It was back in May 18 of 2006, Nepal was pronounced a secular state and was no longer the ‘only Hindu nation in the world’. But, a news published on Nov. 5 in Kantipur and Himalayan Times implies that Nepal is still a ‘Hindu Kingdom’ in practice.
A Muslim from Siraha, Eastern Nepal, Mohammad Sabir, was arrested on charges of selling cow meat. Muslims don’t worship cows, and the "New Nepal" respects every religions.
Then, why is a Muslim arrested for selling cow meat? Is it only because Hindu (80% of the population) don’t eat it? Well, Muslims don’t eat pigs. Does that mean butchers selling pig meat should be arrested ?
I don’t care much about religion or faith. But architecture is a different thing. I however appreciate beautiful architecture whether it is a religious one or non-religious one.
I am fascinated by a Hindu temple, Swaminarayan Mandir, in a Hindu-minority country, Canada. The example of the ancient art and architecture opened officially on July 22, 2007 and is located near Highway 427 and Finch Avenue West, Toronto.
The $40-million project involved more than 2,000 Indian craftsmen. In addition to the craftsmen and about 400 volunteers from Toronto’s Hindu community also volunteered in the construction for more than a year.
The building was constructed by using 24,000 hand-carved pieces of Turkish limestone and Italian Carrara marble. The rock pieces prepared out of Canada, were shipped across the ocean and were assembled in Toronto. It was such a big project and because of the thousands of rock pieces, each of the parts were marked with a bar code to help in the assembly. The construction was like assembling various pieces to make it into the huge temple building. Continue reading