Asian faiths try to save swastika symbol corrupted by Hitler

heetal Deo was shocked when she got a letter from her Queens apartment building’s co-op board calling her Diwali decoration “offensive” and demanding she take it down.

Sheetal Deo and her husband, Sanmeet Deo, hold a Hindu swastika symbol in their home in Syosset, N.Y., on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022. Hindus, Buddhists and Native Americans are trying to rehabilitate the swastika, a symbol of peace and prosperity, and to restore it to a place of sanctity in their faiths. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)© Provided by The Associated Press

“My decoration said ‘Happy Diwali’ and had a swastika on it,” said Deo, a physician, who was celebrating the Hindu festival of lights.

The equilateral cross with its legs bent at right angles is a millennia-old sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism that represents peace and good fortune, and was also used widely by Indigenous people worldwide in a similar vein.

But in the West, this symbol is often equated to Adolf Hitler’s hakenkreuz or the hooked cross – a symbol of hate that evokes the trauma of the Holocaust and the horrors of Nazi Germany. White supremacists, neo-Nazi groups and vandals have continued to use Hitler’s symbol to stoke fear and hate.

Over the past decade, as the Asian diaspora has grown in North America, the call to reclaim the swastika as a sacred symbol has become louder. These minority faith communities are being joined by Native American elders whose ancestors have long used the symbol as part of healing rituals.

A Hindu swastika symbol is displayed at the home of Sheetal and Sanmeet Deo on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022, in Syosset, N.Y. Hindus, Buddhists and Native Americans are trying to rehabilitate the swastika, a symbol of peace and prosperity, and to restore it to a place of sanctity in their faiths. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)© Provided by The Associated Press

Deo believes she and people of other faiths should not have to sacrifice or apologize for a sacred symbol simply because it is often conflated with its tainted version.

“To me, that’s intolerable,” she said.

Yet to others, the idea that the swastika could be redeemed is unthinkable.

Holocaust survivors in particular could be re-traumatized when they see the symbol, said Shelley Rood Wernick, managing director of the Jewish Federations of North America’s Center on Holocaust Survivor Care.

“One of the hallmarks of trauma is that it shatters a person’s sense of safety,” said Wernick, whose grandparents met at a displaced persons’ camp in Austria after World War II. “The swastika was a representation of the concept that stood for the annihilation of an entire people.”

This photo provided by the Rev. TK Nakagaki in November 2022 shows the Zenko-jo Buddhist temple in Nagano, Japan, founded in 642 AD, Japan's first Buddhist temple. The swastika symbol is found in the temple's banners, paper lanterns, pillars, roof tiles and in the main shrine alongside the temple crest design of the hollyhock flower. (The Rev. TK Nakagaki via AP)© Provided by The Associated Press

For her grandparents and the elderly survivors she serves, Wernick said, the symbol is the physical representation of the horrors they experienced.

In this photo provided by Holocaust researcher Jeff Kelman in November 2022, the swastika is seen on a coupon-type store token made before the Nazi Party adopted the symbol. This is part of Kelman's collection, which he says shows the "regular and innocuous use of the swastika as a symbol of good fortune in the West, prior to the Nazi use of the similar-looking hakenkreuz." (Jeff Kelman via AP)© Provided by The Associated Press

“I recognize the swastika as a symbol of hate.”

New York-based Steven Heller, a design historian and author of “Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption?”, said the swastika is "a charged symbol for so many whose loved ones were criminally and brutally murdered.” Heller's great-grandfather perished during the Holocaust.

“A rose by any other name is a rose,” he said. “In the end it's how a symbol affects you visually and emotionally. For many, it creates a visceral impact and that's a fact.”___

The symbol itself dates back to prehistoric times. The word “swastika” has Sanskrit roots and means “the mark of well being.” It has been used in prayers of the Rig Veda, the oldest of Hindu scriptures. In Buddhism, the symbol is known as “manji” and signifies the Buddha’s footsteps. It is used to mark the location of Buddhist temples. In China it's called Wàn, and denotes the universe or the manifestation and creativity of God. The swastika is carved into the Jains’ emblem representing the four types of birth an embodied soul might attain until it is eventually liberated from the cycle of birth and death. In the Zoroastrian faith, it represents the four elements – water, fire, air and earth.

This photo provided by the Rev. TK Nakagaki in November 2022 shows a map where Buddhist temples are marked by swastikas in Japan. The swastika was standardized as a temple marker on maps during the Meiji era in the 1880s, and has since been used for that purpose. (The Rev. TK Nakagaki via AP)© Provided by The Associated Press

In India, the ubiquitous symbol can be seen on thresholds, drawn with vermillion and turmeric, and displayed on shop doors, vehicles, food packaging and at festivals or special occasions. Elsewhere, it has been found in the Roman catacombs, ruins in Greece and Iran, and in Ethiopian and Spanish churches.

