Linga discovered in Vietnam

Cultural officials have recently found a linga (phallic symbol) of the Cham ethnic minority people at Van Tuong village, Nghia Dung commune in central Quang Ngai province.
The 35-cm-high linga made from sandstone weighs around 100 kg. It is the second found in Quang Ngai province, providing a link to a cluster of towers of the Cham ethnic minority people in the locality. Archaeologist Dr. Doan Ngoc Khoi said the discovery of linga in Quang Ngai reflects the diversity of the Cham Pa culture of the Cham ethnic minority people in Quang Ngai.
Quang Ngai is home to two ancient citadels, namely Chau Sa at Tinh Chau commune in Son Tinh district and Ban Co at Nghia Phu commune in Tu Nghia district, and around 40 towers of the Cham ethnic minority people scattered around the area that have so far been ruined by the climate. Around 80 years ago in 1924, the French found a linga and a yoni during an excavation in Chanh Lo, Quang Ngai township, and these are now exhibited at the Cham museum in the central city of Da Nang. [New linga found in Quang Ngai province]

There is no picture of the linga and hence we don’t know if it was influenced by the Siva Linga worshipped by the Hindus.

Jesus, Mary and Da Vinci

Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code generated lot of controversies regarding the marital status of Jesus. To find more about this ABC News sent a reporter to various places mentioned in the book and interviewed people like Dan Brown, priests, art and historical scholars for the documentary ABC News Presents: Jesus, Mary and DaVinci
The first issue was if Mary Magdalene was a prostitute as popularly known. In this case everyone unanimously agreed that nowhere in the Bible it is mentioned so. There is one tale about a prostitute and immediately following that Mary is mentioned. So it could be be association that Mary was turned into a prostitute. Also to speed things up Pope Gregory gave a sermon in 591 AD in which he said that Mary was a prostitute. The Vatican corrected it later in 1969, 1378 years later.
In the novel it is mentioned that Jesus was married. But in the Bible it is not mentioned that he is married. It is not mentioned that he is unmarried too. The opinion of various people was that his marital status could have been either.
Dan Brown then mentions that he was taking some classes and his teacher showed him Da Vinci’s Last Supper. The teacher then asked them to find the cup from which all of them drank and it was then that he noticed that there was no cup. Then it was mentioned that the holy grail was in the painting and it was the person sitting next to Jesus.
But there were some art historians who disagreed with this and said that it was actually male and not Mary. Dan Brown adds that during the time of Da Vinci it was not wise to disagree with the Church and he used his art to convey his belief.
Another point in the novel was that Jesus and Mary had a child who grew up in France. In this documentary they could not find any evidence of this.
While the church accepted certain gospels, some of them were rejected as well. But one of them survived in Egypt and is called the gnostic gospels. In the gnostic gospels, it is mentioned that Jesus kissed Mary and they were very close. Even after resurrection, it was Mary who saw Jesus signifying that she was the favourite.
Finally the documentary concludes that they could not find evidence that Jesus was married and had children. But they found that Mary was much closer to Jesus that is known.

True Liberation!

There are nearly 840 million Hindus in India, and 40 million more in neighboring countries of South Asia. Faithful Hindus long to worship. God desires faithful worshipers. Can they be united to Him in spirit and truth? Yes, if they see that Jesus Christ offers true liberation, that He is the true Incarnation of God — unique and absolute.
“May the Ganges River become known as the place where Indians go to be baptized in the name of Jesus,” a follower of Christ in India prays. “From the Himalaya Mountains to the tropical islands of the Maldives, may the glory of the Lord cover South Asia as the waters cover the sea. Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you, pray, pray, pray!” [Hindus — like everyone else — search for God]

Dear Southern Baptist,
Hindus don’t need Jesus Christ to offer true liberation. Try Saudi Arabia.
Thank You.

