Bo Da Pagoda preserves sacred Buddhist treasures

<< Like a prayer: The entrance to Bo Da Pagoda.

The pagoda, also known as Quan Am (Goddess of Mercy) or Bo Pagoda for short, lies at the foot of a pine-covered hill, surrounded by earthen walls with mountains and rivers in the distance.

Legend has it that the Goddess of Mercy helped a poor childless couple there. One day, the husband was cutting pine trees at the top of the mountain when 32 gold coins suddenly burst from a tree. An enlightened monk told him that it was a miraculous appearance of the Goddess. The woodcutter entreated the goddess to give him a son, saying that if she did so he would build a pagoda to worship her. The woodcutter's wish was fulfilled, and he built a pagoda just as he had promised. Many other people have also gotten their wishes fulfilled by praying to the Goddess in this pagoda, so it is named Quan Am Pagoda.

The pagoda was built in the 11th century under the Ly dynasty, the golden age of Buddhism in Viet Nam, but was badly damaged during wars in subsequent centuries. It was not until the revival of the Le dynasty under King Le Du Tong (1705-28) that the pagoda was reconstructed and more or less retains the shape it has today.

Bo Da is a centre of Lam Te Buddhism and has a major role in the promotion and development of Buddhism in Viet Nam. Every year, the pagoda attracts many monks and believers from across the country who come here to meditate and learn this faith.

Compared to other pagodas in the North, Bo Da is unique for its architecture: while it appears to be a closed complex from the outside, on the inside the pagoda has hundreds of compartments that all open into one another. The pagoda provides visitors with a sacred, secluded refuge from the outside world.
The pagoda's walls and gates are made from packed earth – 0.8m thick and 2-3m high. This is an ancient building technique which distinguishes this pagoda from many others.

The walls, tiles, big water jars, and decorative pots in Bo Da all have a distinct brown soil colour.

The pagoda is also home to many documents, objects and antiques which have great value in terms of culture, history, architecture and fine arts. These include a bronze bell, a stone stele, a horisontal lacquered board engraved with Chinese characters, and a pair of wood panels on which are inscribed parallel sentences.

Special woodblock

Because of the great influence of Lam Te Buddhism, most of the pagoda's famous carved woodblocks bear the Sutras of Zen Buddhism.

In the 18th century, the monks at the pagoda carved Buddhist Sutras on wood to preserve the texts so they could be used for the teaching of Buddhism. Over 2,000 Sutra woodblocks are arranged on eight bookcases.

Large blocks are laid on the tables so that visitors can see them easily. The woodblocks are 44cm long, 22cm wide and 2.5cm thick.

Some of them are larger, measuring 150cm long, 30cm wide and 2.5cm thick. If all the Sutra woodblocks were laid side by side, they would cover an area of 250sq.m.
All the blocks were carved on thi wood (decandrous perssimmom) that is both light and pliable – perfect for carving and moving – and durable. To this day, hardly any have rotted.

Unique towers

"For us, the most interesting part of the pagoda was the field of old tombs along the hill, which are said to belong to the chief monks of the pagoda and some others," said visitor Nguyen Thanh Hoa.

Outside Bo Da Pagoda is an 8,000sq.m Tower Garden encircled by an old brick wall.

"The towers here are made of stone and solid brick, coated with lime, molasses and wood-pulp and arranged layer upon layer," Hoa added.

Most of the towers are 3-5m high and have three or four storeys. Inside 97 towers is the bone-ash of more than 1,000 monks of Lam Te Buddhism. These towers, inscribed with the days of birth and death of the monks, are a valuable source for researchers of Lam Te Buddhism.

With its many tower tombs, Bo Da's Tower Garden is considered the biggest and most beautiful in Viet Nam.

Hoa said he was lucky enough to participate in the Bo Da Festival, which is held annually on February 16-17 of the lunar calendar. The festival attracts thousands of monks and visitors nationwide and involves both prayer and sightseeing.
"Besides going sightseeing, I had the chance to enjoy famous folk music and songs performed by local artists," said Hoa.

View the original article here

Buddha circuit in Gulbarga - new attraction for visitors

The Buddha Vihara in Gulbarga became an instant hit after it was inaugurated in 2009. Shortly, the 'Sleeping Buddha' in the adjoining district will draw crowds. The hills surrounding the Shahpur town in Yadgir district hold the curiosity. The visitors can hardly miss the view on a hill, which looks like 'Sleeping Buddha.' Realizing the importance of the place, the government is developing the area as a tourist attraction at Rs 4.38 crore. The Buddha hill will have a walkway, watch tower, parking facilities, open air theatre, meditation center, barbed wire fencing, direction markers and roadside facilities. The union ministry of tourism has already approved the and the state government has already released Rs 40 lakh to the Yadgir deputy commissioner.

