUS, February 21, 2014( Le Mauricien): A Tamil-style Hindu temple was consecrated in the precinct of the new high-security Melrose Prison in the presence of representatives from religious bodies of surrounding villages, members of non-governmental organizations as well as executives of the prison. The new prison now has four places of worship, two of them Hindu, for prisoners. The…

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The Real Significance of Mahendraparvata

Source CAMBODIA, November 28, 2013 (The Diplomat by Damian Evans): In June of this year, along with sixteen of my colleagues, I published an academic paper on the use of airborne laser scanning (“lidar”) for archaeology that made front-page news across the world [see above article]. In it, we described how we had used lidar technology to uncover and map…

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Lost Horizons: Mediaeval City Uncovered in Cambodia

Source CAMBODIA, June 15, 2014 (Sydney Morning Herald): Archaeologists using revolutionary airborne laser technology have discovered a lost mediaeval city that thrived on a mist-shrouded Cambodian mountain 1200 years ago. The stunning discovery of the city, Mahendraparvata, includes temples hidden by jungle for centuries – temples that archaeologists believe have never been looted. Mahendraparvata existed 350 years before Angkor Wat,…

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Daily Inspiration

Source You may turn your bones to fuel, your flesh to meat, letting them roast and sizzle in the gold-red blaze of severe austerities. But unless your heart melts in love’s sweet ecstacy, you never can possess my Lord Siva, my treasure-trove. — Tirumantiram Verse 272

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Vivekananda Peace Concert

Source SOUTH AFRICA, September 14, 2014 (WordPress): The Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa hosted the “Swami Vivekananda Peace Concert”, which was performed by the Kwa-Zulu Natal Philharmonic Orchestra on Saturday, 14 September 2013 at the Durban City Hall.The 65-piece orchestra performed numerous pieces, including songs on and by Swami Vivekananda viz., Murta Maheshwara, Khandana Bhava Bandana. The audience responded with…

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Indian Railway Starts Pilgrim Train from Chennai to Nepal

Source KOLKATA, INDIA, May 5, 2014 (Times Of India): After offering tour packages to popular destinations like Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has launched a tourist train from Chennai to Nepal, primarily aimed at pilgrims from south India. Those opting for this tour will be taken around Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage destinations in north…

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