Pagan Sites Destroyed In Nepal

Your Watchman on the Wall believes we are getting a glimpse of what the entire world will be like when the rapture occurs and the holy Spirit pulls His restraining influence from the world. Consider a few of the following:

1. Devastating earthquake in Nepal

2. Violence and rioting in Baltimore, MD. and Ferguson, MO.

3. The threat of war with Iran in the strait of Hormuz

4. Isaiah 17 being fulfilled with the utter destruction in Damascus and in Syria

5. Ongoing crisis with the Focus ukushima reactors

6. Focus on materialism and consumerism in the world

7. Growing persecution of Jews and Christians in the world

I also found it interesting that two areas struck with huge earthquakes Haiti and Nepal practice voodoo and pagan Buddhism and Hinduism. Nepal's famous Monkey Temple, pictured below, was destroyed.

 

Nepal's most important religious site in Nepal is Lumbini, west of KATHMANDU , just outside the Indian border. 


Lumbini is sometimes called the “Buddhist Bethlehem” because it is the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, the Indian nobleman who became the Buddha, in 623 B.C.

 Siddhartha’s mother, Queen Maya Devi, is said to have given birth on the site now marked by Lumbini’s Mayadevi Temple, pictured above,  and to have bathed her infant son in its adjacent pool. The ancient part of the site — there are many new temples and monasteries surrounding it — also includes a sacred Bodhi tree, pictured below, the same type of tree the Buddha is said to have sat under when he attained enlightenment. 

Archaeologists have found  evidence of worshippers at this site as early as 1000 B.C., perhaps members of a pre-Buddhist tree-worshipping sect. The extent of the damage at Lumbini is not yet known because of the difficulty of getting in and out of the area.

Two sites  important to Tibetan Buddhists were particularly hard-hit. The Boudhanath Stupa,  pictured below, a fifth-century shrine about seven miles from KATHMANDU that is both a burial mound and place of meditation, was built shortly after the death of Siddhartha. 


Reports say its gold-leafed spire, featuring four pairs of painted blue eyes — the Buddhist symbol for wisdom and enlightenment — collapsed. The stupa, which is domelike and sits under the spire — is reported to have survived with some damage.

Also severely damaged was Swayambhunath, pictured above, a fifth-century stupa in the KATHMANDU Valley. Swayambhunath is also called the “monkey temple” for a community of sacred monkeys that live on the site. The temple, built around the oldest stupa in the KATHMANDU Valley, marks the spot where Buddhists believe that Manjushri, an enlightened being associated with wisdom, had a vision of a giant lotus growing in the water-filled valley. He sat down to worship the lotus and the monkeys are supposed to have been created from his head lice. No kidding. Reports and photographs show the temple’s facade and several of its outbuildings are gone.

Hindu sites, especially those in the center of Nepal’s few cities, were also damaged. Maju Deval, pictured above, built in 1690 in Kathmandu and dedicated to Shiva, the god of destruction, appears to be destroyed. It was known for its many exterior carvings of frolicking figures. 


The temple housed a Shiva lingum, pictured above, a kind of phallic symbol revered as a representation of the god, at its heart. Also gone is Kathmandu’s Trailokya Mohan Temple,  pictured below, built in 1680. Its three-roofed structure sacred to the god Vishnu was flattened.

God says in Psalms 96:3 Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.

 4 For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.

 5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens.

 6 Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

 7 Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the  Lord glory and strength.

 8 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an OFFERING , and come into his courts.

 9 O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.

 10 Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.

Friends, it will be hell on earth 3 1/2 years into the "Great Tribulation".

In the past 24 hours, there have been 25 earthquakes around the world. Many of them are of low magnitude, but at least nine were a magnitude of 4.5 or stronger. Earthquakes can potentially occur anywhere (the small earthquake that shook the US East Coast in 2011, an area considered not at risk, is proof of that); however, the likelihood that an area be hit by an earthquake and its strength vary.

The map above, based on data from the Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program (GSHAP), highlights the areas where there is an increased risk of seismic activity. The GSHAP ran from 1992 to 1999 (as part of the United Nations International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction), and the data shown in the map have not been updated since. While still accurate overall, the data have a few issues. USGS’s National Regional Coordinator Mark Petersen told Quartz that, for instance, the seismic hazard in Haiti, which was hit by a devastating earthquake in 2010, is underestimated in the map. However, Petersen confirmed this is the most accurate global hazard representation available and, while there is detailed information available regionally, updates to the global representation will be made in the next several years.

On the map, Central and South Asia emerge as the areas of the world where earthquakes are more likely to strike, and with greater intensity. A closer look at the map shows Nepal, as well as parts of northern India, as one of the areas with a higher risk of strong earthquakes, which routinely hit the area. The strongest earthquake recorded in Nepal in the past century had an intensity of 8.2, and killed 10,000 people. In the past 15 years, the area has been hit by several strong earthquakes, including in 2001 in Gujarat, India, when 20,000 died, and in 2005 in Pakistan and Kashmir, where 130,000 died.

The Indian plate’s sliding movement under the Eurasian plate is what causes the intense ACTIVITY  around Nepal; it’s also what causes the Himalayas to continue growing (about 1 cm every year). There is no halting that, and strong earthquakes strike Nepal in a 75-year-cycle, which is why scientists were expecting this disaster.

Earthquakes recur in a certain areas periodically—where the activity is more frequent, it’s easier to identify the pattern. That’s the case in the US state of California, where a strong earthquake of 8.0 intensity is expected to hit every 500 years. The last tremor of such magnitude to hit the area was a 7.9 in 1906. The US Geological SURVEY says tension has been accumulating and there is a 7% chance of a similar EVENT  occurring in the next three decades. The likelihood of strong earthquakes hitting the area—albeit not as devastating—in the next 30 years is higher still, with 19% chance of a 6.7 or larger event.