The government is developing four acres 25 guntas of land for the purpose. The process of land acquisition has already begun and Rs seven lakh has been released for the purpose.

In Karnataka, 767 monuments have been declared as 'Protected Monuments.' The number of protected monuments in the Hyderabad-Karnatak region is 196. Of this, Gulbarga has 32 and Yadgir 55. Mosques, tombs, Dargahs, pre-historic stone circles, cairns and avenues are the most common monuments in Gulbarga and Yadgir.

The department of Kannada and culture is developing 14 monuments in the twin districts at Rs 813.35 lakh. The four-year project, which has begun in 2011-12, will be completed in 2014-15. From the tourism department, to develop the religious and historical places in Gulbarga district, Rs 17.74 crore is being spent and Rs 9.4 crore in the Yadgir district.

Besides being a tourist attraction, the Buddha Vihara, which is adjoining the Gulbarga University, has now become a meditation centre. The Vihara, which is built in 70 acres of land was inaugurated by former President Prathibha Patil and Tibetan spiritual Guru, the Dalai Lama in 2009, draws huge crowd, especially during the Full Moon Day and special occasions like Buddha Purnima. Brahmanand, a visitor, said: I visit often for meditation. I never miss to be here during the Full Moon day.'' Buddha Vihara has two floors -- ground floor has six-foot tall black stone statue of Buddha and the first floor hosts a six-foot tall statue of smiling Buddha.

Besides these two places, the authorities have unearthed several scripts and Stupas in Gulbarga district. Stupas have been found in Sannathi and Knaganahalli.

Priyank Kharge, whose father Mallikarjun Kharge, union labour minister, is responsible for the establishment of Buddha Vihara, admitted that the increasing fascination for Buddhism. But, Of late, it has become a fashion status for many, including those from the Hollywood. This shouldn't be done. Budddhism teaches only basic human values,'' he said.

View the original article here

In Thailand Today, Teen Monks Express the Spirit to a Rock

Home Asia Pacific South East Asia Thailand

Thailand's Buddhists are a bit annoyed with today's young monks. As mobile phones and other devices grow more popular, it's becoming harder for religious leaders to control the images of Buddhism in the media and marketplace. WSJ's James Hookway reports.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Each year as monsoon rains sweep their way over Thailand, tens of thousands of teenage boys shave their heads and are ordained as Buddhist monks in a traditional rite of passage.

Some find their life's vocation during the few weeks they spend in the monastery, and they become full-time monks.

Others post videos of themselves on YouTube, as they play air guitar to hard-rock tracks like Yngwie Malmsteen's "Iron Clad," or recite religious chants to thumping hip-hop beats.

The Buddhist faith practiced by more than 90% of Thailand's population is going through something like culture shock as the country quickly modernizes alongside East Asia's other booming economies. With more Thais going online, often through mobile phones, some of the country's novice monks are becoming online media stars, jarring an older generation that doesn't quite know what to make of it all.

"Technology is advancing very quickly and we can't keep up," said Phra Kasem Sanyato, secretary of the Buddhism Protection Center of Thailand, a watchdog for religious affairs.

"The younger generation is losing respect," added 48-year-old Pornpun Kaewbundit, as she emerged from a temple in Bangkok's historic old town recently.

Besides rocking out to Mr. Malmsteen, who was born in Sweden and lives in Florida, some monks film themselves playing pranks on other novices or shouting out lyrics to the likes of Thailand's heavy-metal band Bodyslam. They often use deodorant sticks or whatever else is at hand as stand-ins for microphones. Brooms often double as guitars.

A June 30 demonstration in Bangkok asked for more respect for Buddhist traditions.

The clips are quickly becoming a genre of their own on YouTube and other sites, with some users taking one clip and remixing it with fresh backing music. The result: mash-ups of monks with shaved heads cavorting about in wigs to Dead or Alive's 1980s hit "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)."

Monks old enough to know better are getting caught up in the excitement, too.

Phra Klairung Rujidhammo was recently catapulted to national fame when he was filmed performing suggestive dance moves, known here as coyote dancing after the film "Coyote Ugly" set in a New York dance-bar. Phra Klairung, a chunky temple secretary in his mid-forties, quickly apologized after the clip went viral, explaining that he was trying to cheer people up after flooding hit the area around his temple in northern Bangkok.

His superiors gave him a two-week suspension, and Phra (Phra is a religious title) Klairung is back collecting food offerings and other alms from the local community each morning.

Some Thais, though, fear that the Buddhist clergy's standards are slipping. They are urging Thais to be a little less tolerant than the country's image as a magnet for night-clubbers and sun-seekers might suggest.

Bangkok jeweler Acharavadee Wongsakon, for instance, on June 30 led a procession of several hundred protesters through the city's famous Chatuchak weekend market and the Khao San Road backpacker district to persuade Thais and foreign tourists to show more respect. That includes avoiding getting inked up with Buddhist tattoos.

Accompanied by ornate floats and banners saying "No" to the Disney movie "Snow Buddies," which features a dog named Buddha, Ms. Acharavadee silenced the normally raucous backpackers who frequent the area as she and her followers made their way past bars with names such as Lucky Beer and the Lava Lounge.

"I think they have a point," whispered 23-year-old Carla Bennett from Canada, who was getting her hair braided at a street stall at the side of the road. "Maybe they are tired of people stomping over what they believe in."

During a breather between parades, Ms. Acharavadee complained that some Thais regard Buddhism as little more than a detail listed on their national identity cards. "The Internet is compounding the problem. People are spending less time studying Buddhism, and they are missing its message," she said.

Another source of worry in religious circles is the fact that Thais are having fewer children than they used to as more families move from farms to the country's cities. Thai women now have an average of 1.5 children, down from more than six in the 1960s. That means fewer teenagers are ordained as novices. All Thai Buddhist males generally get ordained at some point in their lives, though most often in their teenage years and sometimes earlier.

Some Buddhists are fighting fire with fire by turning to reality television shows and the Internet to revive interest in Buddhist teachings. Thai cable network True Corp. this year began airing a live, rolling documentary about the lives of nine novice monks ordained at a temple in eastern Bangkok. Snappily titled "Novice Monks Cultivate Dharma Wisdom," it was a surprise hit.

One fan, 64-year-old Wallapa Chairat, says she gets up at 5:30 each morning to watch the young monks go around collecting alms. One day she got out of bed at 4 a.m. and left her house in Nonthaburi province near Bangkok to offer food to the young monks herself.

"The news programs and soap operas are full of angry people who are jealous and fighting," Ms. Wallapa says. "But the little monks provide peace and happiness."

The young monks seemed to enjoy it, too. "I think living in the monkhood is the best thing I've ever done in my life," 9-year-old Theerapath Suthipatharapan told the show after his stint in the temple was up. Unlike other reality shows, the monks aren't voted out by the audience.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444025204577545350105074874.html

View the original article here

Odisha Urges Centre to include state's Buddhist heritage sites in NCERT text books

Home Asia Pacific South Asia India

Orissa, India -- Odisha Government urges Union Culture Ministry to ask NCERT to make corrections to its text on Buddhist sites by including ones in Odisha. Odisha Tourism Minister Maheswar Mohanty demanded this during his meeting with Union Culture Minister Kumari Selja in New Delhi.

Minister Mohanty said that, everyone knows about Nalanda from their school textbooks, but very few know about Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri and Udayagiri. While textbooks prepared by the NCERT mentions Nalanda as one of the major Buddhist sites in India, it has ignored Odisha as an important seat of Buddhist Learning. He demanded centre to include Buddhist heritage sites of the state in NCERT text books.Minister Mohanty urged the Minister Kumari Selja to handed over the sacred relic of Buddha  to the state government as state government will display it for tourists and public at the state museum in Bhubaneswar. After the completion of new museum in Lalitgiri the state government will transfer the sacred Relic of the tooth of Buddha to Lalitgiri. It should be noted that ASI preserved the sacred relic of Buddha in it's strong room in Bhubaneswar after it was unearthed at Lalitgiri in 1986.

View the original article here

George Lopez: America's Buddhist?

Home Personality

Houston, Texas (USA) -- The last three years have been eventful for comedian George Lopez. He divorced his wife of 17 years amid rumors of his infidelity. (Ann Lopez saved her husband's life in 2005 when she donated one of her kidneys to him after his failed due to a degenerative disease.) He signed on as host of FOX's matchmaking reality show Take Me Out. He's been a big Obama supporter. He's picked a fight with anti-immigrant Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

