Quote:I have previously commented on the similarities of Hinduism and Mormonism (here). In light of their many unexpected similarities, it is especially interesting to note that Mormons are actually helping spread Hinduism, in UTAH!!!



The story is almost too weird to believe. Individual Mormons not only cooperated and assisted the planning and building phase, their church actually donated money to help construct a Hindu Krishna temple. This is so perverse, it almost defies description.



The Mormon desire to be acceptible and politically correct is legendary, I can only chaulk it up to that. This seems to be a great example of people whose primary religion is Multiculturalism.





"Perched on a hill just south of downtown Spanish Fork [a few minutes south of Provo] stands the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple. Completed in 2001, the Krishna Indian Hindu Temple certainly stands out among the surrounding rural fields... The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has supported the temple since its inception. In fact, the church gave $25,000 to help build it... The temple has seen around 5,000 volunteers in the last 10 years to help construct and maintain the building. Many of these volunteer opportunities have LDS ties, whether it be through a ward, Boy Scouts, BYU or another LDS-affiliated group."

Quote:Korea's first lady Kim Yoon-ok is a descendant of one of India's royal families dating back two thousand years, according to the presidential office Monday.



The presidential couple arrived Sunday in New Delhi for a four-day state visit. It is the first visit to India by a Korean president since 2004.



The office said Kim is a descendant of Heo Hwang-ok, a princess who travelled from an ancient kingdom in Ayodhya, India, to Korea.



Heo arrived on a boat and married King Suro of Korea's Gaya Kingdom in A.D. 48, according to Samguk Yusa, an 11th-century collection of legends and stories.



The chronicle says Princess Heo had a dream about a handsome king from a far away land.



After the dream, Heo asked her royal parents for permission to set out on an adventure to find the man of her fate.



The ancient book indicates that she sailed to the Korean Peninsula, carrying a stone, with which she claimed to have calmed the waters.



Archeologists discovered a stone with two fish kissing each other in Korea, which is a unique cultural heritage linked to a royal family in Ayodhya.



The stone is evidence that there were active commercial exchanges between the two sides after the princess's arrival here.



The princess is said to have given birth to 10 children, which marked the beginning of the powerful dynasty of Gimhae Kims.



Members of both the Heo and Gimhae Kim lineages consider themselves descendants of Heo Hwang-ok and King Suro. Two of the couple's 10 sons chose the mother's name. The Heo clans trace their origins to them, and regard Heo as the founder of their lines. The Gimhae Kims trace their origin to the eight other sons.



An analysis of DNA samples taken from the site of two royal Gaya tombs in 2004 in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, confirms that there is a genetic link between the Korean ethnic group and certain ethnic groups in India.



Over the past decades, there have been efforts to shed new light on the historical links between Korea and India. In 2000, a Gaya clan raised money to send a large memorial tablet to India and establish a park in Ayodhya.

Quote:First Lady Kim Yoon-ok

Personal Data



Date of Birth March 26, 1947

Permanent Address Jinju, Gyeongsangnam-do (province)

Religion Protestant

Hobbies Tennis, swimming

Date of Marriage December 19, 1970

Children 1 son and 3 daughters

[...]

Quote:Tuesday, January 26, 2010

the koreans are coming, armed with bibles. lock up your daughters!

jan 26th, 2010



RajeevSrinivasa

economist: hallyu or hallelujah? south korean 'soft power' quite likely to be followed by church evangelism.

http://bit.ly/cQnlMh



Posted by nizhal yoddha at 1/26/2010 10:18:00 AM 5 comments Links to this post

Quote:Siwaratri (Purgatory a la Balinese)



Today, Wraspati Paing Perangbakat , Balinese celebrates Siwaratri, here is the interesting article on last year edition:



Tonight, on the seventh month’s fourteenth day of waxing moon, Balinese will celebrate the Siwaratri or the Night of Siwa. This holy day is devoted to God Siwa, the destroyer. Balinese believes that on this day, God Siwa, the destroyer meditate for the welfare of the world, and the God Siwa will bestow a pardon for all sin to someone if he accompany the God Siwa in his meditation by observing some self restriction and meditate on the night of Siwaratri.



The Brata (self-restriction) of Siwaratri includes Jagra (staying awake all night long), Upawasa (fasting), and Monabrata (silence). There are three major level of self- restriction, Balinese can choose a level of self-restriction according to his capability. The Kakawin (old poetry prayer) of Siwaratrikalpa explains the three major level of self- restriction that should take place on the Siwaratri night as follow Utama (top self-restriction) includes Brata (self-restriction) like Monabrata (silence), Upawasa (fasting) and Jagra (staying awake all night long). Madya (middle self-restriction) includes Upawasa (fasting) and Jagra (staying awake all night long). Nista (lowest self-restriction) includes only Jagra (staying awake all night long). The Brata (self-restriction) is held over a period of 36 hours, starting with the sunrise on January 24 until the sunset of ‘Tilem Kepitu’ on January 25, 2009.



