Religious Devotees Worship Phony Phallic Symbol

Status: Strange News
image Inside the Amarnath Cave, located in Indian-administered Kashmir, can be found the ice Shiva Linga, one of the holiest objects in the Hindu faith. Basically it's a large, naturally occurring, phallus-shaped ice stalagmite. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus make the pilgrimage to visit it each year, despite a high amount of terrorist activity in that area. (Wikipedia has an entry about it.) But this year the pilgrimage has been marred by allegations that the Shiva Linga has been faked. The BBC reports:
Governor SK Sinha - who is also the chairman of Amarnath Shrine Board - said on Thursday that he had asked a retired high court judge to investigate allegations that a man-made stalagmite was placed in the cave after the naturally occurring one failed to materialise. The BBC's Altaf Hussain in Srinagar says that this has been blamed on a shortage of snow combined with the wrong temperatures. Our correspondent says that a naturally-occurring ice stalagmite has now begun to appear, but it is far smaller than in recent years.
Now that the Shiva Linga has gone fake, I figure it's only a matter of time before it starts appearing on grilled cheese sandwiches.

Places Religion

Posted on Fri Jun 30, 2006


Comments

Grilled cheese sandwiches?

It's perfect for popsicles.
Posted by Big Gary  on  Sat Jul 01, 2006  at  06:24 AM
To some folks of that religion, it doesn't matter if the item is natural or man-made for it to be the right symbol for worship. I recall a story in the San Jose Mercury News some 15 years ago about a highway bollard which was determined to be the right shape, and had milk poured on it and flower garlands wrapped around it.

Not to say this is confined to Hindus. Some Christians will revere any intentional or accidental cross-like phenonmen.
Posted by cvirtue  on  Sat Jul 01, 2006  at  12:44 PM
Hahaha...
Posted by Meerkat  on  Mon Jul 31, 2006  at  08:21 PM
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