Anthropomorphic? Noooo … But how can you not like an animated TV movie about “‘Swami Ayyappan’, based on the life story of a boy ‘Manikandan’ who became one with God worshipped by millions”?

That is on Indian TV, of course. Animation Xpress for 2 July reports that,

Swami Ayyappan is slated to premier on national TV channels and subsequently distributed as DVDs during the upcoming Sabarimala season in various languages like Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu & Kannada. [What, no Hindi?]

Sabarimala is a place of pilgrimage that welcomes devotees irrespective of religion, caste or creed. [Not many Christians, I’ll bet.]

BBC On-line reports that the Munich Zoo has transferred eight Przewalski's horses to the Altyn-Emel forest in Kazakhstan in an attempt to reintroduce the "last truly wild horse" into the wild. The species has existed only in zoos since the 1940s. Munich Zoo successfully reintroduced another equine species, the koulan, into the same area about twenty years ago. Wild koulan number over 500 since that re-introduction, so they hold out hope for similar success here. They are also hoping to reintroduce the species into CHina and Mongolia.

It's not anthropomorphic, but click here for a photo of the giant golden "Monument to the Defenders of the Fatherland" statue in Astana, Kazakhstan: a medieval archer standing on the back of a winged leopard, symbolically soaring over the steppes raining arrows down upon the enemies of the fatherland:
Kazakhstan was recently mentioned here in August under "Furries aren't the only ones who risk public scorn..." (I found this while web-searching without luck for a picture of the five-headed eagle of Turkmenistan. Can anyone help with that?)

From NPR's Morning Edition. From this, we learn two things: 1) society often reacts badly to nonconformity, and 2) don't wear your fursuit in the streets of Almaty. :)



"Host Alex Chadwick talks to a Central Asian human rights monitor about the Kazahkstan government's arrest of people with "bohemian" lifestyles. That includes those who dress up like Hobbits, the gnome-like creatures from the J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy books. The interviewee is Saule Muthametrakhimova, an editor for the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting."