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A young married lady with Ghunghat (Veil) on the face and smart cellphone in hand represents cultural conservatism and modernity in rural India
This Mandap is located in South Nalapara, Chittagong, Bangladesh, and its theme revolves around the poignant ceremony of a daughter's departure from her father's home.
Sri Rameshwara Swamy Temple, Ramadevara Betta, Ramanagara, Karnataka is one of the oldest temple in India.
A spectacular and warm welcome of Sun in AngkorWat to enlighten all the pilgrims who come to visit one of the oldest Hindu Temple which later changed to Buddhist Temple.
Om or Aum (also Auṃ, written in Devanagari as ॐ and as ओम्, in Sanskrit known as praṇava प्रणव [lit. "to sound out loudly"] or Omkara or auṃkāra (also as Aumkāra) ओंकार (lit. "auṃ syllable") is a mystical or sacred syllable in the Indian religions, i.e. Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism.
Aum is commonly pronounced as a long or over-long nasalized close-mid back rounded vowel, [õːː]) though there are other enunciations pronounced in received traditions. It is placed at the beginning of most Hindu texts as a sacred incantation to be intoned at the beginning and end of a reading of the Vedas or prior to any prayer or mantra. The Māndukya Upanishad is entirely devoted to the explanation of the syllable. The syllable consists of three phonemes, a, u and m, which symbolize the beginning, duration, and dissolution of the universe and the associated gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, respectively.
The Venkataramana Temple Gingee
The Venkatramana Temple, which is the largest edifice within the fortified town, was built by Muthyalu Nayaka (AD. 1540 - 1550). It contains a number of Tamil inscriptions. Quite a few monolithic ornamental pillars were taken away from this temple to Pondicherry and set up around the statue of Dupleix, the Governor, during the French occupation of Gingee in AD. 1761. large well-planned temple complex, now abandoned and dilapidated, is at the south-east side of the outer fort. Most of the temple, except perhaps a small Chola core, was built by Muthiah Nayaka in the mid-16th century. Tall swing pavilions stand outside the compund walls, each with multiple brick towers.
Venkataramana temple is situated near the "Gateway of Pondicherry" in the South, faces East with high gopura. This temple was built by Muthialu Nayaka in 1540 A.D. - 1550 A.D. This temple is the place of worship till date. In this temple there are also deities of Devi, Aandaal and Narasima. There are two prakaras, Kalyana Mandapa,Urchava Mandapa and Yaga Sala Mandapa with pillars. They are in ruin condition now and also no pooja is performed at present.
as best can satisfy best ,a cow fits best to justify this great quote. She support us in all possible ways, from food to fuel,from transportation to irrigation and even in emotion!
Ghori temple is located in the village of Ghori between Islamkot and Nagarparkar in Tharparkar district. At least a dozen major Indian Jain temples, all of them named Godiji Parshwanath, trace their heritage to Pakistan’s Ghori temple.
Nagar Parkar, Pakistan.
. . . in Indian Hindusm the eldest son has to cut his hair for cremation ceremony of his father or mother
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Cremation is the combustion, vaporization and oxidation of dead bodies to basic chemical compounds, such as gases, ashes and mineral fragments retaining the appearance of dry bone. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite that is an alternative to the interment of an intact dead body in a coffin or casket. Cremated remains, which do not constitute a health risk, may be buried or interred in memorial sites or cemeteries, or they may be retained by relatives and dispersed in various ways. Cremation is not an alternative to a funeral, but rather an alternative to burial or other forms of disposal.
In many countries, cremation is usually done in a crematorium. Some countries, such as India and Nepal, prefer different methods, such as open-air cremation.
HISTORY
ANCIENT
Cremation dates from at least 20,000 years ago in the archaeological record, with the Mungo Lady, the remains of a partly cremated body found at Lake Mungo, Australia.
Alternative death rituals emphasizing one method of disposal of a body - inhumation (burial), cremation, or exposure - have gone through periods of preference throughout history.
In the Middle East and Europe, both burial and cremation are evident in the archaeological record in the Neolithic era. Cultural groups had their own preferences and prohibitions. The ancient Egyptians developed an intricate transmigration of soul theology, which prohibited cremation, and this was adopted widely among other Semitic peoples. The Babylonians, according to Herodotus, embalmed their dead. Early Persians practiced cremation, but this became prohibited during the Zoroastrian Period. Phoenicians practiced both cremation and burial. From the Cycladic civilisation in 3000 BC until the Sub-Mycenaean era in 1200–1100 BC, Greeks practiced inhumation. Cremation appeared around the 12th century BC, constituting a new practice of burial, probably influenced by Anatolia. Until the Christian era, when inhumation again became the only burial practice, both combustion and inhumation had been practiced, depending on the era and location. Romans practiced both, with cremation generally associated with military honors.
In Europe, there are traces of cremation dating to the Early Bronze Age (c. 2000 BC) in the Pannonian Plain and along the middle Danube. The custom becomes dominant throughout Bronze Age Europe with the Urnfield culture (from c. 1300 BC). In the Iron Age, inhumation again becomes more common, but cremation persisted in the Villanovan culture and elsewhere. Homer's account of Patroclus' burial describes cremation with subsequent burial in a tumulus, similar to Urnfield burials, and qualifying as the earliest description of cremation rites. This may be an anachronism, as during Mycenaean times burial was generally preferred, and Homer may have been reflecting the more common use of cremation at the time the Iliad was written, centuries later.
Criticism of burial rites is a common form of aspersion by competing religions and cultures, including the association of cremation with fire sacrifice or human sacrifice.
Hinduism and Jainism are notable for not only allowing but prescribing cremation. Cremation in India is first attested in the Cemetery H culture (from c. 1900 BC), considered the formative stage of Vedic civilization. The Rigveda contains a reference to the emerging practice, in RV 10.15.14, where the forefathers "both cremated (agnidagdhá-) and uncremated (ánagnidagdha-)" are invoked.
Cremation remained common, but not universal, in both Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. According to Cicero, in Rome, inhumation was considered the more archaic rite, while the most honoured citizens were most typically cremated - especially upper classes and members of imperial families.
Christianity frowned upon cremation, both influenced by the tenets of Judaism and as an attempt to abolish Graeco-Roman pagan rituals. By the 5th century, the practice of cremation had practically disappeared from Europe.
In early Roman Britain, cremation was usual but diminished by the 4th century. It then reappeared in the 5th and 6th centuries during the migration era, when sacrificed animals were sometimes included with the human bodies on the pyre, and the deceased were dressed in costume and with ornaments for the burning. That custom was also very widespread among the Germanic peoples of the northern continental lands from which the Anglo-Saxon migrants are supposed to have been derived, during the same period. These ashes were usually thereafter deposited in a vessel of clay or bronze in an "urn cemetery". The custom again died out with the Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons or Early English during the 7th century, when inhumation became general.
MIDDLE AGES
Throughout parts of Europe, cremation was forbidden by law, and even punishable by death if combined with Heathen rites.[6] Cremation was sometimes used by authorities as part of punishment for heretics, and this did not only include burning at the stake. For example, the body of John Wycliff was exhumed years after his death and cremated, with the ashes thrown in a river, explicitly as a posthumous punishment for his denial of the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.
On the other hand, mass cremations were often performed out of fear of contagious diseases, such as after a battle, pestilence, or famine. Retributory cremation continued into modern times. For example, after World War II, the bodies of the 12 men convicted of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials were not returned to their families after execution, but were instead cremated, then disposed of at a secret location as a specific part of a legal process intended to deny their use as a location for any sort of memorial. In Japan, however, erection of a memorial building for many executed war criminals, who were also cremated, was allowed for their remains.
HINDUISM AND OTHER INDIAN ORIGN RELIGIONS
Religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism practice cremation. In Buddhism cremation is acceptable but not mandated. The founder, Shakyamuni Buddha was cremated. For Buddhist spiritual masters who are cremated, one of the results of cremation are the formation of Buddhist relics.
A dead adult Hindu is mourned with a cremation, while a dead child is typically buried. The rite of passage is performed in harmony with the Hindu religious view that the microcosm of all living beings is a reflection of a macrocosm of the universe. The soul (Atman, Brahman) is the essence and immortal that is released at the Antyeshti ritual, but both the body and the universe are vehicles and transitory in various schools of Hinduism. They consist of five elements - air, water, fire, earth and space. The last rite of passage returns the body to the five elements and origins. The roots of this belief are found in the Vedas, for example in the hymns of Rigveda in section 10.16, as follows:
Burn him not up, nor quite consume him, Agni: let not his body or his skin be scattered,
O all possessing Fire, when thou hast matured him, then send him on his way unto the Fathers.
When thou hast made him ready, all possessing Fire, then do thou give him over to the Fathers,
When he attains unto the life that waits him, he shall become subject to the will of gods.
The Sun receive thine eye, the Wind thy Prana (life-principle, breathe); go, as thy merit is, to earth or heaven.
Go, if it be thy lot, unto the waters; go, make thine home in plants with all thy members.
— Rigveda 10.16
The final rites, in case of untimely death of a child, is usually not cremation but a burial. This is rooted in Rig Veda's section 10.18, where the hymns mourn the death of the child, praying to deity Mrityu to "neither harm our girls nor our boys", and pleads the earth to cover, protect the deceased child as a soft wool.
SATI
The act of sati refers to a funeral ritual in which a widowed woman committed suicide on the husband's funeral pyre. While a mention of self-immolation by one of several wives of an Indian king is found in a Greek text on India, along with self-immolation by widows in Russia near Volga, tribes of Thracians in southeast Europe, and some tribes of Tonga and Fiji islands, vast majority of ancient texts do not mention this practice. Rare mentions of such cremations in aristocratic circles appear in texts dated to be before the 9th century AD, where the widow of a king had the choice to burn with him or abstain. Ancient texts of Hinduism make no mention of Sati; its early medieval era texts forbid it, while post 10th century medieval era texts partly justify it and criticize the practice. The practice of sati, grew after 1000 CE, becoming a particularly significant practice by Hindus in India during the Islamic wars of conquest in South Asia.
This practice was made illegal in 1829 during the British colonial rule of India. After gaining independence from British colonial era, India passed a series of additional laws. The Indian Sati Prevention Act from 1988 further criminalised any type of aiding, abetting, and glorifying of sati. In modern India, the last known case of Sati was in 1987, by Roop Kanwar in Rajasthan. Her action was found to be a suicide, and it led to the arrest and prosecution of people for failing to act and prevent her suicide during her husband's cremation.
BALI
Balinese Hindu dead are generally buried inside the container for a period of time, which may exceed one month or more, so that the cremation ceremony (Ngaben) can occur on an auspicious day in the Balinese-Javanese Calendar system ("Saka"). Additionally, if the departed was a court servant, member of the court or minor noble, the cremation can be postponed up to several years to coincide with the cremation of their Prince. Balinese funerals are very expensive and the body may be interred until the family can afford it or until there is a group funeral planned by the village or family when costs will be less. The purpose of burying the corpse is for the decay process to consume the fluids of the corpse, which allows for an easier, more rapid and more complete cremation.
ISLAM
Islam strictly forbids cremation. Islam has specific rites for the treatment of the body after death.
WIKIPEDIA
Hindu worshippers at the Sri Selva Vinayagar Temple in Kandy during the Thai Pongal puja in January 2013.
Worshiping the Sun god. Sun, being the ultimate and eternal source of energy for all living beings on the earth, is worshiped in Hindu mythology.
A man wearing a mask penetrates smokes during the procession a mass cremation in Ketewel village, Gianyar Bali
See complete Bali Mass Cremation Photo Series
Wooden painted lion depicting the lion avatar of Kali used in Hindu processions at the Sri Selva Vinayagar Temple, Kandy.
Taken from Mass Cremation - Ngaben Masal "Prenawa Alit"
Br. Tegal Baleran, Dauh Peken, Tabanan - Bali
3 June 2011
Wayang Lemah is performed on Balinese tradition ritual related. In Ngaben cerimony Wayang Lemah will performed on Ngerorasin day
Wayang Lemah or in some places called "Wayang Gedog" usually performed at daylight ("lemah"), but also can performed at night, evening, etc. No screen ("layar / kelir") and wick lamp ("lampu blencong") needed, just simple performed with cut banana trunks as place for the puppet (wayang) during the show. On each side there're 2 branches of "dapdap" tree and both connected by connected a skein of white cotton yarn ("benang tukelan").
Meajar-ajar also known as Nyegara Gunung
Taken from Mass Cremation - Ngaben Masal "Prenawa Alit"
Location : Tanah Lot
Religious Efforts in the Form of Sacred Rituals to Raise Awareness Harmony of Nature.
Taken From Pakelem Tawur Agung Danu Kertih
At Lake Beratan, Bedugul, Baturiti
Tabanan - Bali
Pakelem is part of Tawur Agung Danu Kertih which is an attempt to preserve fresh water resources on land, such as springs, lakes, rivers and others. In this lake also held religious efforts in the form of sacred rituals.
Pakelem means to submerge yadnya or animal sacrificial offerings to the specific use. Pekelem ceremony can be performed in two places, in water or in the crater of the mountain. In water can be done in lakes or seas. Pakelem itself serves instill spiritual values to mankind in order to have insight into the totality of nature. Such insights to raise awareness in maintaining the harmony of nature.
In Lontar Bhuana Kertih mentioned that Pakelem is the implementation of Bhuta Yadnya ceremony aimed at eliminating pests diseases that come from the source of the sea or lake, and begged for the soil fertility of agricultural prosperity that the ceremony held at sea or a lake.
Melasti also known as "mekiyis" or "melis" usually held before Nyepi's day
This ceremony is a purification ceremony for all stuffs in the temple. People will goes to water source (usually to the beach) and gathers holy stuff from the temple.
Unlike in other place, people at Tabanan usually held this ceremony at night. This is unique because usually it held on daylight
A Ceremony That Aimed to Eliminating Pests Diseases Come from the Source of the Sea or Lake.