<< Photo by Robert Sebree PhotographyMost recently he hosted a live HBO comedy special, It's Not Me, It's You. "All the specials that I do are live," he tells Art Attack. "In life, fear is the biggest inhibitor of people living a full life. We're afraid to do this, afraid to do that. In order to get past it, you take the things that are most challenging and face them head on. I grew up afraid of everything. Now I can honestly say I'm probably not afraid of anything. I remember my grandmother saying, 'Go get a blanket in there, but be careful.' Be careful? Of a blanket?"Much of Lopez's humor is based on growing up with his cantankerous, prejudiced grandmother. He remembers his grandmother's unorthodox way of grocery shopping. Seeing her fellow shoppers prompted her purchases. "She'd never make a list," Lopez says. "She'd see a chinito and say, 'Get some rice.' She'd see someone from the Middle East and say, 'Get deodorant.'" Relationship issues also make it into his show. "When you decide who you want to spend the rest of your life with, make sure it's someone who loves you for who you are and what you are, for your good side and your bad side" he says to his cheering audiences. Then he deadpans, "Good luck."Referring to his own failed marriage, Lopez is somber as he tells us, "That situation is just unfortunate. She's a good woman, but our personalities are just very, very different. When I got out, I started thinking about what I could do to be better. Now that I'm away from that situation, I'm able to examine myself. When you're in a relationship that's not the greatest, you're on guard all the time. You're not thinking about what you can do to be better; you're just thinking about what you can do to maintain."I'm actually not anything like I was when I was married. I think my ex-wife would have been happier if I had been this guy then. It's not necessarily true that everyone is meant to be married until death. I know it says until death do you part, but when you wanna die every day, that's close enough."Lopez, considered a role model for young Latinos, says that's not a title he's sought. He acknowledges that he's overcome a difficult, disadvantaged childhood, but doesn't claim any particular strength of character. "When I think about where my life was, I'm just so appreciative that I never really got too sideways. I always kept my eye on something that I truly wanted to do - comedy. Fortunately, people enjoy what I do."So why do some people make it and others don't? "People settle for things without wanting to challenge themselves. They get a job and they stay there; they marry the first person they were ever with. They didn't look at the big picture and they settle for what's right in front of them. I think they chose to take what's behind door number one, without even bothering to think about what could be behind door number three. You have to take that chance."I used to be ashamed of where I came from. I went through a lot of painful things as a child and saw things that I probably shouldn't have seen as a kid. I was always thinking, 'Things are so bad, there's got to be something better than this.' I took that negative and aspired to the positive."The comedian credits golf with teaching him the life lessons his family didn't. "The only lessons that I got growing up were, 'Don't touch that, don't do that, or don't ever let me see you do that again.' You're not going to learn much by that. When I started to play golf in 1981 it brought out all of the things that were wrong with me. I was bad tempered, I would quit, I would lie on the score - and I was really only lying to myself on that."Through handling my temper, through calming myself down, through trying less, I did more. It's not a religious thing, because it's not a religion, but it is very peaceful. I'm practicing a little bit of Buddhism now, which is completely out of the ordinary for me. Golf is a little bit like that. At that moment, at that time, you're being your best. All we are is moments until the moments are gone. You can say, 'In two weeks, I want to go to Hawaii.' Well, good luck getting to the two weeks," he laughs.An avid supporter of President Obama, Lopez has been to the White House three times during the present administration. Not bad for a guy born in a charity hospital in L.A., he says proudly. "And every time I go to the White House, I steal something."See George Lopez in his This is The America I Live In tour at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Bayou Music Center, 520 Texas. For information, visit the Bayou Music Center website or call 713‑230‑1600. $49.50 to $61.

View the original article here

Buddha statue from the ancient Gandhara civilisation covered up

More than 10 years on Western experts say Afghanistan's ancient Buddhist and early Islamic heritage is little safer.

At the foot of the cliff where the two Buddhas used to stand 130 kilometres (80 miles) west of Kabul, an archaeological site has been found and parts of a third Buddha, lying down, were discovered in 2008.

The area of the lying Buddha is around half the size of a football pitch. A dozen statues or more lie under tonnes of stone and earth.

"We covered everything up because the ground is private and to prevent looting," says Zemaryalai Tarzi, the 75-year-old French archaeologist born in Afghanistan who is leading the project.

Tarzi says he dug first in the potato fields to find artefacts, which he buried again afterwards. All around him, under a large area of farmland, he says, lie exceptional treasures.

In the West, the presence of such riches would lead to a large-scale excavation, frantic research and in time, glorious museum exhibitions.

In Afghanistan, ground down by poverty and three decades of war, it is the opposite.

"The safest place is to leave heritage underground," says Brendan Cassar, head of the UNESCO mission in Afghanistan, adding that policing the thousands of prehistoric, Buddhist and Islamic sites dotted around the country was impossible.

Below ground, the relics are protected from endemic looting, illegal smuggling and the corrosive effects of freezing winters.

"There is looting on a large or small scale at 99.9 percent of sites," says Philippe Marquis, director of a French archaeological delegation in Afghanistan.

Middlemen pay Afghans $4 to $5 a day to dig up artefacts, which are smuggled abroad and sold for tens of thousands of dollars in European and Asian capitals, he says.

Cassar believes the solution is educating locals about the value of their history and the need to implement the law, and a global campaign using Interpol and customs to stop smuggling.

UNESCO added the rocky Bamiyan valley, with its old forts, temples and cave paintings, to its list of endangered heritage sites in 2003. But sites have been destroyed throughout the country.

Hadda in the east was home to thousands of Greco-Buddhist sculptures dating from the 1st century BC to 1st century AD, but it was devastated in the 1990s civil war. Hundreds of pieces have disappeared or been destroyed.

Marquis says the old city of Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern province of Helmand -- whose 11th-century arch appears on the 100 afghani ($2) banknote -- was irreparably damaged by an influx of refugees.

A Chinese copper mining company has been granted a concession over an area in Logar province, south of Kabul, that includes an ancient Buddhist monastery, and researchers fear the ruins will largely be destroyed.

