Ancient Hindu temple in Sialkot reopens after 72 years
Sialkot (Pakistan): An ancient Hindu temple in Sialkot in Pakistan’s Punjab province has been reopened for worshippers after 72 years on the directives of country’s Federal government. Fulfilling the longstanding demand of minority Hindu community, the Shawala Teeja Singh Temple was recently opened and inaugurated according to Hindu traditions, reported The Express Tribune. “For several years, the Hindu community has been demanding that the temple be opened,” said Syed Faraz Abbas, the deputy secretary of the Shrine. Abbas added that the work on restoring the temple will soon begin after estimating the renovation cost. The idols of Hindu deities will be brought in from India. The temple had remained closed since the partition and was reopened on the directives of Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan and Evacuee Trust Property Board (EPTB) Chairman Dr Amir Ahmed. In a similar development, a 500-year-old Gurudwara in Sialkot recently opened its doors for Indian Sikh pilgrims. While the Gurudawara earlier remained open for pilgrims from Pakistan, as well as Europe, Canada and the United States, the Indian pilgrims were not allowed to visit the holy place. (ANI)
English pocket watch sells for record price at auction
London: A pocket watch known as ‘Space Traveller I’, one of the only 23 ever made by English horologist George Daniels that commemorates the 1969 moon landing, became the highest-selling English watch when it went under the hammer for Rs 31.3 crore at Sotheby’s in London. Daniels (1926-2011) was considered one of the most important horologists and watchmakers of the 20th century and this watch was one of his most sought after creations, which was completed in 1982. It sold for 3,615,000 pounds. Described by Daniels as “the kind of watch you would need on your package tour to Mars”, the timepiece was built with both solar and sidereal time, equation of time and phases of the moon, Sotheby’s said. (IANS)
US gallery to display rare lunar images from 1850s
Washington: Long before the Apollo 11 put a man on lunar soil, the Moon had been photographed via unmanned missions and telescopes. An upcoming exhibition here traces how the lunar surface was captured starting as early as the 1850s. The photo-show “By the Light of the Silvery Moon: A Century of Lunar Photographs” opens at the National Gallery of Art here on July 14. It presents 50 works from the 19th century to the ‘space-age’ 1960s. On view would be a select survey of lunar photographs, including a late 1850s glass stereograph of the full Moon, a few 1865 albumen prints capturing the Moon’s different phases, and plates of different lunar areas from the late 1800s. It is notable that photography was introduced in 1839, and Moon, since the advent, had been a major field of exploration. This exhibition is curated by Diane Waggoner, curator of 19th-century photographs at the American gallery. “As NASA planned where to land Apollo 11, the unmanned American Ranger, Surveyor, and Lunar Orbiter spacecraft journeyed to the Moon and transmitted images, creating otherworldly photographs not only of the lunar areas visible from the Earth, but also of the Moon’s far side,” the gallery said in a statement. From more recent times, displayed will be a selection of photographs from these missions. From Apollo 11, glass stereographs taken by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin show close-up views of three-inch-square areas of the lunar surface. Also on view are several NASA photographs of the astronauts on the Moon, such as Armstrong planting the American flag and the iconic image of the astronaut’s footprint in the lunar soil, and press photographs taken both before and after the mission. 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing on July 20, 1969. (IANS)