Lord Hanuman’s statue is the third tallest in the United States! The statue, known as the Statue of Union, was inaugurated on August 18 at a lavish Pran Pratishtha celebration in Houston, Texas.
The Statue of Union will be the highest statue of Lord Hanuman in North America, representing power, devotion, and selfless service, according to the statue’s official website. The Statue of Union got its name because Hanuman brought Sri Rama and Sita together.” The statue can be seen in Sugar Land, Texas, in the Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple. The monument “is about creating a spiritual epicenter where hearts find solace, minds find peace, and souls find a path to transcendence,” according to the website.
Additionally, it states that “His Holiness Sri Chinnajeeyar swamiji’s vision is embodied in the project in its entirety.” “Let’s bring the vision of North America’s tallest Hanuman Statue to life, and together, let’s continue to create a world filled with love, peace, and devotion,” it continues. At 151 meters, the Statue of Liberty is the tallest statue in the United States. The Pegasus and Dragon statue at Gulfstream Park in Florida, standing 110 feet tall, is the second-tallest. The third-tallest statue in the United States, the 88.6-foot-tall Statue of Union, is scheduled to be replaced.
In other developments, a carnival float depicting a Hindu temple during the New York City India Day Parade caused a stir. Some groups denounced it as anti-Muslim and demanded that it be taken down from the parade.
The float showed a temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Lord Ram, which was built in Ayodhya, India, earlier this year. However, the location of the temple has long been the subject of fierce dispute between Muslims and Hindus. In the early 1990s, a Hindu fundamentalist mob demolished a mosque that had existed there.
A few US-based organizations had called the float anti-Muslim and claimed it glorified the demolition of the mosque in a letter addressed to Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams of New York City.
The Indian American Muslim Council, Hindus for Human Rights, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations were among the organizations that signed the letter.
“This float’s presence represents these groups’ desire to conflate Hindu nationalist ideology with Indian identity, but India is a secular country,” the letter stated. Afterwards, though, the tableau was included in the parade.