Archaeologists complain that culture is only a secondary consideration to development and security.

"Cultural issues are never the priority. Security, yes, which eats up 40 percent of the Afghan state budget," says Habiba Sorabi, the governor of Bamiyan province, where few public resources are allotted to archaeology.

A meeting in Paris last year decided one of the two niches that housed Bamiyan's giant Buddhas should be left empty as testimony to the destruction, while experts should look at partially reassembling the other statue on site.

But local archaeologist Farid Haidary says "lots of money" was spent on restoring the Buddhas before the Taliban destroyed them.

"What's the point in building something if the Taliban, who are 20 kilometres away, destroy it afterwards?" he asks.

View the original article here

Buddhist organization urges KPK leniency toward Hartati

Deputy secretary-general of Walubi, Gatot Sukarno Adi, said the antigraft body should not detain Hartati as Walubi still needed the businesswoman to run the organization.

“We need Ibu Hartati’s leadership to maintain the unity of the 12 Buddhists councils under Walubi,” he said after meeting with KPK commissioners on Friday.

The KPK named Hartati, who is also a Democratic Party patron, a suspect on charges of bribery. She was accused of bribing the regent of Buol, Amran Batalipu.

The KPK has alleged that a Rp 3 billion bribe was paid to Amran to expedite the issuance of a business permit for PT Cipta Cakra Murdaya and PT Hartati Inti Plantations, two companies controlled by Hartati. The money was paid in two parts: Rp 1 billion on June 18 and Rp 2 billion on June 26.

Gatot said that if Hartati was detained, it could humiliate Buddhists around the country and disrupt the organization’s programs.

Walubi gave a guarantee that Hartati would not flee from the investigation or take any action that would obstruct the investigation.

“We believe that Ibu [Hartati] will follow all the legal processes, even if she is not in detention,” Gatot said.

Tadisha Paramita, coordinator of the Walubi’s council of monks (Sangha), said Walubi members were convinced that Hartati was innocent, adding that she was merely a victim of extortion.

“I and other Buddhists in Indonesia are concerned about what has befallen Ibu Hartati. Businesspeople often have to deal with extortion in this country,” he said.

Separately, Amran’s lawyer, Amad Entedaim, once again maintained that his client’s innocence. “She [Hartati] willingly gave the money to Amran as a contribution to his campaign fund,” he said.

Amat said that Hartati had once asked for assistance from Amran, but that he had declined to respond.

“She still went ahead and gave him the money because she predicted that Amran would win the next regional election,” he said.

Hartati also requested Amran to secure the interests of her companies in the region.

The KPK has named four suspects in the case: Hartati; Amran; Yani Anshori, the general manager of PT Hardaya Inti Plantations; and Gondo Sujono, the firm’s operations director.

In addition to chairing Walubi, Hartati was reportedly one of the largest contributors to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2009.

KPK chairman Abraham Samad said that the KPK would soon be detaining Hartati. “If the investigators feel it necessary, when they near the end of their investigation, she can be detained like any other suspect in a graft case,” Abraham said.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said the commission’s leadership would take the Walubi request into consideration.

“We will discuss the request further,” he told reporters.

View the original article here

Korean Buddhist cultural offerings designed to go global

Home Asia Pacific North Asia S/N Korea Arts & Culture

Seoul, South Korea -- Buddhism is not just a religion in Korea. It is an integral cultural asset that has substantially contributed to the development of the country’s tradition and arts for the last 1,700 years.

<< This file photo shows participants at a Templestay program meditating in the woods with Korean Buddhist monks. (Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism)

The Korean Buddhist culture now attempts to go abroad in an effort to better serve the rising global demand for learning about Korean history and culture, thanks to the popularity of K-pop around the world.

The Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism, an affiliate of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, plans to develop various programs to promote its two signature cultural offerings ? templestays and temple food.

Its latest development includes a Templestay program designed exclusively for K-pop fans from France created in collaboration with the Korea Tourism Organization. It also plans to open the first temple food restaurant on the rooftop of the French department store Galeries Lafayette in Paris next year.

Templestay was one of the cultural projects introduced during the Korea/Japan World Cup in 2002 as part of the government’s effort to offer the world a better understanding on the country’s traditional culture. The program as well as general Buddhist cultural practices remained nearly unknown even to many Koreans until then. In the last decade, however, the programs have been gaining popularity both at home and abroad for their unique roles in delivering Korean culture as well as offering a rare chance to contemplate the meaning of life and heal the tired mind while surrounded by nature.

Templestay is a cultural program that allows people to stay in mountainside temples and participate in Zen meditation, early-morning chanting and daily chores.

“Through the Templestay, participants can learn the wisdom of monastic life and the philosophy of a peaceful co-existence with nature. The program is not only designed to offer cultural understanding but also to offer new direction for people struggling in the highly competitive society,” said Ven. Deung Mok, deputy director of the Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism.

