Overview

• In a new roundup, Times Now profiles worship beyond India in Thailand, Nepal, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Japan.
• In Thailand, Ganesha is revered as Phra Phikanet, with statues at temples and business fronts where people pray for success and prosperity.
• In Indonesia’s Bali and parts of Java, Ganesha figures often stand at temple entrances as symbols of wisdom and protection, while Japan venerates Kangiten within esoteric Buddhism, frequently depicted as a dual male–female form.
• Nepal’s Hindu households commonly keep Ganesha shrines and invoke him at the start of rituals, and Sri Lankan Tamils widely worship Pillaiyar across island temples.
• Festival explainers revisit why Ganesha is called the god of knowledge and wisdom, citing his iconography, the Kartikeya parikrama tale, and his role as Vyasa’s scribe for the Mahabharata.