Tsunami carries Hanuman to S Africa!

Scientists doubt that a 25-kg statue on a South African beach could have been carried by killer waves. HT Relief Fund

Scientists and religious leaders have expressed doubts that a statue of Hindu deity Hanuman found on a beach in South Africa had been carried there from Sri Lanka by strong waves from the tsunamis.

HT Image

South African sisters Jenni Ruttledge and Jill Kehagia discovered the hand-painted 25 kg statue Monday at Blythedale Beach on the South African north coast while taking an early morning stroll.

The statue appeared to have been broken off from its base, with the words "Shri Lanka" neatly painted on it, prompting suggestions that it had been washed onto South African shores from there.

"It was such a beautiful-looking statue and I think its find is symbolic," Ruttledge told the weekly Post.

"When we read the words 'Shri Lanka', our immediate thoughts were that it could have been transported by currents after the tsunami disaster."

But Frank Shellington of the University of Cape Town's Oceanography Department was sceptical about that possibility, despite confirming earlier reports of shoes and other small items drifting across the Pacific to Atlantic shores.