Taken From Pakelem Tawur Agung Danu Kertih
At Lake Beratan, Bedugul, Baturiti
Tabanan - Bali
Pakelem means to submerge yadnya or animal sacrificial offerings to the specific use. Pekelem ceremony can be performed in two places, in water or in the crater of the mountain. In water can be done in lakes or seas. Pakelem itself serves instill spiritual values to mankind in order to have insight into the totality of nature. Such insights to raise awareness in maintaining the harmony of nature.
When it is in time, the offerings will be brought into the middle of the lake to be drowned.
In next 2 - 3 days is called Nyepi. No activities allowed in lake area.
The Akshardham monument, built without steel, is entirely composed of
sandstone and marble. It consists of 234 ornately carved pillars, 9 ornate
domes, 20 quadrangled shikhars, a spectacular Gajendra Pith (plinth of stone
elephants) and 20,000 murtis and statues of India's great sadhus, devotees,
acharyas and divine personalities.
The monument is a fusion of several architectural styles of pink stone and
pure white marble. Pink stone symbolizes bhakti (devotion) in eternal bloom
and white marble of absolute purity and eternal peace. The monument was
built after over 300 million man hours of services rendered by 11,000
volunteers, sadhus and artisans.
Taken from Mass Cremation - Ngaben Masal "Prenawa Alit"
Br. Tegal Baleran, Dauh Peken, Tabanan - Bali
3 June 2011
"Ngerorasin" also known as "Nyekah" (sekah) is held after Ngaben. Ngerorasin is about soul / spirit purification.
The ashes after this process will put into Sekah. And will throw ("larung") into the sea.
See in complete Bali Mass Cremation Photo Series
The vajra (thunderbolt or mythical weapon- in Buddhism as well as in Hindusm) is the first thing you see when you get up to the Swayambhunath stupa - that is probably the contraption in the foreground. Sadly, I did not know that this was the vajra, nor did I know it's significance- (I am not particularly religious you see)- otherwise I might have framed this picture a bit differently, to show more of the vajra in the foreground. Swayambhu sometimes Swayambu or Swoyambhu) is an ancient religious architecture atop a hill in the Kathmandu Valley, west of Kathmandu city. The Tibetan name for the site means 'Sublime Trees' for the many varieties of trees found on the hill. However, Shing.kun may be a corruption of the local Nepal Bhasa name for the complex, Swayambhu, meaning 'self-sprung'. For the Buddhist Newars, in whose mythological history and origin myth as well as day-to-day religious practice Swayambhunath occupies a central position, it is probably the most sacred among Buddhist pilgrimage sites. For Tibetans and followers of Tibetan Buddhism, it is second only to Boudhanath. (notes and pictures of Boudhnath appear later in this album- see subsequent pictures). (Kathmandu, Nepal, Oct/ Nov 2019)
We did not have to look far to find signs of the Hindu religion. Small shrines were at the side of the road, sometimes seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
This statue of Ganesha was maybe 30 - 50 km north of Udaipur.
We were curious about the Hindu religion, and asked questions whenever we could. We started to get the idea that there were as many different answers as there were people, so we got in the habit of cross-referencing our questions, often by asking the same thing of different people.
How many gods in the Hindu religion? We were quite shocked to receive the same answer from 2 different Indians; 33 million!
So when I got home I had to do some research. In the Vedas (the oldest scriptures of Hinduism), there are mention of 33 dieties, followed by a Sanskrit word that is apparently open to interpretation. Thousand? Hundred-thousand? Million?
So at least we know where the "33" comes from.
Hindusm is extremely complex (and I find quite beautiful), and I will have more to comment on later in the series.
Here is the Wikipedia link on Hindu Dieties, not a bad starting point:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_deities
By the way, Ganesha is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles. No wonder he is liked so much beyond the borders of India.
Indian kids display coloured powder during 'Holi Fsetival' at a temple in Kuala Lumpur on March 18, 2012. 'Holi', the festival of colours, where people smear each other with coloured powder and water, is celebrated by Hindus across the country in Malaysia.
A couple kissing with their faces covered in coloured powder during Holi festival celebrations in Kuala Lumpur March 18, 2012. Holi is celebrated to usher the Spring season with the brightest and liveliest colors!.
Taken from Mass Cremation - Ngaben Masal "Prenawa Alit"
Br. Tegal Baleran, Dauh Peken, Tabanan - Bali
3 June 2011
Ngayud is next process after cremation. The ashes will collected inside white cottons and gatherer by family member to the closest river / lake. Some part of ashes will selected and putted inside coconut with some decoration (Sekah). After praying for the spirit, most of ashes and stuff will throw to the water and let them flow away to the ocean / sea as the universe and symbolized of the GOD
Sekah will bring back to home and will be continued with Ngerorasin.
See complete Bali Mass Cremation Photo Series