HYDERABAD, INDIA, August 11, 2022 (Deccan Chronicle): With 20 days left until the Ganesha festival, sculptors are preoccupied making the first-ever clay statue of Khairatabad Ganesha (which is built each year for the festival). The statue, in the form of Sri Panchamukha Maha Laxmi Ganapati, weighing 45 tons, will be 50 feet tall when completed. The statue on the left…
IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, June 30, 2022 (India West, by Geeta Sikand): Recently, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Report has falsely attacked India for curbing the religious freedom of its minorities. It has recommended placing India on the blacklist as a “Country of Particular Concern,” a practice that began in 2020. Ajay Shah, President of the US-based Hindu Policy…
DUBAI, August 9, 2022 (Hindustan Times): The first images of Dubai’s grand Hindu temple are out. It will be open to the public on October 5 on the occasion of Dussehra festival. The temple will have 16 Deities including from South India and a separate section for Guru Granth Sahib. White marble and hand carved pillars are being used to…
LIVERMORE, CALIFORNIA, August 9, 2020 (India Currents): Over 250 volunteers, 32 priests, three shilpis, two musicians and one sthapathi came together to celebrate the third Maha Kumbhabhishekam at the Shiva-Vishnu temple here. The festivities began July 6 and concluded July 10. It took two years of planning to pull this event together. But, as most of 2020 was wiped out…
NEW YORK, U.S., August 9, 2020 (Huff Post): Cambodia’s ambassador to the United States said Monday that the transfer of 30 antiquities by U.S. law enforcement authorities to his country was a return of the “souls of our culture.” Ambassador Keo Chhea spoke at a ceremony where a 10th century sculpture, Skanda on a Peacock, was among several works of…
LONDON, August 10, 2022 (BBC): The word mantra is derived from two Sanskrit words – ‘man’ meaning mind, and ‘tra’ meaning tool. Mantra meditation is used to protect practitioners from a constant onslaught of unhealthy and repetitive thoughts. But is there any science behind their effectiveness? In this film we explore why our modern mindset may be leaving many of…
INDIA, August 8, 2022 (Indian Express): As the new campus of Nalanda University prepares for a formal inauguration, the focus is on how best it can retain the cultural and architectural ethos of Nalanda Mahavihara, the 5th-12th Century AD university that is considered to be one of the greatest centers of learning in ancient India. Nalanda University (NU) Vice Chancellor…
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND, August 8, 2022 (Media Release): New Zealand’s first ever DharmaFest, with the theme Vibhinnatāyām Ekatvam – Unity in Diversity, was launched at the Mahatma Gandhi Centre in Auckland by Hindu Youth New Zealand (HYNZ) on Sunday, 7th August 2022. The event started at 10.00am with the traditional welcoming of spiritual representatives from various Dharma groups followed by…
AUSTRALIA, August 5, 2022 (Hindu Council): Hindu Council of Australia (HCA) in collaboration and partnership with Hindu Community Institute (HCI) has commenced a pilot to bring in this unique spiritual care program called Counselor of Hindu Traditions. We called this first batch of scholars as a pilot program to learn, build a team and understand how to modify this to…
INDIA, August 3, 2022 (National Geographic): The end of British colonial rule birthed two sovereign nations—but hastily drawn borders caused simmering tensions to boil over. 75 years later, memories of Partition still haunt survivors. Wiithin hours, the long-awaited transition of power—and the partition of India into two nations, majority-Hindu India and majority-Muslim Pakistan—had become a nightmare as simmering secular tensions,…