“Templestay will be developed into various programs and will continue to serve people’s needs not only in Korea but also people coming from all over the world,” he added.

The number of temples offering Templestay programs across the country has surged from 33 in 2002 to 118 last year. About 1.9 million people have participated in the program as of late last year. In 2011 alone about 190,000 people, including 25,000 foreign travelers, joined the program, officials at the group said.

The unique program has also contributed to enhancing Korea’s image abroad.

Templestay was selected as one of the most successful tourism items by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2009.

An OECD report titled “The Impact of Culture on Tourism” included Korea’s Templestay program as a successful combination of culture and tourism, along with other strategic tourism sites such as the Vorarlberg Province in Austria, the State of Michoacan in Mexico and the Industrial Monuments Route of the Silesian Voivodeship in Poland.

With the success of the project, Culture Ministry transferred the project from the Religious Affairs Office to Tourism Industry Bureau last year.

“The government has decided to transfer the project to the tourism bureau because it is no longer about religious affairs but an important tourism resource for Korea,” said Hong Seung-mo, an official at the department of tourism promotion.

The government spends 20 billion won ($17.72 million) a year for developing various Korean Buddhist cultural content, from Templestay to temple food. The budget also includes expenditure on renovation at temples to help them better accommodate participants coming from all around the world.

Temple food has been also drawing attention from abroad, particularly among the health-conscious in North America and Europe.

To better promote the 1,700-year-old culinary assets, the Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism is seeking ways of modernizing the recipes while preserving the traditional style of temple food. It also plans to provide recipes for nutritious vegetarian food and to hold a campaign against food wastage.

The religious group has been holding seminars on temple food in the U.S. and also participated in ITV, an international tourism exhibition in Germany, earlier this year.

View the original article here

“Zen Has No Morals!”

Home Issues

The Latent Potential for Corruption and Abuse in Zen Buddhism, as Exemplified by Two Recent Cases

Montreal, Canada -- Zen Buddhism was long considered by many practitioners to be immune from the scandals that occasionally affect other religious sects.

<< Dr. Klaus Zernickow (a.k.a Sotetsu Yuzen, left) and Eido T. Shimano

Zen’s iconoclastic approach, based solely on the individual’s own meditation experience, was seen as a healthy counterpoint to the more theistic and moralistic world-views, whose leading proponents often privately flouted the very moral codes that they preached.

The unspoken assumption in Zen has always been that the meditation alone naturally freed the accomplished practitioner from life's moral quandaries, without the need for rigid rules of conduct imposed from above.

The perfect embodiment of this state was held to be the Zen Master, a type of person to whom almost superhuman qualities of insight, spontaneity, compassion, and freedom from desire have been imputed.

However, the veracity of such claims is now slowly being called into question, due to numerous modern Zen Masters having in the meantime exhibited behaviour no less scandalous than that seen in other religious communities

In his paper, “Zen Has No Morals!” Christopher Hamacher examines two of the most recent and egregious of such scandals in Western Zen: the well-publicised case of Eido T. Shimano in New York, USA, as well as that of Dr. Klaus Zernickow (also known as Sotetsu Yuzen), who is still relatively unknown outside of his home country of Germany.

Both of these Zen teachers have been accused of long-term, systematic abuse of their students, with allegations ranging from sexual predation to financial improprieties.

Hamacher reviews the respective case histories, including the disconcerting facts that Shimano has only recently stepped down - after almost fifty years of documented misconduct - and Zernickow still teaches unhindered even today.

Hamacher continues by categorising, with examples, eight types of behaviour that are characteristic of both, namely: the inability to deal with criticism reasonably, favouring formality and extravagant accoutrements in their practice, blaming the student's own ego to deflect accusations, hypocrisy, using group dynamics in their favour, controlling the flow of information to students, self-aggrandisement, and autocratic leadership of their organizations.

The paper then discusses how these teachers could have been allowed to continue teaching for so long, despite the flagrant abuse and even though, at least in Shimano's group,scandal after scandal had erupted over the years.

Hamacher argues that there are in fact several reasons why, on the one hand, such conduct by a Zen teacher might not have been considered inappropriate in the first place, and, on the other, why Zen students might not have been inclined to take action even if the conduct had been deemed wrongful. Hamacher also notes that the discussed behaviours are all typical warning signs for high-demand/cultic groups, and suggests that, as a consequence, more serious structural problems with Zen underlie the teacher misconduct.

He finally concludes that, far from being immune to scandal, Zen Buddhism as it is currently practiced in the West in fact needs serious re-examination if it intends to remain a viable alternative to the more traditional Western religions.

