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Hindu posts
Video: A sadhu singing by the Ganges River, Varanasi
Mar 18th, 2012 at 6:00PM:
One of the best gifts travel gives you is all the great music you wouldn't otherwise hear. Strange tunes often stick in the mind long after the memories of meals and sights have dimmed. Last week I brought you a video of a kalimba player in Malawi. Here's a completely different tune from a completely different country, yet both tunes have gotten into my head.
This man is a sadhu, one of the ...
Billions of dollars worth of treasure discovered in ancient temple in India
Jul 6th, 2011 at 8:00AM: More than $22 billion in gold, gems, statues, and other treasure has been discovered in an ancient temple in southern India, prompting heated debate over what to do with the trove. Meanwhile, authorities scramble to secure the items in the short term, even as more riches are uncovered.
The artifacts were found inside the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, a popular Hindu shrine that was built in the ...Dreaming of Bali - In search of paradise
Mar 8th, 2011 at 9:30AM:
What is paradise? Is it a place we can visit? Somewhere with palm tree-lined beaches, frosty cocktails and simmering volcanoes? Or is it an idea? A vision in dreams that never quite materializes when we wake up? Bali, an intriguingly exotic island tucked into the Indonesian Archipelago in Southeast Asia, is just such a paradise. This elusive island is everything you've ever dreamed - a land of ...Photo of the Day - Chiang Rai's White Temple
Feb 6th, 2011 at 6:00PM:
If you've been following Gadling's Travel Talk web series recently, you may have noticed Stephen and Aaron wandering around Thailand, checking out the country's numerous and intricate temples. But one temple they haven't hit yet is this amazing White Temple, found in the country's far northern city of Chiang Rai. Today's photo, by Flickr user LadyExpat, looks like something straight out of a ...Indian odyssey: A Holi debauch in Varanasi
Jul 29th, 2010 at 11:29AM: Varanasi, City of Death, City of Passage to Worlds Beyond.
Founded by Lord Shiva on the banks of the holy Ganges, Varanasi (once known as Benares) occupies the most sacred land in India, and is a reputed tirtha (passage point to the Other World). For at least 3,000 years Varanasi has drawn India's dying, specifically those dying Hindus seeking release from Samsara, the burdensome cycle of ...Use an "I can't eat this" card - Dining out tip
Feb 19th, 2010 at 8:27AM: Before you go out of the country, make a few wallet-sized cards that list what you can and can't eat in the native language(s) of the country you're visiting.
I like to list what I'm able to eat on one side of the card... and list the foods I can't have on the other. This makes it so the server and kitchen can't easily mix them up.
This is especially helpful for vegetarian and vegans, people ...Quarter million animals sacrificed at Hindu festival
Nov 24th, 2009 at 12:30PM: Hinduism is generally thought of as a vegetarian religion, one that respects animals because in the cycle of death and rebirth, we've all been animals at one point or another. But Hinduism is an ancient and complex faith with almost a billion adherents, and there's such a diversity that virtually no common thread can be found in all methods of Hindu worship. Nothing proves that more true than ...India's Sticks and Dance Festival in Modern Times
Oct 16th, 2007 at 2:58PM: In India, the concept of BYOB (bring-your-own-beer) is unheard of, but BYO Sticks is commonplace. I can't believe I've called one of India's most fun and celebrated festivals one of 'Sticks and Dance,' but truth be told, that's exactly what it is. During these nine-nights of Navratri (this year 12-20 October -- depending in the moon), huge tents are set up throughout the country and people get ...Nepal Airlines Officials Sacrifice Goats to Appease Sky Gods
Sep 13th, 2007 at 8:18PM: The driving forces behind Nepal's national state-run airline have found a novel way to fix a technical problem with their airplanes -- they've sacrificed goats to appeal to the Hindu 'sky god', Akash Bhairab. Sacrificing animals is an ancient tradition that seems to have resisted modern logic, at least in some part of Asia, and in this case, the practice was used to fix and electrical problem in a ...Holi, India's Festival of Colors
Mar 1st, 2007 at 3:41PM: Holi, also known as India's Festival of Colors, begins on the Phalgun Purnima, or the night of the first full moon in late February or early March. For those of you who haven't looked up at the night sky recently, that means it's this weekend. Believed to have originated as long ago as 300BC, the legend-soaked event celebrates the arrival of spring and the promise of fertile fields. It also ...
