Compiled by C. ARUNO, FAZLEENA AZIZ and R. ARAVINTHAN
A TEMPLE in India got about 14.5 billion rupees (RM773mil) in donations last year, Malaysia Nanban reported.
This was stated in the annual report released last week by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which manages the major pilgrimage site for Hindus worldwide.
According to the management, 23.7 million people visited the Tirupati Venkateswara temple last year.
For comparison, 10.4 million devotees came to the temple in 2021, donating 8.3 billion rupees (RM443mil).
TTD official Dharma Reddy said the 2022 donations received were the highest in the history of the temple despite being open to only a limited number of visitors during the first two months of the year due to Covid-19 restrictions.
December was a “bumper month” for the temple with more than two million visitors who also bought 10.8 million of the famous Tirupati laddus made at the temple.
The temple sold a staggering 115.4 million laddus and gave out 47.7 million free meals to pilgrims throughout the year, TTD reported.
About 10.9 million devotees also had their heads shaved at the hill temple to fulfil their vows.
The temple has already recorded over 600,000 visitors in the first 11 days of 2023.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.