News Reports CHENNAI, INDIA, January 16, 2007: It all started in November of 2002 when a high-level committee orchestrated by retired school education director Muthukrishnan was asked to review Tamil Nadu Education rules and make recommendations for change. This committee fulfilled its obligations in a report to the government in 2003. However, it was not until recently that the government…
info@hindusangam.org.my KAULA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, January 31, 2007: (HPI note: Hinduism Today has a team covering Thaipusam which is now in progress, not only across Malaysia, but where ever South Indians have settled. As we type this, Rajiv Malik, our Delhi correspondent sent to Malaysia to cover the event, just called our offices to report that he had seen off the…
www.bernama.com.my KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, January 30, 2007: The Thaipusam Festival this year is expected to be bigger as it falls on the same day with the Federal Territories Day and Visit Malaysia Year 2007. The crowd is expected to reach 1.5 million people including increasing number of foreign tourists to the annual gathering of Malaysian Hindus at the Sri Subramaniyar…
www.nst.com.my KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, January 29, 2007: It will be the biggest Thaipusam celebration yet with some 1.5 million devotees and tourists expected in Batu Caves on Thursday. Sri Maha Mariamman Temple Dhevasthanam chairman R. Nadarajah said more visitors were expected this time around due to Visit Malaysia Year. “We usually get about one million people on Thaipusam day but…
thestar.com.my PENANG, MALAYSIA, January 29, 2007: A special ceremony to signify the actual meaning of Thaipusam will be held for the first time here in conjunction with the festival. Penang Hindu Endowment Board commissioner P.K. Subbaiyah, who is also State Health committee chairman, said the ceremony would begin at the Maha Mariamman Temple in Queen Street at 5.30pm tomorrow. The…
Malaysia Hindu Sangam KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, January 31, 2007: HH Swami Guhabakthananda Saraswathy Maharaj, President of Divine Life Society Malaysia said recently at the opening ceremony of the Bandar Botanic Hindu Residents Association, Klang that such associations can serve the community by providing religious knowledge to people of all age groups. Temples should also focus on community development. He said…
www.signonsandiego.com BRUSSELS, January 29, 2007: (HPI note: None of the articles we found on this announcement by Germany mentioned the vociferous protests of Hindus and Jains, for whom the swastika is a sacred symbol of good fortune.) Germany will not push during its presidency of the European Union for an EU-wide ban on the swastika and will leave the decision…
www.mysanantonio.com SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, January 29, 2007: After a 16-year wait, San Antonio’s Hindu temple finally has received its crowning touch, a raja gopuram –literally, a “kingly pagoda” — that identifies the building with its roots in South India. The gopuram, a 42-foot-high entrance tower built by Indian artisans with statues of 52 Hindu Deities sculpted in concrete on site…
HPI KAUAI, HAWAII, January 29, 2007: We are asked at HPI from time to time to recommend a “Hindu” school where someone may send their child to be educated in a Hindu environment, just as a Catholic parent might send a child to Catholic school. It’s a question we can’t answer, and would appreciate our readers letting us know of…
news.bbc.co.uk BIHAR, INDIA, January 27, 2007: Sherab Gyalsten has already been on the road for one year and eight months. He doesn’t run or walk. Instead, the Buddhist monk from Tibet takes three and a half steps forward, then prostrates flat on the road while chanting mantras. Then he gets up, folds his hands in prayer and repeats the process.…