>> Download full paper here (PDF)

----------
Christopher Hamacher graduated in law from the Université de Montréal in 1994. He has practiced Zen Buddhism in Japan, America and Europe since 1999 and run his own Zen meditation group since 2006. He currently works as a legal translator in Munich, Germany. This paper was presented on 7 July 2012 at the International Cultic Studies ssociation's annual conference in Montreal, Canada.

View the original article here

Japanese minister visits Shrawasti, assures support

Home Asia Pacific South Asia India

BAHRAICH, India -- In a bid to explore opportunities of development of Buddhist tourist places in Uttar Pradesh, the Japanese finance minister Navkaju Takemoto along with the speaker of UP assembly Mata Prasad Pandey and state minister Balram Singh Yadav visited the International Buddhist places in Shrawasti. The delegation also visited Jetwan Vihar, Denmahamkol and the huts of Maheta.

During the Saturday visit, the Japanese minister Takemoto told media persons that Japan not only has economic relations with India, but it also has the historical and cultural ties for centuries and the Japanese government would extend every possible assistance to India for the improvement of roads and electricity at Buddhist tourist places.

The Japanese minister added that his visit to India is to explore the opportunities of these developments. On this occasion Mata Prasad Pandey said that action plan for the development of Buddhist tourist places of UP including Shrawasti is being prepared and very shortly the developmental schemes of roads and electricity would get underway at Buddhist places with the assistance of Japan.

The state minister Balram Singh Yadav said that schemes are being made to convert the Buddhist tourist places of Uttar Pradesh into an eco-tourism circuit.

The Japanese minister said that a medical college-cum-hospital would be constructed on the land of Lord Buddha. He said a medical college would be built at Kapilvastu and Shrawasti. The Japanese minister also said that his country makes every possible effort for the development of Buddhist places.

He said that he is feeling himself blessed to have visited the land of Lord Buddha. The Japanese minister said that Uttar Pradesh is just double in size from Japan, but it is far behind as far as electricity and development is concerned and his government wants to set up a power plant in UP and co-operate in development.

View the original article here

We backed you, and now you do this?

Home Opinion

An open letter to Burma’s monks

Rangoon, Burma -- Arabic press Al-Arabiya has called it “the ignored genocide”.  Other news agencies, such as the Iranian based IRNA, liberally uses the term “massacre” in its reports.  While much of the western press have either ignored this issue or downplayed it altogether, the attention in the Muslim world has spawned calls for revenge. Pakistani Talibans have threatened to invoke “jihad” to “avenge crimes against the Muslim Rohingya”.

But this “genocide” or “massacre” did not take place in the usual spots that we so often associate it with. It did not happen in the West Bank, neither did it occur in some Iraqi neighborhood or – in the most current context – Syria. It is happening within the fringe of a so-called Buddhist land, the land of the golden pagodas, Burma.

As Buddhists, our natural tendency is to view this tragic conflict between ethnic groups in the Arakan state as the result of a long drawn, political hangover of past actions undertaken by Burma’s military regime.  We may even deny that there is anything religious about the conflict, except that the opposing sides happen to be Muslims and Buddhists.

Buddhists stand proud when we say that we have never been involved in any “holy war”.

But what differentiates between this situation and that of - say, the skirmishes in the south Thailand is that disturbingly the proponents accused of fueling ethnic tensions have been Burmese monks. 

Some of these same monks, who incidentally played a vital role in Burma's recent struggle for democracy have been calling on people to shun the Rohingyas, a Muslim community that has suffered decades of abuse. For instance, The Young Monks' Association of Sittwe and Mrauk Oo Monks' Association have both released statements in recent days urging locals not to associate with the group.

Some monks' organisations have even blocked humanitarian assistance from reaching them. One leaflet described the Rohingya as "cruel by nature" and claimed it had "plans to exterminate" other ethnic groups.

In London, monks' leader Ashin Htawara recently encouraged the government to send the group "back to their native land" at an event hosted by the anti-Rohingya Burma Democratic Concern. Ko Ko Gyi, a democracy activist with the 88 Generation Students group and a former political prisoner, said: "The Rohingya are not a Burmese ethnic group. The root cause of the violence… comes from across the border."

Even Noble Peace Prize recipient, and Burma’s most famous prisoner of conscience  Daw Aung Sang Suu Kyi has not been spared by the manner of her “silent” handling of the situation and for failing to speak out. Amal de Chickera of the London-based Equal Rights Trust, said: "You have these moral figures, whose voices do matter. It's extremely disappointing and in the end it can be very damaging."

What is apparent is that nationalist fervor from both sides of the divide, members of the military junta and the pro-democracy opposition, have equally been consumed with protecting their nation’s “amyo” (race/nation), which take the general categorical form of “Buddhist and/or Burmese”  while ignoring that Burma as a territorial entity does not all constitute as Buddhist.

