PURI, INDIA, April 3, 2018 (NDTV): This dark room laden with treasure has remained shut since 1984. Someone entering it now will need an oxygen cylinder. For 34 years, the door of the ratna bhandar or treasury of the 12th century Jagannath temple in Puri, has not seen light. But tomorrow, 10 people will unlock the room and step inside to check its structural integrity under close watch of the temple administration and the Archaeological Survey of India or ASI. The temple administration has allowed five of its people, two government archaeologists, two experts chosen by the ASI, and a legal professional to enter the room, following an order of the Orissa High Court on March 22 that asked the ASI to check the structural condition of the treasury and submit a report.
”The 10 members would be thoroughly searched before and after the inspection,” chief administrator of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration P.K. Jena told reporters on March 30. They will not be allowed to touch anything inside the room, and cannot take stock of the assets, he added. The Orrisa High Court has been monitoring repair work at the 12th century Jagannath temple since 2016. In late March, a team from the ASI had determined that the outer surface of the ratna bhandar was in good condition. The treasury has seven chambers, and only three were opened back in the 1984 expedition to the dark room.
INDIA, April 4, 2018 (BBC): A big myth is that India is a largely vegetarian country. But that’s not the case at all. Past ”non-serious” estimates have suggested that more than a third of Indians ate vegetarian food. If you go by three large-scale government surveys, 23%-37% of Indians are estimated to be vegetarian. By itself this is nothing remarkably revelatory. But new research by US-based anthropologist Balmurli Natrajan and India-based economist Suraj Jacob, points to a heap of evidence that even these are inflated estimations because of ”cultural and political pressures.” So people under-report eating meat – particularly beef – and over-report eating vegetarian food.
Taking all this into account, say the researchers, only about 20% of Indians are actually vegetarian – much lower than common claims and stereotypes suggest. The government data shows that vegetarian households have higher income and consumption – are more affluent than meat-eating households. The lower castes and tribes-people are mainly meat eaters. According to the National Family Health Survey, the cities with the largest incidence of vegetarianism are Indore at 49%, Meerut 36%, and Delhi 30%.
HPI Note: The least meat-consuming country in the world is Muslim-majority Bangladesh (4 kg/year), the second is India, at 4.4 kg per person per year. For comparison, Americans eat 120 kg of meat a year an Australians 115. The third least meat-consuming country is Muslim Burundi, and the 4th Buddhist majority Sri Lanka. See https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/co … nsume-the-least-meat.html
Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.
— Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Bengali poet and Brahmo Samaj philosopher
