Hindu Statue Sheds Tears After Quake: Bali School

Jakarta Globe, October 14, 2011

A number of people have flocked to a junior high school in Bali’s Bangli district to view a statue of a Hindu goddess that students say began shedding tears after Thursday’s earthquake.

The statue, which is of the goddess Saraswati, sits three meters high in a water fountain in the courtyard of SMPN 1 in Susut.

The alleged tears were first spotted by students, and their claims are now being taken up by school officials who say the tears are a symbol of Thursday’s disaster, which saw dozens of people injured.

“The statue looks like a person crying,” said Dewa, a student at the school. “We were surprised.”

Sukarsana, the school’s headmaster, said that after inspecting the statue, he believed it was in fact shedding real tears.

“We, the school, plan to ask for suggestions from paranormal experts to understand the phenomenon of the goddess Saraswati crying,” he said, as quoted by Okezone.