The swastika also was a Native American symbol used by many southwestern tribes, particularly the Navajo and Hopi. To the Navajo, it represented a whirling log, a sacred image used in healing rituals and sand paintings. Swastika motifs can be found in items carbon-dated to 15,000 years ago on display at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine as well as on artifacts recovered from the ruins of the ancient Indus Valley civilizations that flourished between 2600 and 1900 BC.

The symbol was revived during the 19th century excavations in the ancient city of Troy by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who connected it to a shared Aryan culture across Europe and Asia. Historians believe it is this notion that made the symbol appealing to nationalist groups in Germany including the Nazi Party, which adopted it in 1920.

In North America, in the early 20th century, swastikas made their way into ceramic tiles, architectural features, military insignia, team logos, government buildings and marketing campaigns. Coca-Cola issued a swastika pendant. Carlsberg beer bottles came etched with swastikas. The Boy Scouts handed out badges with the symbol until 1940.

The Rev. T.K. Nakagaki said he was shocked when he first heard the swastika referred to as a “universal symbol of evil” at an interfaith conference. The New York-based Buddhist priest, who was ordained in the 750-year-old Jodoshinshu tradition of Japanese Buddhism, says when he hears the word “swastika” or “manji,” he thinks of a Buddhist temple because that is what it represents in Japan where he grew up.

“You cannot call it a symbol of evil or (deny) other facts that have existed for hundreds of years, just because of Hitler," he said.

In his 2018 book titled “The Buddhist Swastika and Hitler’s Cross: Rescuing a Symbol of Peace from the Forces of Hate," Nakagaki posits that Hitler referred to the symbol as the hooked cross or hakenkreuz. Nakagaki’s research also shows the symbol was called the hakenkreuz in U.S. newspapers until the early 1930s, when the word swastika replaced it.

FILE - A groom stands behind a sheet bearing the Hindu swastika during a ritual at a mass wedding ceremony in Virar, on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. More than 1000 couples were married during the event that was organized by a local politician. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)© Provided by The Associated Press

Nakagaki believes more dialogue is needed even though it will be uncomfortable.

“This is peace work, too,” he said.

The Coalition of Hindus of North America is one of several faith groups leading the effort to differentiate the swastika from the hakenkreuz. They supported a new California law that criminalizes the public display of the hakenkreuz — making an exception for the sacred swastika.

Pushpita Prasad, a spokesperson for the Hindu group, called it a victory, but said the legislation unfortunately labels both Hitler’s symbol and the sacred one as swastikas.

This is “not just an esoteric battle,” Prasad said, but an issue with real-life consequences for immigrant communities, whose members have resorted to self-censoring.

Vikas Jain, a Cleveland physician, said he and his wife hid images containing the symbol when their children’s friends visited because “they wouldn't know the difference.” Jain says he stands in solidarity with the Jewish community, but is sad that he cannot freely practice his Jain faith “because of this lack of understanding.”

He noted that the global Jain emblem has a swastika in it, but the U.S. Jain community deliberately removed it from its seal. Jain wishes people would differentiate between their symbol of peace and Hitler's swastika just as they do with the hateful burning cross symbol and Christianity's sacred crucifix.

Before World War II, the name “Swastika” was so popular in North America it was used to mark numerous locations. Swastika Park, a housing subdivision in Miami, was created in 1917, and still has that name. In 2020, the hamlet of Swastika, nestled in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, decided to keep its name after town councilors determined that it predated WWII and referred to the prosperity symbol.

Swastika Acres, the name of a Denver housing subdivision, can be traced to the Denver Swastika Land Company. It was founded in 1908, and changed its name to Old Cherry Hills in 2019 after a unanimous city council vote. In September, the town council in Puslinch, Ontario, voted to change the name of the street Swastika Trail to Holly Trail.

Next month, the Oregon Geographic Names Board, which supervises the naming of geographic features within the state, is set to vote to rename Swastika Mountain, a 4,197-foot butte in the Umpqua National Forest. Kerry Tymchuk, executive director of the Oregon Historical Society, said although its name can only be found on a map, it made news in January when two stranded hikers were rescued from the mountain.

“A Eugene resident saw that news report and asked why on earth was this mountain called that in this day and age,” said Tymchuk. He said the mountain got its name in the 1900s from a neighboring ranch whose owner branded his cattle with the swastika.

