News

www.timesonline.co.uk BEIJING, CHINA, August 4, 2007: Tibet’s living Buddhas have been banned from reincarnation without permission from China’s atheist leaders. The ban is included in new rules intended to assert Beijing’s authority over Tibet’s restive and deeply Buddhist people. “The so-called reincarnated living Buddha without government approval is illegal and invalid,” according to the order, which comes into effect on…

www.hindu.com HYDERABAD, INDIA, August 5, 2007: The Khairatabad Ganesha this year is all set to blaze a new trail going in for an eco-friendly makeover. The district administration that has been campaigning for a shift to eco-friendly natural dyes for the Murthis, hopes that more Murthi makers and festival organizers would follow suit. “We have yielded to the Government’s request…

www.news-medical.net STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA, August 7, 2007: A study with pre-school children has revealed just how potent and effective the power of advertising is. In what many parents will find very depressing news, new research has revealed that as far as tots are concerned food wrapped in McDonald’s packaging tastes up to six times better than the same food in…

hindustantimes.com NEW DELHI, INDIA, August 5, 2007: Dr. Satwant K. Pasricha, a NIMHANS Professor of Clinical Psychology and a leading national authority on reincarnations, has been using rigorous scientific methods to investigate reincarnation claims since 1974. Here are excerpts from an interview with Neha Tara Mehta: “It is important to first understand what we mean by reincarnation. For the purpose…

www.jahajeedesi.com WATERLOO, TRINIDAD, August 5, 2007: (HPI note: Following are several stories on the attack by Christians upon Trinidad’s most famous temple.) Members of the Siewdass Sadhu Shiva Mandir are calling for security measures to be set up on the temple’s compound after it was broken into and vandalized over the weekend. Pamela Gokool, secretary of the mandir’s committee, also…

By Paras Ramoutar TRINIDAD, August 7, 2007: The life-size murtis of Lord Krishna, Lord Ganesh, Lord Hanuman and Mother Durga were victims of sacrilege by unknown men who hustled to destroy the murtis and other religious items on late Friday night at the Temple-By-The- Sea, Waterloo, Central Trinidad, some 40 kms from the capital city. Police report that, “a black…

Dr. Kumar Mahabir TRINIDAD, August 7, 2007: The temple in the sea is located in Waterloo, Carapichaima, in central Trinidad. It was built by an ex-indentured immigrant laborer named Sewdass Sadhu. He was born in the holy city of Benares on the Ganges River in India in 1903 and travelled with his parents to Trinidad in 1907 at the tender…

www.time.com USA, August 4, 2007: (HPI note: Time magazine’s European and Asian editions are carrying a seven-article series on India, here. The most interesting is the following by William Dalrymple, a historical economist.) The idea that India is a poor country is a relatively recent one. Historically, South Asia was always famous as the richest region of the globe. Ever…

www.templeganesh.fr PARIS, FRANCE, August 4, 2007: The Ganesha Temple, Sri Manicka Vinayakar Alayam, located here will conduct its 12th annual chariot festival on September 2, 2007. Their website reads, “It is expected to attract well over ten thousand devotees from all over Europe. Suffron water will be sprayed before the Chariot right through the whole journey with devotees accompanying the…

en.wikipedia.org KAUAI, HAWAII, August 4, 2007: (HPI note: a reader asked about the relative fate of Muslims in post-partition India compared to Hindus in Bangladesh, where the percentage of Hindus fell from 37% at Independence to 11% now. This is from the Wikipedia article, “Muslim Population Growth in India.”) South Asia has three large nation states that constituted the former…