Statue of Ganesh Offends Visitors at Calgary Zoo

The fact that it’s a ‘foreign god’ actually makes it less of an issue, not more. A crucifix in a mainly Christian country raises the question of whether something is being forced on people. An exotic or historical superstition, however, is merely an unthreatening curiosity. They could put up a collection of beast-headed Egyptian gods, and no one would feel anything was being pushed on them or advocated.

However, in the spirit of fairness, these things should probably be banned/discouraged. It’s best not to let Christians have an excuse to portray themselves as victimised.

I’m actually OK with the statue staying, maybe because it annoys the xians. But I’m in favor of educating kids about world religions, and pointing out that elephants were the inspiration for a Hindu god, and also that Hindus have special ceremonies involving elephants, is certainly something worthwhile to learn about elephants. I also think there should be a statue of Thoth next to the ibis exhibit and totem poles near bear or raven exhibits, etc. Go ahead and talk about mythology, and how animals appear in it. The only way a crucifix would be appropriate, though, is if the zoo had an exhibit of humans, and I don’t know of any zoos that do.

The website of these particular cranks describe this statue as an ‘Idol’.

’nuff said.

Darn foreign gods… Hey, wait?… Isn’t the christian god originally from the middle east? Damn middle eastern gods…. Stay Out of Canada! We only want to worship beavers and moose.

I think it is wrong to show Ganesh! Take down the evil dancing elephant statue (and replace it with one of my agonizingly tortured human being nailed to a bit of wood statue instead).

I had to laugh, imagining how a foreigner has taken up an issue like this. At this rate you cannot get any animal statue in there…

Where’s your right to creativity now…and my goodness so much for Lord Ganesh, I am happy that you have educated so many people on this, otherwise they would not have known HIS popular existence….

I have a question if there is no religion why at all be bothered about it…

There are similar statues at the LA zoo.

I think they are there in terms of cultural education, and not as promotion of a religion.

Also, tgr makes a good point, educating about a religion isn’t the same as promoting a religion.

I can’t see to much being done about this. I have seen the statue. The only people that would identify it as a god or idol would be those who have religion stuck in hyper mode inside there brain. Most people like that around here will be ignored, that is if CBC doesn’t decide to become obsessed with it. I hope it is not a slow week in the news. Go Iran!!!!
To me it looked like a happy elephant dancing, Some Indian heritage piece, never would have thunk it to be a god. Like Vincent said, Babar.
I think this kind of thing is good. It tends to remove the irreverence of such things and bring it down to it’s rightful place. A neat statue.

Let the christians skwak, keeps them from being on the streets preaching. It lets them pretend their doing something worthwhile. Fifteen minutes of fame to make them proud of themselves. Then they can ride on that coat tail for years. Really could we ask for anything more??

It’s a shiny little disk to keep them occupied while the rest of the world moves on.

I’ve been to that exhibit several times and I’ve always really loved seeing that statue. I’m an atheist who believes strongly in the separation of church and state but I also happen to enjoy learning about world religions and mythology.

I think the issue here is that the Calgary Zoo is not trying to promote Hinduism. If anything it should be the Hindus getting offended that kids are climbing on the statue and wiping their runny noses all over it. Its hardly an object of veneration.

A statue of a fat elephant hula dancing seems pretty tacky to me. I mean it has a pot belly and a skirt. If it had six pack abs maybe it would look a little more god-like.

But as Stephen Colbert said you have to be impressed by a deity that can eat without using its hands.

I like the statue. Maybe it’s illogical because I’d be pissed if they put up a cross… although I can’t think of any way possible to make a cross be related to the zoo, so it just would not fit. I’d love to see Egyptian god statues in the zoo, too. That would be fun!

I think they should put up more animal themed deities in the zoo. In Egyptian mythology Anubis had the head of a jackal, Bast the head of a cat or lioness. In Hindu myth there was Ganesh of course with his elephant and Hanuman with a monkey head. Even the Hebrews had a Golden Calf.

A Golden Calf would look excellent next to Ganesh.

Crucifix must be from Holy Land and then it will have a real power

Alright, I’m in the US, not Canada, but I bet they’d still say, “The display of foreign gods is offensive” even if they lived here.

