Fact Check: Robotic snake wrapped around Lord Buddha statue passed off as real
A video of a 15-feet snake wrapped around a Buddha statue has gone viral on social media.
By Tejal Sinha Published on 18 Jun 2021 6:29 AM GMT
Hyderabad: A video of a 15-feet snake wrapped around a Buddha statue has gone viral on social media.
A Facebook user who shared a similar video claimed that every year during the rains in Nepal, a 15-feet snake covers the statue of Lord Buddha.
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Fact Check
The claims are false.
NewsMeter did a keyword search on YouTube and found a similar video published by the channel 'Sangha TV' on 13 May 2017. The title of the video read "Sri Lanka buddha on snake Gautam Buddha".
We observed that the snake seen in the video did not move like a real snake. It looked like someone was pushing it or it was running intermittently on battery. Also, a red light can be seen flashing in the snake's eyes.
We also found a video by a YouTube channel 'Knowledge, News and Fun' that was published on 13 May 2017.
According to the description of the video, a boy from Sri Lanka used robotic technology to create the Muchalinda cobra.
Muchalinda is the name of a naga, a snake-like being, who protected Gautama Buddha from the elements while he meditated seeking enlightenment. It is said that four weeks after Buddha began meditating under the Bodhi Tree, the heavens darkened for seven days and a prodigious rain descended.
To verify that the video is not from Nepal but Sri Lanka, NewsMeter played the video again and noticed some words in the initial part of the video. When we tried to translate the words, we found that it was written in Sinhala, also known as Sinhalese, a language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka.
Evidently, the video is from Sri Lanka and not Nepal. The 15-feet snake shown in the video was created using robotic technology. Hence, the claim is false.