The celebration of Siwaratri, night of Siwa will light up the night all over Bali. On this night, temples will be full of the congregations. They stay awake all night long, recite prayer or old religious story, chat with friend (for those who takes a lesser self- restriction) and fight the sleepy eyes as hard as possible. The students will celebrate the Siwaratri, night of Siwa in their respective school, they gather in the school temple under the supervision of their teacher, recites prayer, read the holy book, or simply chat with other student.



After succeeding in fighting the sleepy eyes all night long, Balinese will flock to the beach to take a purification ceremony simply by praying on the beach and taking a quick bath in the chill seawater. After completing the ceremony Balinese must not sleep, he has to go to work as usual. Taking a sleep in the morning or a nap will destroy all the Brata (self-restriction) that have been observe on the day before.



http://blog.baliwww.com/miscellaneous/540

Quote:Yogyakarta Journal: Under Indonesia’s Surface, an Intricate Quilt of Faiths

Image caption: Buddhist monks inspected a ninth-century Hindu temple recently unearthed at the Islamic University of Indonesia in Yogyakarta.



[color="#0000FF"]By NORIMITSU ONISHI[/color]

Published: February 17, 2010



YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — As if on cue, the two Buddhist monks in saffron robes appeared one late afternoon recently, seemingly out of nowhere, to complete the picture of Indonesia’s religious past and present.





Image caption: Archaeologists found a statue of Ganesha, a Hindu deity, during their excavations on the campus of the Islamic University.

[color="#800080"](Traditional Hindu Vigraham of Ganapathi: includes his "sacred thread" around the torso.)[/color]



Three major religions intermixed in Yogyakarta and Java.



The visitors stood at the edge of a large fenced-off pit where a ninth-century Hindu temple had recently been unearthed here on the campus of the Islamic University of Indonesia. On the other side of the pit, where a mosque’s large dome rose in the backdrop, the muezzin would soon call the faithful to the sunset prayer.



The discovery of the nearly intact Hindu temple was a reminder of the long religious trajectory of the country that now has the world’s largest Muslim population. In few places on earth have three major religions intermixed with such intensity and proximity as in Indonesia’s island of Java. If the sultan of Yogyakarta’s palace lies at the heart of this city, Java’s spiritual center, the world’s largest Buddhist monument, Borobudur, and one of its largest Hindu temples, Prambanan, stand in its outskirts.



About 90 percent of Indonesians are now Muslim, with only pockets of Buddhists and Hindus left. But Hinduism and Buddhism, Java’s dominant religions for a much longer period, permeate the society and contribute to Indonesia’s traditionally moderate form of Islam.



For more than a decade, proponents of a more orthodox version of Islam have gained ground in Indonesia. More women are wearing head scarves and more Indonesians are adopting Arabic-style religious rituals as fundamentalists press for a purge of pre-Islamic values and ceremonies. But Indonesia’s traditional Islam provides a counterpoint.



“This is Indonesia,” said Suwarsono Muhammad, an official at the Islamic University. “In the long history of Indonesia, we have proven that different religions can live peacefully.”



In that spirit, Mr. Muhammad said, the university planned to showcase the Hindu temple prominently in front of a library to be built around it, in the shape of a half-circle.

[color="#800080"](Sounds like there's not going to be any breathing room for the Temple, but rather that it gets eclipsed by the Library crescent.)[/color]



It all began last August when the private university decided to build the library, “the symbol of knowledge of our religion,” <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> next to the mosque, Mr. Muhammad said. [color="#0000FF"]In the two decades the university had occupied its 79-acre campus outside Yogyakarta, no temple had ever been found. But chances were high that they were around. Most of the nearby villages had the same prefix in their names: candi, meaning temple.[/color]



By Dec. 11, a construction crew had already removed nearly seven feet of earth. But the soil proved unstable, and the crew decided to dig 20 inches deeper. A backhoe then struck something unusually hard.



The crack the backhoe left on the temple wall would become the main sign of damage on what experts say could be the best-preserved ancient monument found in Java.



Researchers from the government’s Archaeological Office in Yogyakarta headed to the campus the next day, excavated for 35 days and eventually unearthed [size="6"]two 1,100-year-old small temples.[/size] In the main temple, 20 feet by 20 feet, a perfectly preserved statue of [color="#FF0000"]Ganesha[/color], the elephant-headed deity, sat next to a [color="#FF0000"]linga[/color], the symbol of worship for the god [color="#FF0000"]Shiva[/color], and a [color="#FF0000"]yoni[/color], the symbol of worship for the goddess [color="#FF0000"]Shakti[/color].



