Source: India Today KATRA, INDIA, June 20, 2001: Thousands of people are waiting for their turn at Katra from where the pilgrims assemble to begin their journey to the Vaishno Devi Shrine. This year, summer vacations are producing 40,000-60,000 pilgrims per day. The Shrine Board has the infrastructure to handle issuing passes to only 22 thousand people at a time.…
GO TO SOURCE WASHINGTON, D.C., June 18, 2001: Among the world’s 6,800 languages, half to 90 percent could be extinct by the end of the century. Half of all languages are spoken by fewer than 2,500 people each, according to the Worldwatch Institute, a private organization that monitors global trends. Languages need at least 100,000 speakers to pass from generation…
Source: The Pioneer NEW DELHI, INDIA, June 12, 2001: An unique gurukulam (priest school), Shri Hanuman Sanskrit Mahavidalaya, has been in operation in West Delhi since 1978. Attracting students from poor families who cannot afford food or education for their offspring, the institute is run by a branch of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. While teaching common subjects such as history…
Source: Sri Lanka Newspaper COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, June 5, 2001: In an attempt to meet the needs of 13.7 million Buddhists on the island, the government has advertised for monks. With only 39,000 monks, many of them aging, to serve the Buddhist congregation, an additional 1,000 candidates are needed in the Buddhist Clergy. However, only 671 aspirants responded, and the…
GO TO SOURCE COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, June 19, 2001: Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, blaming the island’s low population rate for a shortage of Buddhist monks and soldiers, has urged Sri Lankans to have more children. Offering special bonuses as incentives, he advised citizens to disregard slogans promoting small families. He blamed Sri Lanka’s slow population growth, held up as a…
GO TO SOURCE FOLKESTONE, UNITED KINGDOM, June 16, 2001: Recruited from the hill tribes in eastern and western Nepal, Gurkha soldiers serving in the British Army paid their respects to the King and Queen of Nepal last Saturday. Offering fresh picked flowers to five-foot-high portraits of the Royal couple, the Gurkhas had been shocked by the deaths. A Hindu priest…
GO TO SOURCE NEW YORK, NEW YORK, June 13, 2001: A UNICEF picture of an Indian mother with her twin children — a boy and a severely malnourished girl — has become a symbol of the plight of the girl child in India. The picture has been used to epitomize the discriminatory feeding practices in India at a briefing, “Saving…
GO TO SOURCE LIVINGSTON MANOR, NEW YORK, June 18, 2001: Major Buddhist centers have spread throughout the wooded hills and valleys of the Catskills. Academics and others say the Buddhist presence is steadily growing, both in the number of centers and in the increasing variety of their traditions. “The borscht belt has become the Buddhist belt,” said Melvin McCleod, the…
GO TO SOURCE BANGALORE, INDIA, JUNE 15, 2001: Now, at the click of a button, families can decide the budget for a marriage or get a wedding manager to take over the task of organizing their entire wedding. Promoted by Indian marketing guru Shunu Sen and one of India’s early woman entrepreneurs Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, shaadionline.com is introducing the concept…
GO TO SOURCE BRADFORD, ENGLAND, June 14, 2001: Allegations that Hindu families are being driven out of their homes by young Muslims have been disputed by local community leaders. Police have confirmed they are aware that tensions between some members of the two communities exist. A local Vishwa Hindu Parishad trustee, whose pharmacy was allegedly firebombed, believes that Muslims have…