New York:
A 3.46 km flower string, the world's longest garland, has been unveiled by 200 followers of Indian spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy in New York on his 80th birthday, honouring his 50 years of work for world peace.
Ashrita Furman and 170 members of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team from 35 countries including France, Germany, Guatemala, Italy, Portugal, Russia, plus 30 children made the garland to express their gratitude to Chinmoy.
Furman, who holds 200 standing records including the record for holding the most Guinness world records, said, "On the occasion of Sri Chinmoy's 80th birthday anniversary we wanted to do something special."
"The huge garland expresses the deep gratitude we feel. There was a great feeling of oneness and harmony because people from 35 countries were connected by the garland in a circle symbolising planet earth," Furman, a 56-year-old health food store manager from Queens, was quoted as saying by Chinmoy TV.
The team created the flower string, which consists of 80,000 carnations of various colours, around Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, New York.
Chinmoy is a renowned peace visionary who founded the Oneness-Home Peace Run, world's largest torch relay for peace.
Chinmoy's students had gathered from around the world in the city to celebrate his birthday on August 27 and for related activities like peace concerts.
The team created the miles-long string of flowers, which consists of 180,000 carnations of various colours.
The previous record of the longest garland was set by a team in India, four months after Furman had broken the record with a 3.2 km garland in 2011.
He also had many records to his credits including writing 1,301 poems in 24 hours and composing 21,000 songs during his lifetime.