A 16-foot statue of godessSaraswati was installed in Washington DC. It was recently gifted by Indonesiato the U.S. government . “The statue symbolises valuesthat parallel key principles of Indonesia-U.S. relations” Indonesia, the country withthe largest Muslim population in the world, has gifted an imposing 16-foot-highstatue of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of education and wisdom, to WashingtonDC. Thegoddess’ statue, on top of a lotus, stands tall a block away from the IndianEmbassy in front of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi. Hindus constitute just threeper cent of the Indonesian population. A little over a mile from the WhiteHouse, the statue is yet to be formally inaugurated, but has already become anattraction for city residents and large number of tourists who visit the cityevery day. “Devi Saraswati is one of theGoddesses in Hinduism, the primarily practised religion among Balinese peoplein Indonesia, which itself is the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country. Yet,her representation at the Indonesian Embassy was not decided out only of anyreligious grounds, but more on its symbolised values that parallel with severalkey principles of Indonesia-U.S. relations under comprehensive partnership, inparticular education and people-to-people contact,” a spokesperson at theIndonesian Embassy toldPTI. The construction of thestatue began in mid-April, and was built by five native Balinese sculptors ledby I. Nyoman Sudarwa, who wrapped up the job in five weeks.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 13:29:53 +0000
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