Tymchuk said the names board is set to rename Mount Swastika as Mount Halo after Chief Halito, who led the Yoncalla Kalapuya tribe in the 1800s.

“Most people we've heard from associate it with Nazism,” Tymchuk said.

For the Navajo people, the symbol, shaped like a swirl, represents the universe and life, said Patricia Anne Davis, an elder of the Choctaw and Dineh nations.

“It was a spiritual, esoteric symbol that was woven into the Navajo rugs, until Hitler took something good and beautiful and made it twisted,” she said.

In the early 20th century, traders encouraged Native artists to use it on their crafts; it appeared often on silver work, textiles and pottery. But after it became a Nazi symbol, representatives from the Hopi, Navajo, Apache and Tohono O’odham tribes signed a proclamation in 1940 banning its use.

Davis views the original symbol that was used by many Indigenous people as one of peace, healing and goodness.

“I understand the wounds and trauma that Jewish people experience when they see that symbol,” she said. “All I can do is affirm its true meaning — the one that never changed across cultures, languages and history. It’s time to restore the authentic meaning of that symbol.”___

Like Nakagaki, Jeff Kelman, a New Hampshire-based Holocaust historian, believes the hakenkreuz and swastika were distinct. Kelman who takes this message to Jewish communities, is optimistic about the symbol’s redemption because he sees his message resonating with many in his community, including Holocaust survivors.

“When they learn an Indian girl could be named Swastika and she could be harassed in school, they understand how they should see these as two separate symbols," he said. “No one in the Jewish community wants to see Hitler’s legacy continue to harm people.”

Greta Elbogen, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor whose grandmother and cousins were killed at Auschwitz, says she was surprised to learn about the symbol's sacred past. Elbogen was born in 1938 when the Nazis forcibly annexed Austria. She went into hiding with relatives in Hungary, immigrated to the U.S. in 1956 and became a social worker.

This new knowledge about the swastika, Elbogen said, feels liberating; she no longer fears a symbol that was used to terrorize.

“Hearing that the swastika is beautiful and sacred to so many people is a blessing,” she said. “It’s time to let go of the past and look to the future.”

For many, the swastika evokes a visceral reaction unlike any other, said Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism who for the past 22 years has maintained the group’s hate symbols database.

“The only symbol that would even come close to the swastika is the symbol of a hooded Klansman,” he said.

The ADL explains the sanctity of the swastika in many faiths and cultures, and there are other lesser-known religious symbols that must be similarly contextualized, Pitcavage said. One is the Celtic cross – a traditional Christian symbol used for religious purposes and to symbolize Irish pride – which is used by a number of white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.

Similarly, Thor’s hammer is an important symbol for those who follow neo-Norse religions such as Asatru. But white supremacists have adopted it as well, often creating racist versions of the hammer by incorporating hate symbols such as Hitler’s hakenkreuz.

“In the case of the swastika, Hitler polluted a symbol that was used innocuously in a variety of contexts,” Pitcavage said. “Because that meaning has become so entrenched in the West, while I believe it is possible to create some awareness, I don’t think that its association with the Nazis can be completely eliminated.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Sacred Mysteries: The structural honesty of the Last of the Goths

here was quite a hoo-ha over the rebuilding of the chapel of Tonbridge School after its destruction by fire in 1988. The architect of its rebuilding, Donald Buttress, called it “a messy and very damaging affair”.

A gargoyle tribute at Chichester Cathedral to Donald Buttress, its Surveyor to the Fabric, 1985–2007 - Lesley Pardoe / Alamy© Lesley Pardoe / Alamy

That phrase came in a letter in 1992 to Kenneth Powell (at the time architectural correspondent of this newspaper, and widely known for his work with Save Britain’s Heritage). Now Powell has written a study of Buttress’s life and work that elucidates the controversy. Buttress, now 90, was at Westminster Abbey (of which he was Surveyor of the Fabric for more than a decade) to see the book launched after a service of choral Evensong.

Among the pejorative terms thrown at Buttress during the rebuilding of Tonbridge School Chapel was “Modernist”. It is true that he used modern materials for the new roof above the old brick walls, all that were left from the Edwardian chapel of 1902.

The new wooden roof was given steel beams, grey-blue with red detailing. Above internal stone wall-shafts, steel “upswingers” – horn-shaped bundles of curved metal rods – secure the roof ties. Halfway down the nave, from two pairs of roof beams, hang inverted triangular steel frames. These support six-foot chandeliers suspended from the roof ridge and also stiffen the roof to support an external roof turret topped by a cupola and flèche.

