Asia News Channel Features Intra-Religious Art Bridges

AOA TODAY

INDIA - Founded over 50 years ago, Indian based ANI (www.aniin.com) is today South Asia 's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus. When it comes to covering South Asia , ANI goes across the globe to bring news of and from South Asia, wherever it takes place. The result is a complete service, multi-faceted in the depth of its coverage, and extensive in its reach. ANI covers almost all areas of interest including news as well as religious arts such as how faiths come together to create art tapestries. Today's video news feature is on how Muslim craftsman create Hindu god idols:

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Norton Simon Museum's "Sculpture from the Hindu-Buddhist World"

Goddess

CALIFORNIA - The Norton Simon Museum presents "Where Art Meets Science: Ancient Sculpture from the Hindu-Buddhist World, a focused exhibition of primarily Cambodian sculpture from the Norton Simon foundations’ permanent collections, examines the connoisseurship and conservation involved in identifying and preserving these ancient objects. The exhibit is on view in the Museum’s small rotating exhibitions gallery on the main level through August 1. [link]

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Holy Man, Sai Baba laid to rest in India

DECCAN CHRONICLE

INDIA - Sai Baba, whose message of universal love and brotherhood attracted millions of followers across the globe, was today [on Wednesday] interred at the very spot from where he used to meet and address his disciples for years. The mortal remains of the 85-year-old spiritual leader, whose clout spread far and wide among both the commoners and the high mighty, were buried after the last rites were performed by his nephew R.J. Ratnakar in accordance with vedic customs following full police honours.

• Sai Baba's body was buried amidst chanting of 'sai' mantras.
• Body laid in a pit created at the spot in Sai Kulwant where the spiritual leader preached
• The spot is now now expected to become an eternal memorial for Sai Baba
• The body was laid to rest in line with the practice adopted for Hindu spirital leaders.
• Normally, Hindus cremate their bodies.
• bu Naidu and other leaders went to the samadhi sprinkled sacred ash at the spot.
• Sai Baba's body lay in state in a glass coffin since Sunday night
• The body was removed and wrapped in national tri colour.
• Men of the Andhra Pradesh Armed Police sounded the last post and fired 21 shots in the air
• Then the tri colour was removed and verses from Hindu, Christian, Islamic, Sikh, Judaism and Buddhist scriptures were read out by leaders from these sects.
• Later, they joined in sprinkling the sacred ash at the samadhi spot as 'mangal aarti' was performed.
• With Sai Baba's body draped in his favourite saffron robe, the last rites were performed, while priests recited vedic chants.
• Water from sacred rivers from all over the country were sprinkled on Sai Baba's body along with cow urine. Cow, honey, ghee and silk were given as gifts to priests.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, political leaders from various parties, Chief Ministers and personalities from various fields including cricket and films had visited Puttaparthi in the last two days to pay their homage. An estimated five lakh people from various parts of the country and abroad had filed past the body to have a final glimpse of their spiritual guru. [link]

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Book Review: "Living Traditions in Indian Art"

THE HINDU
By Kausala Santhanam

INDIA - Unlike in the West, the genre of spiritual art is still vibrant in India, says Martin Gurvich, Director, Museum of Sacred Art, in his introduction. Published by the museum, "Living Traditions in Indian Art" celebrates the presence of the divine even amidst the mundane and the material in our country. It showcases popular, devotional art in India and also metal icons, masks, sculptures, puppets, and ritual objects of divinities from this country as well as from Thailand, Nepal, Tibet, and Indonesia, as displayed in the Museum of Sacred Art, Radhadesh, Belgium. [link]

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Sudarshan Pattnaik - Sand Sculpture Honors Hindu Holy Man Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011)

NPR
By Associated Press

Sand sculpture of Sathya Sai Baba by Sudarshan Pattnaik

INDIA - An unidentified Indian woman (above) prepares to lay a flower before a sand sculpture of Hindu holy man Sathya Sai Baba, created by artist Sudarshan Pattnaik at Golden Sea beach at Puri, Orissa, India, Sunday, April 24, 2011. Baba, considered a living god by millions of followers worldwide, died Sunday in a hospital near his southern Indian ashram, a doctor said. He was 86. The news brought an outpouring of grief from his followers, including high Indian officials, who remembered him as a pious person who worked selflessly to help others with the billions of dollars donated to his charitable trust. "Sri Satya Sai Baba was a spiritual leader who inspired millions to lead a moral and meaningful life, even as they followed the religion of their choice," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement. "The nation deeply mourns his passing away." [link]

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Video: Spiritual Guru Sathya Sai Baba Passes Away

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India's Famous Ajmer Sharif Dargah Turning into Eco-Friendly Shrine