Dan Gillmor doesn't get it

Dan Gillmor is making absurd comments on Google News’ creator Krishna Bharat’s statement that Google News has no view point. He points to an article in the Register which calls Krishna as BharatBot and claims that this is like saying the cat ate my homework.
The register article just complains about the fact that Google News indexes Press Releases (but still tags them). It then goes on to complain that Krishna gives the same reply about the working of Google News. I don’t understand this. If a certain program works a certain way, what are you supposed to do ? Change you answer each time ?
For all the technology news Dan has been covering I don’t think he understands programming and seems to have really liked the Register’s arguments. A program is written using an algorithm. So as Dan says, it could have its programming mistakes sometimes resulting in pictures from some other story appearing in an unrelated news section. But how news gets ranked would depend on the incoming data and not on manual intervention.
If there are more stories on John Kerry, it would get priority than say George Bush. Sometimes when there is a cricket match in India and all English newspapers there report it, that becomes front page news on Google News even though rest of the world has nothing to do with it.
It all depends on the data. That’s what Bharat was trying to say.

Buddha's Foot

While we only have seen pictures of the two Bamiyan Buddhas, archaeologists have been looking for a missing third reclining Buddha. Now they seem to have uncovered the long-missing statue’s foot.

Two years ago, a French team led by the Afghan-born archeologist Zemaryali Tarzi of Strasbourg University began excavations for the 985-foot-long reclining statue representing the Buddha in a state of “Mahapari nirvana,” or ultimate enlightenment.The dig finally may have yielded something promising. “Professor Tarzi has found a structure which has still to be properly identified but which could be part of the foot of the Sleeping Buddha, maybe the toe,” said Masanori Nagaoka, UNESCO’s Kabul-based culture consultant. “Alternatively, the structure could be the platform on which the giant statue reclined,” he added. [Find stirs Sleeping Buddha talk]

And at the same time the Kiwis are helping to piece back the two statues that were destroyed.

Change in Iraqi policy

After passing resolutions condeming the invasion of Iraq by the Coalition forces, India is now cozying up to the Interim Govt. Iraq’s foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari is to visit India this month.

As a first step, India has offered to train 30 Iraqi electoral officials in India, but the government is clearly ready to go beyond making contributions in procedures and arrangements. The elections, the government feels, are a useful instrument for India tossing its hat into the Iraq ring yet again.
With a declared “hands-off” policy on Iraq surviving the NDA government, India has found itself increasingly marginalised in the global stakes in Iraq and clearly missing out on the action. The bedrock of India’s shift comes from the realisation that Iraq’s stability is in India’s interest which is reaching out to West Asia in a new way. From energy to strategic stability in the Islamic world, India wants a more hands-on role. [India to ‘unshackle’ Iraq policy]

The reality is that Saddam Hussein is not going to come back to power and Iraq has the second largest oil reserves. With so much oil consumption in India, it is better we get friendly with the Iraqi administration.

Now bad movies have a market

2000 years back India projected its soft power to Afghanistan and the result was the Bamiyan Buddhas and the Gandhara culture. Now again India is projecting its soft power and what may result are – some Salman Khan clones.

Among the most popular and controversial features on cable are films produced by India’s prolific movie industry. Bollywood has long been a mainstay here thanks to the similarities between the cultures and the fact that many people in Afghanistan understand Hindi and Urdu. But in recent years, Bollywood has abandoned many old taboos, allowing far more erotic scenes and songs than ever before – though the films rarely push beyond PG-13 Hollywood fare.
Prasant Satapathy, an Indian TV producer working in Kabul, says Bollywood’s influence has been a catalyst for change in the Afghan society. Movies such as “Tera Naam” (Your Name), the 2003 Bollywood hit, for example, flopped in India but was a success in Kabul. The movie became so popular here that it inspired everything from hairstyles to fashion trends, sharpening cultural differences among generations.
However, Supreme Court officials say a murder at Kabul University earlier this month is proof that gang violence portrayed in some Bollywood movies has permeated the youth culture here. A third-year medical student fatally stabbed a freshmen allegedly because he was angry that the freshman had grown his hair out like him.
“What happened was imitating Bollywood movies,” says Mr. Mozhdah. “The boy said you shouldn’t have hair like me. After the incident at the university, we said that what happened was because of the cable. Now we have … proof of that corruption.”
University professors say student gangs are cropping up. And Health officials lay partial blame on Bollywood films for a spike in teen delinquency during the last year, as more young girls are fleeing their families with boyfriends to avoid arranged marriages. [Racy foreign films prompt cable ban in Afghanistan]