Adventures on the Road to Murree from Islamabad! So, the steep, narrow, curvy, and perilous mountain road leading up from Islamabad to the cool mountain-top town of Murree is, well, steep, narrow, and perilous. The road to Murree is also filled with large commercial trucks that are rolling folk art, wonderfully painted, and dazzlingly decorated. They are also often old and tired. Metal chains dangle and clang as the trucks struggle and strain to go up hills. If you are behind one of them, the people in your rear-view window become increasingly agitated if you don't pass them. T [View Full Entry]

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In area generally called Kalbadevi, is a very old Hindu Temple, a Jain Temple (different blog), a Mosque, a bazaar, and the nearby Crawford Market. The Hindu Temple is Mumba Devi Mandir, or Mumba Devi Temple. It is dedicated to the goddess Mumba. Mumba is where the name Mumbai came from and is a local incarnation of the Devi (Mother Goddess) conception of being. It's a small temple and was very crowded because of the festival of Navratri during which people pay respect to the Goddess. I was able to snap a photo of devotees passing their hands over the flames [View Full Entry]

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There are several small, open air Hindu temples, such as the one below, which is in a downtown business district. This allows people to make puja on their way to work, during a break, or after work. A friend asked the priest permission for me to take photos of him and his small temple. He agreed but then made a big show of my coming up to the altar wherein he put the red kum kum on my forehead. In addition, most of the Hindu taxi drivers had little altars or shrines on their dashboards. Some were quite elaborate and fancy. [View Full Entry]

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While I was in Mumbai, it was the festival of Navratri. Navratri is a festival of worship, dance and music celebrated over a period of nine nights. Nav = nine and Ratri = nights. It is celebrated for the worship of the Goddess Durga. Goddess Durga is believed to exist in many forms. The name “Durga” means “inaccessible”, and she is the personification of the active side of the divine “shakti” energy of Lord Shiva. In fact, she represents the furious powers of all the male gods, and is the ferocious protector of the righteous, and destroyer of the evil. [View Full Entry]

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Near what I believe is the oldest Hindu temple in Mumbai (the Mumba Devi Temple--which is what gave Mumbai its name) and the Crawford Market (huge market for veggies and household goood) is another Jain temple. And much of this seemed to be a fairly Muslim neighborhood. This Jain temple is less opulent than the Babu Amichand Panalal Adishwarji Jain Temple at Malabar Hill in Mumbai. Although they weren't too keen on having a bunch of photographs taken inside, I was able to snap off a few and I tried not to annoy anyone. Outside, the facade of the temple was [View Full Entry]

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There are many Hindu, Jain, and other types of temples, and of course many mosques. However, because of terrorist bombings in Mumbai several years ago and again several months ago, security is extremely tight at the larger temples. As a result, one cannot bring cameras or cell phones to some of them. So I cannot give you pictures of those temples. And if you are not Muslim, you cannot enter the mosques here. This temple is located in Juhu Beach area of Mumbai. It is a a Hindu temple called Shree Mukteshwar Devalaya Vishwasta Mandal. In Malaysia, the Hindu temples were [View Full Entry]

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For a while, I was staying at Juhu Beach in Mumbai, which is north of Mumbai proper. In this and other areas, the autorickshaw provides inexpensive but often frightening transportation. Basically, they are three-wheeled open air contraptions with space for two sensible adults or more if you are a little nuts. They are powered by a motor plant approximately appropriate for a lawnmower. Apparently, the idea is to see who can fit through the tiniest space and do so as quickly as possible. They glide through people crossing the street, and seem to magically squeeze between the next rickshaw or [View Full Entry]

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About an hour or so boat ride from the Gateway of India at Mumbai is a small island with a series of caves containing Hindu temple carvings. The complex is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The main temple on Elephanta is a honeycomb of shrines, caverns, courtyards, and prayer halls created some time between 450 and 750 AD. The site of these caves contained beautiful reliefs, sculptures, and a temple to the Hindu god Shiva (or Siva). The caves are carved from solid rock. There are three entrances to the main temple in the complex- from the north, east and [View Full Entry]

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Yet another in a series of ill-advised, poorly-planned, and hastily-assembled journeys by a fallen-away ex-Catholic -- this time straight to the heart of Hinduism, Bollywood, and lots of terror threats. With pretty pictures, a wealth of inaccuracies, and without the benefit of spell-check. Visit to a Jain temple. Jainism is a religion and philosophy originating in ancient India. Jainism believes that the universe and all its substances are eternal. It has no beginning or end. There is no need for someone to create or manage the universe. The universe runs on its own accord by its own cosm [View Full Entry]

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Kuala Lumpur has a wonderful and inexpensive monorail that runs north to south and is an easy way to get around. At one end of the monorail is a neighborhood called Brickfield. It is home to many Sri Lankans and Indians. In this area is a small Buddhist temple caled Maha Vihara Buddhist Temple and a Buddhist study center. It was founded by the Sinhalese community based in Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding areas provide a place of worship in their Sri Lankan Theravada tradition. The temple is relatively modest but was a very warm place to be. I was lucky [View Full Entry]

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