Doctored image does not show Hindu temple in Sri Lanka
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on June 12, 2023 at 06:23
- 4 min read
- By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India
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"This is the Koneswaram Kovil Shiva Temple in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. This Shiva temple was built by the great Shiva devotee Ravana," reads the Hindi-language claim shared here on Facebook on May 21, 2023.
Koneswaram Temple is one of the five Shiva temples in Sri Lanka (archived link).
Ravana, the mythological king of Lanka, now Sri Lanka, is the chief antagonist of the Hindu epic Ramayana and a devotee of the god Shiva (archived link).
The post included an image of a structure perched atop a tall, slender island, surrounded by people worshipping it. The image also features the god Shiva hovering in the sky on the right and the god's bull, Nandi, on rocks to the left. The Tamil-language text below the bull translates to: "Shiva devotee".
The same doctored image has been shared alongside similar claims on Facebook here and here, as well as on Twitter.
Social media comments show some users appeared to believe the picture was genuine.
"This is the miracle of the hands of the great artist, and craftsman, who has built the temple by cutting the mountain. what an amazing artist", one user wrote.
"The ancient architecture of our India was the best in the world, this temple is a living example of it," wrote another.
But the image does not show a Hindu temple in Sri Lanka. It has been digitally altered to combine a photo of a temple in India with a photo of an island in Thailand.
Island in Thailand
A reverse image search on Google found a picture of the island published on the stock photo website Alamy (archived link).
"Ko Tapu (James Bond) Island, Ao Phang Nga National Park, Ko Ping Kan Phang Nga Province, Thailand," reads the image's caption.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the doctored image (left) and the photo published on Alamy (right). AFP highlighted corresponding features.
A keyword search on Google Maps found the island is located in Thailand, not Sri Lanka (archived link).
Pictures of the Thai island have also appeared in media reports, including Thai outlet Thaiger and UK tabloid Metro, as well as on the Tourism Authority of Thailand's website (archived links here, here and here). These pictures do not include a temple-like structure, the god Shiva, Nandi or the Tamil-language text on the background rock.
Temple in India
A separate Google reverse image search found the temple in the doctored picture shows Meenakshi Amman Temple in India (archived link).
"Tourists at Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai India," reads the caption of a photo published by Getty Images on April 25, 2009.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the temple used in the doctored image (left) and the photo published by Getty Images (right).
Images of the temple taken from different angles and published on the temple's official website do not show it sitting on the edge of an island (archived link).
A Google Maps search found Meenakshi Temple is located in Madurai, a city in India's Tamil Nadu state, not in Sri Lanka (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between a photo of the Meenakshi Amman Temple in India (left) and a photo of the Koneswaram Temple in Sri Lanka (right), both published by Getty Images (archived link).
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