Posted on 01/30/2006 8:33:22 AM PST by liberallarry
Malaysia's ethnic Hindus have unveiled what is being described as the world's tallest statue of the deity Lord Muruga outside a limestone cave shrine near the country's largest city.
An estimated 100,000 ethnic Indian Hindus watched as a helicopter showered flowers over the gold-painted, 42.7-metre statue late on Sunday at the foot of a hill outcrop that houses the Batu Caves, just outside Kuala Lumpur.
Samy Vellu, the works minister and Malaysia's highest-ranking ethnic Indian politician, conducted the official unveiling of the statue at the base of a 272-step stairway leading to the Sri Subamaniar Swamy Temple, located inside one of the hill's sprawling caverns.
Indian Hindus, who make up about 7% of Malaysia's 26 million people, regard Lord Muruga as a manifestation of valour, beauty, youthfulness, vitality, masculinity and happiness.
R Nadarajah, the temple chairman, said: "This is the tallest statue of a Hindu deity in Malaysia.
"It's also the tallest Lord Muruga statue in the world. We are trying to get it reported in the Guinness Book of World Records."
Nadarajah said 15 sculptors from India and 15 other general workers took more than three years to build the statue at a cost of more than US$550,000.
"All in all, 1,550 cubic metres of concrete, 350 tonnes of steel bars and 300 litres of paint were used," he said.
The unveiling came two weeks before the annual Hindu festival of Thaipusam, when up to a million people visit the temple to pay homage to Lord Muruga and make penitence.
Devotees pierce the skin on their backs and chests with scores of hooks, or drive skewers through their cheeks and tongues before climbing to the temple.
Malaysia's majority, about 60% of the population, comprises ethnic Malay Muslims.
There is also a large ethnic Chinese minority who are mainly Buddhists and Christians
Ya and for most of recorded history, people "believed" the world was flat. It was never flat. God "is" and no other beliefs are going to alter that.
Yes, that is a statue of a man (Jesus) that lived as recorded by hundreds of thousands of eye-witness accounts. Not some imitation of a golden calf wanabe.
Look, I don't disrespect other faiths. I believe there is plenty of room in "God's" mansion for all of us. I just don't believe God is pleased by worshiping a golden statue. I didn't say He was going to destroy them all.
Second, it turns out that I was being obervant, not creative.
Third, you sound suspiciously like the Muslims in their criticism of Danish cartoonists.
OK. From my perspective, however, the Roman Catholic Church was, and is, the largest denomination of Christianity. As a non-Christian, I really don't make much of doctrinal differences among the many, many denominations of Christianity.
Mortification of the flesh is uncommon today in the RCC, although it is not unknown among some monastic orders. Is it non-Biblical? I think a case could be made on both sides, but it's certainly not a major tenet of any denomination of Christianity, and is discouraged by today's RCC.
I do not decide whether someone is a "true" Christian. For me, it is enough that they say they are a Christian, just as it is enough for a Hindu to claim Hinduism. I leave the fine distinctions to the various denominations to argue over.
...King Kong said, "I'd like to thank the members of the Academy...."
Quite the contrary. I have heard of the Passion Play and of the various levels on which it is performed. My comment on the contradiction was based on the celebration of "a manifestation of valour, beauty, youthfulness, vitality, masculinity and happiness" by sticking hooks in one's back.
The passion play is at least a recognition of the suffering of Christ and an imitation of that suffering as a means of walking in His path.
I'm not sure if Lord Maruga is said to have suffered in such a way, but if anyone can enlighten me, I will gladly withdraw my "contradiction" statement.
Ha! That was a good one!
My thought exactly: perfect target for the newly reconstituted Taliban. Remember how they rose to international recognition only 5 0r 6 years ago when the first time we heard the word "taliban", it was attached to this lunatic act of shelling enormous Buddhist statues.
"Ya and for most of recorded history, people "believed" the world was flat. It was never flat. God "is" and no other beliefs are going to alter that."
And why should you believe otherwise? I'm not trying to convert you to Hinduism, for pete's sake. The folks who are Hindus believe that their religion is the true one, just as you do about yours. That is my only point in this. Their belief is to be respected, just as yours is. One need not believe in a particular religion to respect those who believe in another one.
What do you mean by respected?
Once a year a festival is held at the caves (which, by the way, is banned in India) in which many of the Hindus pierce their skin with fish hooks tied to weights either to show devotion or to ask for forgiveness for a sin committed during the past year. They march from the main Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur to the cave where they say a prayer asking for forgiveness or expressing devotion. Then they throw off the hooks and weights, symbolic of losing the heavy weight of their sins.
This is indeed a rite of penitence and quest for forgiveness of sins.
(Inserting fish hooks as I type.)
Lol!
4th, your paranoi needs change in your prescription.
"Their belief is to be respected, just as yours is.
What do you mean by respected?"
I think it looks like a huge bug gone bad! That thing would give me nightmares!
"Interesting comments from a "godless athiest"---
---just what I was going to say. And then I was going
to ask "is it not a contradiction then that you want us to worship you?" to rephrase a line from a cartoonist friend of mine's book.
"---just what I was going to say. And then I was going
to ask "is it not a contradiction then that you want us to worship you?" to rephrase a line from a cartoonist friend of mine's book.
"
Why on earth would you want to worship a 60-year-old, gray-haired guy with arthritis in his knees?
"Now there is a statue of someone to believe in...
hindi, islam, buddha are all pagan and therefore intrinsically false."
Yes, that is your belief. 2/3 of the world's population believes otherwise. You're welcome to your belief. They are also welcome to theirs. All religions are equal, under our Constitution.
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