In the adjacent secondary temple, about 20 feet by 13 feet, researchers exhumed [color="#FF0000"]another linga and yoni[/color], as well as two altars and [color="#FF0000"]a statue of Nandi[/color], the sacred bull that carried Shiva.



“The temples are not so big, but they have features that we haven’t found in Indonesia before,” Herni Pramastuti, who runs the Archaeological Office, said, pointing to the rectangle-shaped temple, the existence of two sets of linga and yoni, and the presence of two altars.



Researchers surmised that the temples were preserved in pristine condition because they were buried in a volcanic eruption a century after they were built. The lava from Mount Merapi, about 7.5 miles to the north, is believed to have filled a nearby river before flowing over the temples, minimizing damage.



Indung Panca Putra, a researcher at the Archaeological Office, said the temples’ walls and statues contained refined details not found in the dozen small Hindu and Buddhist temples discovered in this area.



Officials moved the most valuable artifact, the statue of Ganesha, to the Archaeological Office. For further protection against thieves, workers erected a fence on the campus, and guards limited access inside.



The two Buddhist monks, though, had had no trouble getting inside. They had traveled from their monastery, about an hour away by car, to visit.



“These are our ancestors, so we have a sense of belonging,” said one monk, Dhammiko.



Historians believe that Hinduism spread in Java in the fifth century, followed three centuries later by Buddhism. Kingdoms hewing to both Hindu and Buddhist beliefs flourished in Java before they were eclipsed by Islam in the 15th century.



But Islam itself incorporated beliefs and ceremonies from the other two religions. Just as some unearthed temples in east Java have a Hindu upper half and a Buddhist lower half, some early mosques had roofs in the shape of Hindu temples, said Timbul Haryono, a professor of archaeology at Gadjah Mada University here and an expert on Hinduism in Southeast Asia. Early mosques faced not in Mecca’s direction, but west or east in the manner of Hindu temples.

[color="#800080"](Always the case in SE Asia, e.g. Cambodia: the older strata were Hindu Temples. C.f. Shinto and Tao temples in E Asia.)[/color]



“Things didn’t change all of a sudden,” Mr. Haryono said. “Islam was adopted through a process of acculturation.”



In Indonesia’s arts, like the wayang shadow puppetry that dramatizes Hindu epics, or in people’s private lives, traces of the earlier religions survive, he said. Food, flowers and incense still accompany many funerals for Muslims, in keeping with Hindu and Buddhist traditions.



“Hinduism was Indonesia’s main religion for 1,000 years,” he said, “so its influence is still strong.”



A version of this article appeared in print on February 18, 2010, on page A7 of the New York edition.

Quote:As we exclaimed over ultrasound images and Buddha-belly photos, we tried to guess what the baby would look like. With my stepson's fiery red hair and his wife's delicate Indonesian features, it was hard to imagine.

Quote:When I look at the baby, all I see is ... baby. Born two days before we got the DNA results and called Axel Aditya -- the first chosen from a book of baby names while his parents lounged on a Kauai beach, the second a Hindu name that means "of the sun" -- he's a beautiful blend of all his ancestors, East and West.

Quote:(Indonesia) Discovery of ancient Hindu temple that was demolished, built over by mosque and Islamic University

mar 3rd, 2010



---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Ravi





[color="#0000FF"]NY Times tries to put a Dhimmi spin on this recent Indonesian archaelogical discovery in Yogyakarta, while trying to whitewash the fact that:



1) This was indeed an ancient Hindu temple that was hastily demolished by Muslims and built over by a mosque, that was eventually "expanded" into an Islamic University over time.



2) This NYT line is misleading ("Early mosques faced not in Mecca's direction, but west or east in the manner of Hindu temples") because these "mosques" were actually Hindu temples that were "commandeered" and turned into mosques quickly and conveniently by defacing the artistic carvings and throwing out any images and icons.



3) Another untruthful line by NYT: "Three major religions intermixed in Yogyakarta and Java" should actually read more like "Islam wiped out Hinduism and Buddhism in Yogyakarta and Java".[/color]

Quote:Incognito said...



[color="#0000FF"]Just as disease in any part of the body affects the whole person, cancers like islam, christianity, capitalism and communism in any part of Earth affects the whole Earth and all living beings in it.



This is the lesson of the past.



These adharmic elements must be removed entirely for Earth and humanity to return to health.[/color]



namaste



3/03/2010 5:07 PM

Quote:DURNTEN, SWITZERLAND, February 24, 2010: The opening ceremony of the

new premises of the Sri Vishnu Thurkkai Amman Temple took place on

January 27th. The temple, formerly located in Adliswil, was moved 40

kilometers to a building located in pasture land at Edikerstrasse 24

in Durnten. More than 100 devotees attended the morning opening

ceremony.



Water from the creek nearby was used by the priests to bless the

shrines and the devotees. A neighboring farm brought a cow to

participate in the ritual. See the link above for a slide show of the

event.