{"id":4590,"date":"2011-07-31T16:57:27","date_gmt":"2011-07-31T20:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=4590"},"modified":"2011-07-28T21:44:54","modified_gmt":"2011-07-29T01:44:54","slug":"ny-times-local-hindus-make-pilgrimage-to-ganges-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/ny-times-local-hindus-make-pilgrimage-to-ganges-beach","title":{"rendered":"NY Times: Local Hindus make pilgrimage to &#8220;Ganges&#8221; beach in Queens, NY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The shells bobbed in the surf, not far from clay bowls, rotting limes and waterlogged rags that had washed back ashore, flotsam from previous Hindu ceremonies to mark festivals, births, deaths and everything in between.<\/p>\n<p>However, the location was not India&#8217;s Ganges River. It was Queens, New York.<\/p>\n<p>As the Hindu population has grown in Queens over the last decade, so too has the amount of ritual debris \u2014 clothing, statues, even cremation ashes \u2014 lining the banks of the bay in Gateway National Recreation Area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe call it the Ganges,\u201d one pilgrim, Madan Padarat, said as he finished his prayers. \u201cShe takes away your sickness, your pain, your suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But to the park rangers who patrol the beach, the holy waters are a fragile habitat, the offerings are trash and the littered shores are a federal preserve that must be kept clean for picnickers, fishermen and kayakers. Unlike the Ganges, they say, the enclosed bay does not sweep the refuse away.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/22\/nyregion\/hindus-find-a-ganges-in-queens-to-park-rangers-dismay.html?_r=1\" target=\"_blank\">CLICK HERE to read full article in the <\/a><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/22\/nyregion\/hindus-find-a-ganges-in-queens-to-park-rangers-dismay.html?_r=1\" target=\"_blank\">New York Times<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The shells bobbed in the surf, not far from clay bowls, rotting limes and waterlogged rags that had washed back ashore, flotsam from previous Hindu ceremonies to mark festivals, births, deaths and everything in between. However, the location was not India&#8217;s Ganges River. It was Queens, New York. As the Hindu population has grown in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76,1],"tags":[2212],"class_list":["post-4590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hindu","category-uncategorized","tag-hindu"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NY Times: Local Hindus make pilgrimage to &quot;Ganges&quot; beach in Queens, NY<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/ny-times-local-hindus-make-pilgrimage-to-ganges-beach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NY Times: Local Hindus make pilgrimage to &quot;Ganges&quot; beach in Queens, NY\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The shells bobbed in the surf, not far from clay bowls, rotting limes and waterlogged rags that had washed back ashore, flotsam from previous Hindu ceremonies to mark festivals, births, deaths and everything in between. However, the location was not India&#8217;s Ganges River. It was Queens, New York. As the Hindu population has grown in&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/ny-times-local-hindus-make-pilgrimage-to-ganges-beach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-31T20:57:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-07-29T01:44:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NY Times: Local Hindus make pilgrimage to \"Ganges\" beach in Queens, NY","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/ny-times-local-hindus-make-pilgrimage-to-ganges-beach","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"NY Times: Local Hindus make pilgrimage to \"Ganges\" beach in Queens, NY","og_description":"The shells bobbed in the surf, not far from clay bowls, rotting limes and waterlogged rags that had washed back ashore, flotsam from previous Hindu ceremonies to mark festivals, births, deaths and everything in between. However, the location was not India&#8217;s Ganges River. It was Queens, New York. As the Hindu population has grown in&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/ny-times-local-hindus-make-pilgrimage-to-ganges-beach","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2011-07-31T20:57:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-07-29T01:44:54+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/ny-times-local-hindus-make-pilgrimage-to-ganges-beach","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/ny-times-local-hindus-make-pilgrimage-to-ganges-beach","name":"NY Times: Local Hindus make pilgrimage to \"Ganges\" beach in Queens, NY","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-07-31T20:57:27+00:00","dateModified":"2011-07-29T01:44:54+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/ny-times-local-hindus-make-pilgrimage-to-ganges-beach#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/ny-times-local-hindus-make-pilgrimage-to-ganges-beach"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/07\/ny-times-local-hindus-make-pilgrimage-to-ganges-beach#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NY Times: Local Hindus make pilgrimage to &#8220;Ganges&#8221; beach in Queens, NY"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4590"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5078,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4590\/revisions\/5078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}