WASHINGTON BANGLA RADI
By Rehha Pal

INDIA - The holy and world-famous Ajmer Sharif dargah in Ajmer, Rajasthan, is finally getting an eco-friendly makeover. From switching to solar power electrification to recycling the mazaar flowers to make itr (perfume), it is perhaps the first shrine in the world to go green. Revered by both Hindus and Muslims, it is the tomb of Khwaja Moin-ud-din Chisti, a Sufi saint who came from Persia and devoted his life to the service and uplift of the poor and downtrodden. Under the SADP project, not only the shrine but also the road leading to the dargah is being illuminated by solar powered lights. Today, the electric supply to the sanctum sanctorum is being totally provided by solar powered lights. It is the dargah’s main attraction as it contains the mausoleum of saint Chisti. [link]

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Himachal Temples to Melt Holy Gold

MANGALOREAN
April 11, 2011

INDIA - Like the Naina Devi and Chamunda Devi shrines, many Himachal Pradesh temples are flush with gold worth crores of rupees. And some of it could soon be yours for a price. The state government has come out with a provision that allows temple trusts to melt tonnes of gold and silver lying in their coffers and convert them into coins and mementoes for sale. An amendment to the Himachal Pradesh Hindu Public Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act of 1984 was made April 7 that allows conversion of 50 percent of the precious metal reserves in temples into mementoes. "A notification that permits temples to melt the gold will be issued by the government this week. It will help temples to part with loads of gold and silver which have been lying there for decades and check pilferage," Prem Sharma, in-charge of state-controlled temple trusts, told IANS. The proceeds from the gold coins and other mementoes would be used by the respective trust for development and social activities, he added. [link]

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Dutch Spiritual Artist Pieter Weltevrede is Gaga Over Ganga

HINDUSTAN TIMES

By Pieter Weltevrede

INDIA - Thought the concept of gurudakshina was outdated? Think again. Still believing in the age-old ritual, Pieter Weltevrede, a Dutch spiritual artist, is back in India to donate his Ganga Series of Paintings to the Ganga Natural Heritage Museum. His objective is to bring it closer to its motherl and as per the desires of his spiritual guru (teacher), the late Shri Harish Johari. His upcoming exhibition in Mumbai showcasing Indian spiritual art on silk is titled Tat: Twam Asi (that thou art), which is collection of religious paintings based on Indian gods and goddesses as well as real, contemporary India. The proceeds from the project will go to the Har Har Gangye Project, a new campaign to clean the polluted river that will be announced on the same day. “I feel humble and happy to be able to contribute towards the awareness and preservation of Ganga through the Har Har Gangye Project. A river so sacred and pure needs to be taken care of,” insists Weltevrede. [link]

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Minimalist-Spiritualist, John McCracken dies at 76

LOS ANGELES TIMES
April 10, 2011

Squidds & Nunns 1998

NEW YORK - John McCracken, an artist whose fusion of painting with geometric sculpture in the mid-1960s came to embody an aesthetic distinctive to postwar Los Angeles, died Friday in New York. He was 76. McCracken had lived in Santa Fe, N.M., since 1994. McCracken’s work further challenged the notions of Minimalism through his interest in spiritual phenomena. "My tendency," McCracken once said, "is to reduce or develop everything to 'single things' — things which refer to nothing outside [themselves] but which at the same time possibly refer, or relate, to everything." In 1971-72 he made a rarely seen series of paintings based on Hindu and Buddhist mandalas. [link]

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Traces of Divine in Indian Tattoos

DAWN
April 10, 2011

Indian Tattoo artist at work in studio

INDIA - Girish Giridhara’s arms are tattooed with Hindu gods, goddesses and sacred mantras. The spiritual designs are intricate but also hardly surprising for a man who once trained to be a priest. Shaven-headed, with gold earrings and a red tilak on his forehead, the 36-year-old tattoo artist looks relaxed in a sleeveless t-shirt, knee-length shorts and flip-flops at the Indian Ink tattoo convention. The exhibition in Mumbai this weekend is billed as India’s first, with organisers hoping to tap into a growing interest in permanent body art among young Indians. But Girish, an exhibitor at the event, knows that body art in India is not a new trend set by cricketers or movie stars. Tattooing has been an integral part of Indian tribal culture for centuries and no Hindu wedding is complete without the mehndi ceremony, where the bride’s hands and feet are elaborately decorated in non-permanent henna. [link]

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India's Religious Art Back into Mainstream

DECCAN CHRONICLE
April 10, 2011

Seema Devangi's Tree

INDIA - In India, most of ancient art was religious not only in terms of imagery but also in intent. With the coming of modernity, the notion of religious art was diluted and art for art’s sake took its place. After Raja Ravi Varma and his adherents, major mythological and religious figures have been largely marginalised in the modern Indian art discourse, the exceptions being the Devi and Ganesha who have been extensively illustrated/deconstructed. Imaging Sai at Art Positive gallery is a show that seeks to bring the religious, be it visual or experiential, to the mainstream. Forty well-known artists have painted and sculpted the image and idea of the Saint. Many have used the manifest and the tangible iconic figure of the Shirdi Sai Baba while others have used the sacred physical space of Shirdi and the mental space imagined by the devotee. [link]

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India's Gangotri Temple-the Serenity of the Holy Shrine