Buttress had not wanted to replicate the roof spirelet lost in the fire. For one thing, it would be expensive. He wanted to extend an existing stair turret at one corner to accommodate a bell-cote. But he adjusted his plans. The leadwork of the new roof turret was to win an award for its craftsmanship. Indeed, the whole chapel possesses the spirit of Arts and Crafts. Buttress believed the chapel embodied much of his architectural credo: “directness, structural honesty and expression, rooted in history but definitely of its own time”.

Powell narrates an early passage in the architect’s life to explain his conviction that “all great Gothic buildings are capable of growth and enrichment”. Buttress did his National Service at St Athan, Glamorgan. Not far away was Llandaff Cathedral, badly damaged by bombing, but in 1957 restored with a striking addition to the nave. It was a great concrete parabola arch, allowing sight of the east end, but acting like a medieval pulpitum or stone screen. On this arch stood a vertical cylinder on which was fixed a sculpted figure of Christ in Majesty by Jacob Epstein. The architect responsible for this was George Pace (1915-75). Buttress thought it a 20th-century masterpiece.

When Buttress became Surveyor to the Fabric of Chichester Cathedral in 1985, he took Pace’s ideas with him. Though a conservationist, he agreed with Pace’s opposition to “arid preservationism which ignored liturgical and aesthetic issues” in Powell’s words. Buttress sometimes found it hard to accept that the shape of church buildings should be decided by secular elements in the conservation lobby. While surveyor, Buttress contributed to a beguiling little book on the collapse of Chichester spire in 1861. His years at the cathedral are commemorated by a carved gargoyle.

As Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey, 1988-99, Buttress restored the exuberantly Perpendicular Henry VII’s Chapel, replacing more than 300 of its carved elements, many the decayed work of Thomas Gayfere, the early 19th-century master mason. Here and elsewhere Buttress formed part of a long tradition and did not repudiate the sobriquet accorded him as “the Last of the Goths”.

‘Shame!’: Tourist pelted with water by angry mob after climbing sacred Mayan temple

A tourist was pelted with water and booed loudly by locals after she climbed a sacred, off-limits Mayan temple.

Tourist appears to mock the 'no climbing' rule with a little dance at the top.jpg© TikTok/@AngelaLopeze

The woman was filmed by bystanders scaling the enormous El Castillo (also known as the Temple of Kukulcán), a Mesoamerican step-pyramid at the Chichen Itza archaeological site in Mexico.

In the video, a blonde woman is seen dancing at the top of the steps as a security guard begins the long climb to remove her from the landmark.

By the time she was brought to the base of the pyramid, a crowd had gathered to boo, shout at and film her, chanting “jail, jail, jail” in unison.

A security guard tried to hold the mob back but the woman can be seen flinching as the crowd throws water at her in the clip.

The video has had more than 4.3 million views at the time of writing, with @angelalopeze, who posted it to TikTok, writing: “This is so disrespectful... don’t mess with my Mexican people.”

In a follow-up video posted to Twitter, bystanders are seeing grabbing the woman’s hair and throwing water at her as she tries to walk away from the mob.

The pyramid, which was constructed between the 8th and 12th centuries AD, has been off-limits to tourists since 2006; they may walk around it and photograph it but are forbidden from climbing or walking up it.

Pope compares Russia's war in Ukraine to 1930s famine inflicted by Stalin

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Wednesday that Ukrainians were suffering today from the "martyrdom of aggression" and compared Russia's war in Ukraine to the "terrible genocide" of the 1930s, when Soviet leader Josef Stalin inflicted famine on the country.

Francis, speaking to thousands of people in St. Peter's Square in his weekly general audience, mentioned the "Holodomor", or death by starvation, in which millions of Ukrainians died.

"This Saturday marks the anniversary of the terrible genocide of the Holodomor, the extermination by famine of 1932-33 that was artificially caused by Stalin," he said.

 "Let us pray for the victims of this genocide and let us pray for so many Ukrainians - children, women, elderly - who are today suffering the martyrdom of aggression," he said.

For hundreds of years, the Ukrainian language and any expression of Ukrainian culture and independent identity were quashed, first under the Russian Empire of the tsars and later by the Soviets.

The Holodomor was a result of Stalin's efforts to collectivise agriculture and root out Ukraine's fledgling nationalist movement.

Since Russia invaded its neighbour in February, Francis has mentioned Ukraine in nearly all his public appearances and has warned several times that the crisis risks triggering the use of nuclear weapons, with uncontrollable global consequences.

Last month the pope for the first time directly begged Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the "spiral of violence and death" in Ukraine.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Alex Richardson and Gareth Jones) Reference: Story by By Philip Pullella •