So I’ll have to sign off right now, march up to my very American friend’s office, and inform her Hindu ass that her god is FOREIGN. Right.

Incidently, I have a small ‘rock garden’ in a bowl on my desk here, which includes tiny Ganesh and Buddah statues. Why? They came from the estate of a friend who traveled the world and killed himself a few years ago. There are also a few scraps of stone he brought back from the top of the great pyramid, interesting rock samples from my childhood collection, glass from a friend’s visit to China, gems in the rough, and rock samples from Aswan and Valley of the Kings brought for me by my Hindu friend form Egypt.

Oh yeah, and a rosary with a medal of St. Expidite instead of a cross. Very helpful for work.

Culture is interesting. I say keep the Hula Ganesh. LOL

Sorry, but neither Jim Blake nor the blogger are making much sense here. The statue is clearly being used in a cultural not religious format. Is there any calls for the the orca statue at the Vancouver aquarium brought down, seeing as how its an aboriginal religious symbol as well? Of course not! and neither should there be any such calls for this statue.

I agree with the zoo’s rationalization regarding the dancing elephant: that its a cultural expression linked to the place this species occupies in Asian societys. Also, to suggest that “religion is something more than a cultural artifact or expression is to give religion much more credit than it deserves. Religion is if nothing else, a cultural/mythological narrative that gives meat to the bone of collective and individual identity. Whether you take it as a literal belief system or as a poetic/literary albeit mythical symbolic expression I suppose is the divide between believers and non-believers. Although I am a non-believer, I enjoy exploring the rich world of myth, magic and metaphor to be found in biblical and other religious text.

However, having stated the above it is also critical to point out that true believers thrive on confrontation, it feeds their sense of righteousness and makes them feel alive in relation to their core religious beliefs. They even strap bombs to their bodies or willingly throw themselves into the flames to prove their faith in the deluded belief that they have been granted one form or another of eternal life due to their unwavering faith and degree of submission or obedience. How dangerous is that? It certainly warrants from those of us rooted in rationality, a very close examination in order to avoid and protect ourselves from such madness.

Zoos don’t have people in cages and that’s a big reason why Jesus wouldn’t fit in there. Ganesh is cooler by far. Not cool enough for me to put any belief into him, but it looks like he avoided the fate of being hung like a picture which has been the death of other popular one-third deities.

“You can’t erect a statue to your elephant god because my sky fairy will be offended.”

I love that! ^_^ But yeah, I lived in Calgary and I feel sad that I never got to visit the Calgary Zoo. I passed by it all the time when I lived in Northeast Calgary.

Thank you for posting this article. All in all it was a good article.

I felt it important to add some clarification to your article. In the CBC interview, you linked to, the CBC failed to properly document all of the comments I made which would have brought a more balanced view of my message. But they did at least include one important quote which you left out, “The displaying of different gods in a public place like this is an offense to our beliefs and does not represent the diversity of views that should be reflected.”

In the interview I made the point very clear that the zoo is funded by millions of tax payer dollars. It is therefor a public facility not exclusively a private one, nor a Hindu one. If tax payer dollars of non-Hindus are going into the zoo, then the zoo needs to honor the fact that the zoo should be a neutral place free from any religious icons and more importantly open to people from all religious and non-religious backgrounds.

There is no need to include, either a Noah’s Ark, or a statue of Ganesh at the zoo, even though both have animal themes. When people go there, they want to see animals.

If people want to have a Hundu zoo, where they connect their Hundi beliefs with animals, let them create one and pay for it with private funds. If Hindus want to stand at the public zoo and pass out literature on their god Ganesh, on their own time let them. Christians could do the same and so could other religious groups, that is a matter of freedom of religion and expression. But when the zoo erects a statue of Ganesh they are endorsing that religion with public funds.

I run a Christian organization called Concerned Christians Canada and we do not ask for nor receive government funds to run our organization. In fact, we lobby government for the removal of tax payer funding of special interest groups. Special interest groups should operate free of government funds. Let the people who believe in the organization’s views and agendas fund them.

If you have any questions or need further clarification on my interview or my views on the Ganesh statue or any other topic, please feel free to e-mail nationalchairman@concernedchristians.ca