INDIA - Chardham Yatra is a heaven and the most sought after holy tourist pilgrimage of India. The serene Yatra of this divine Hindu religious pilgrimage revitalizes the mind & soul of its pilgrims. The visitors from all around the world get the blessings from four of the Hindu religion's most holy Gods namely Lord Vishnu, Lord Shiva, Goddess Ganga and Goddess Yamuna. They get an opportunity to experience and explore the most majestic and picturesque brilliance in Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. [Source: SBWire]

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Death Toll in Pak Shrine Blast Climbs to 50

PAKISTAN - The death toll in a devastating suicide attack on a Sufi shrine in Pakistan's Punjab province on Monday rose to 50 after several persons succumbed to their injuries in hospital, officials said. Two suicide bombers struck the famous Sakhi Sarwar Darbar near Dera Ghazi Khan yesterday while thousands of people were attending the annual 'urs' or festival of the 13th century shrine. Forty-one people were killed yesterday and the others died later, officials said. Over 100 people were injured in the attack, the latest in a series of terrorist assaults targeting Sufi shrines. [Source: Indian Express]

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Spiritual Conclave for Artists to Know God the Creator

INDIA - Scheduled for April 8-9, a spiritual conclave for artists and the art called ‘Arts Gathering 2001’ promises to be 2-days of knowing God the ‘’Creator’’ and ‘discovering the Creator in You.’ According to the organizers “Arts Gathering” is a “time for Artists to gather and experience God the Creator, God the source of all creativity and God the Artist Himself and yet it is a time for you to discover that Creative God who lives in you and is the source of everlasting creativity that flows through Him and hence through you.” The organizers are part of the YWAM Creative Discipleship Training School. [Source: Morung Express]

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India's Chola's Reveal Jain connection

A sculpture of Mahaveera

INDIA - We don't normally associate the Cholas with the Jains. But an inscription at a Jain temple in Thirumalai indicates that Kundavi, sister of Raja Raja Chola, had given grant to this 1,000-year-old shrine. Even today, locals refer to it as Kundavi Jainalaya. Jainism in Tamil Nadu dates back many centuries, so much so some of the epics in Tamil are believed to have been penned by Jains. Jains settled in and around Madurai, Kanchipuram and Thiruvannamalai, and are an indigenous community. “The literature, art, paintings, temples, carvings — they have left behind a rich legacy for us here, waiting to be discovered,” summed up the professor, as we reached the Jain mutt for a simple meal. [Source: The Hindu]

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Books on Ghandi and Malcolm X Stir Passions

NEW YORK - Two new  books on international civil rights & religious icons have come out in the past week. The first, on Mahatma Gandhi who is still so revered in India that the book about him has been banned in one of India's state and may yet be banned nationwide. The problem, say those who have fanned the flames of popular outrage this week, is that Joseph Lelyveld's new book on him, "Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India" (March 31) suggests that the father of modern India was bisexual. In the USA, similar flames of popular outrage will erupt in the coming week over Manning Marable's new book, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention” (April 1) suggesting the same bisexual complexity. [Source: NYT]

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All Existence Should be Revered: Hinduism & the Environment

INDIA - The following is the first in an ongoing series of posts outlining how the world's major religions have traditionally viewed the environment and are putting those beliefs into practice today. Hinduism is the oldest of the world's major spiritual paths. Though it only became known by that name in much more recent history, the oldest of its sacred texts date in their written form to the second millennia BCE and reference astronomical alignments as far back as 10,000 BCE. For those people unfamiliar with Hinduism basic tenets, the Himalayan Academy has good overview. A quick sidebar: Hinduism is really an umbrella term for a vast faith, with many different sects occupying that space. They don't always agree in teachings, interpretation, or emphasis, even if there is ultimately more commonality than difference. Also, as with every philosophy there is sometimes a gap between belief in practice, and in that Hinduism is no different. With that in mind, let's continue. [Source: Tree Hugger]

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Ancient Holy Art: The Mandala

THE STAR
March 27, 2011

An artist at the Mandala Thanka Painting School
in Kathmandu working on a peace mandala.

INDIA - Mandalas are one of the oldest holy art forms known to humanity; the basic design, the circle and centre, represents completeness.The designs can help guide any person seeking happiness and fulfilment because they assist the seeker to wholeness and contentment. There was complete stillness when I stepped into the Mandala Thanka Painting School in Thamel; dozen artists were working on patterns, forms, colours and shapes on silk fabrics. [link]

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Awe-Struck in India: Bustling Streets and Dazzling Shrines

BOSTON HERALD
March 28, 2011

INDIA -After adjusting to its raucous rhythm, India was rewarding. From the enormous red Agra Fort, almost more magnificent than the Taj Mahal, to the lavish gold-embroidered saris of women on their way to a Delhi wedding, the sights were beautiful. I saw richly decorated tombs, palaces, mosques and temples, where most tourists were Indians, clearly proud of their heritage. Inside, even at the busy Taj Mahal, crowds were orderly, lines moved quickly, people were friendly and the centuries-old buildings were spotless. Sikhs in turbans, Muslims in hijabs and Hindus in saris mingled everywhere. [link]

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