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
I meant "worship" in the hyperbolic sense of honoring
one's opinions---I twisted my friend's line in the cartoon, which features a beanie-wearing alien zombie asking "Is it not a contradiction then that we worhip him?"
abouit some Alien Entity who is their planet's Grand Poobah. But frankly as far as "religion" goes, my money, or lack of it, has always been on Zen Buddhism, whose objective has always been one thing and one thing only,
MENTAL HEALTH.
More than a synthesis, it is actually not a religion in a strict sense, rather a collection of philosophies and ideas. Hence its extremely large variety in form, and also its self-contradictory nature (this isn't a feature of Hinduism alone, but of most other faiths). And the brunt of these ideas pre-date the South-West Asian monotheism.
You're right. Hinduism is more of a conglomeration. I suspect that some of its roots go even further back that any of us can imagine.
Whenever someone asks about the creation story of Hinduism, the best answer is: Which one?
"Not some imitation of a golden calf wanabe."
I hope my future son in law doesn't read that. He thinks many Christians are closed minded and mock other religions. You're feeding his argument.
He's a non-practicing christian but his mother is Indian and a practicing Hindu and my daughter used to bring him to our church but on the first day of his attendance a person such as yourself once made a comment about how India wouldn't be starving is if they were all Christians and ate beef. The ***** pardon my language didn't realize most Hindu's are vegetarians, meaning they don't eat any meat. Any biologist can tell you that meat eaters take up more resources than vegetarians and there would be massive food shortages if India were a prodominatly "carnivorous" country.
IF that was the only instance where the poor boy was confronted, I wouldn't think much of it. But many people have made ignorant remarks about them being an interracial couple (he himself is half German)and he no longer comes with us to our church. My daughter and him are currently looking for a more "ethnically diverse" church.
I attend a fairly large church and most of them are amazing human beings. However, a few of them are don't think before they speak. Don't be one of those people.
Read the poem on my home page. I hope you can stand Kipling's poetry.
Oh, how pleasant. It's sad how many people of all faiths use their religion to feel superior to others.
More like classical polytheism. The difference is, so far as I know anyway, is that there are no gods associated with city-states.
Actually, Hinduism has extensive written works, and one of the secrets of its survival for so long is the fact that those works are read and revered by many, and continues to inspire millions. This fact is not in sync with classical, Roman-esque, Greek or Arab polytheism.
Homer and Hesiod were the heart of a classical education, as you can gather by reading the Christian work, "The city of God," there was a comprehensive world view that Christianity had to contend against.
Yes, but Homer and Hesiod, and others, were never as popular in Greek/Roman society as Hindu epics were, and still is, in India. Besides. the Hindu body of literature will easily dwarf the Greek body.
And Indian philosophy spread far and wide, from India to East and SE Asia. And even to the Roman Empire itself, if you include Mithraism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism
It may owe more to Persia than to India.
Persian and Indian peoples and cultures are linked by history, and ethnicity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Aryans
They still do in places like the Philippines.
Fer criminy sakes. MineralMan said that under our constitution, all religions are equal. This can be interpreted as to mean that under our Constitution, all religions have "eqal" rights - the "same" rights to practice their religion. You are reading way too much into his comment and taking extreme liberties with your own interpretation of his comments, merely to win an argument. You look silly in the process and given your "argument," hypocritical to boot.
Not just in the Philippines.
 |
 Amida Buddha 396 Feet |
 SOL on Base 305 Feet |
 Mother Russia 270 Feet |
 Leshan Buddha 220 Feet |
 Bamiyan Buddha 175 Feet |
 Statue of Liberty 151 Feet |
 Wat Pho Buddha 151 Feet Long |
 Colossus Rhodes 110 Feet |
 Cosmo Messiah 107 Feet |
 Christ Redeemer 98 Feet |
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