In the wake of this “nationalism”, all apparatus of this “amyo” state, such as the local press, well-known celebrities, scholars and well-respected writers have jumped in the band-wagon to speak out against the Rohingyas. Yet, we may perhaps excuse human failings in irrational behavior driven by heightened sense of nationalism.
But what is disconcerting is the manner some of these Burmese monastics have come out and act the way they did. What has happened to their monastic training? As orthodox Theravada monks, surely the effects of living by the precepts as outlined in the Vinaya would have rubbed off somehow, where even a fleeting thought of violence would have been nipped in the bud?

And what about Burma’s much vaunted Vipassana tradition? Where did all the mindfulness go? The entire situation is ever more disturbing precisely because of these deep seated questions.

Let not be mistaken.  This media is Buddhist to the core. But if we were to live by its name and yet not practice what it values, that label is tainted. That’s not Buddhist. That’s poppycock.

We sympathize with the Burmese people and understand that they will experience pain as they transcend from a closed society to an open democracy. But what they own, which they have owned for a long time - and which many countries don’t have - is a solid spiritual base called Buddhism.

And so we appeal to the monks: Please do the right thing and let the peaceful light of Buddha-Dharma guide you to find non-violent solutions to this problem.  We have backed you in your time of need during the 2007 saffron revolution. Please do not let our efforts be in vain.

Read also:  The Arakan Conflict and Nationalist Threats In Burma

View the original article here

The Shimano saga: Selling off to pay the rent?

Home Issues

Zen Studies Society's controversial land deal with Nature Conservancy

New York, USA  -- This week, Gallup, Inc., a US, research-based performance-management consulting company issued a report entitled "U.S. Confidence in Organized Religion at Low Point." It appears that confidence in "Organized Religion" in America has been is steady decline since the early 1970's.

While the Gallup report deals primarily with "Christian" denominations, Catholic and Protestant, there is ample evidence that even relatively new, and somewhat obscure, organized religious traditions in America are also being questioned by adherents. 

In America, everybody's got to pay the rent, and the Zen Studies Society , a Zen Buddhist organization based in New York, with its two multi-million dollar centers, is no different.  Upkeep is required if the two centers -- Dai BosatsuZen monastery set on a 1,400-acre tract in the town of Hardenburgh, N.Y., and New York Zendo Sho Bo Ji, a converted carriage house on East 67th Street in Manhattan -- are to survive.
But the Zen Studies Society has been feeling the crunch of late not just because of hard economic times but also because of a variety of scandals centering on the former abbot, Eido Tai Shimano  – a man who, over a period of 46 years, stands credibly accused of a variety of depredations, including lying, character assassination, sexual misconduct and financial improprieties.

Shimano came to the United States in 1960 , and, over time, gathered around him many groups of students and supporters who financed the creation of both Dai Bosatsu and Sho Bo Ji.  It was their money and their spirit and their participation in Zen practice that bore fruit.  That fruit was not always sweet, however.  Over the decades Shimano repeatedly destroyed and alienated group after group when his behavior became public and he was never able to build a truly sustainable community for the practice of Zen.
In 2008, a series of revelations began to etch Shimano's role not just as a 'revered Zen teacher,' but also as a serial sexual predator, one who used his position as a teacher to advance his sometimes unwanted advances (alleged date rape ), as a liar who had no compunction to tell the truth and constant engagement in self aggrandizing machinations and hagiographic hyperbole.  

Large numbers of people were left mentally scarred in ways reminiscent of the child sex-abuse victims of the Vatican:  A trust and a body betrayed.  Year after year, decade after decade…  Denial after denial – after denial…
With papers provided by Robert Aitken Roshi and the subsequent efforts of the Rev. Kobutsu Malone, the Shimano Archive filled with documentation of Shimano's manipulative, abusive and self-important activities. And as that documentation became more widely known, membership (and thus income) at Zen Studies Society dwindled.
Now the Zen Studies Society faces some very hard financial choices. Shimano was forced into retirement in 2010 , but his self-mandateddeferred retirement package demands a $90,000 per year payment , that includes upkeep for the Manhattan apartment he and his wife live in, medical and life insurance for both of them, and various other benefits...  All coming out of the Zen Studies Society's donor supported pockets.
As a result, Zen Studies Society is in negotiations with The Nature Conservancy of Arlington, Va.,  either to lease, sell outright or create an easement on 1,000 acres of Dai Bosatsu's 1,400 total acreage .  This is land about which Shimano once said, “Under any circumstances, not even a square foot of property or a speck of dust should be sold.Right now this is under your [the Board of Directors] management, but strictly speaking it is the property of the Dharma, Keep that in your mind.” The money from such a sale/lease/easement would clearly be used not only to support and advance the institutions under Zen Studies Society control, but also to meet its coerced contractual obligation with Shimano.
In a March 13, 2012, letter  and subsequent phone conversation with the Nature Conservancy, the Rev. Kobutsu Malone attempted to point out that any payment for the land would amount to the support of a "serial sexual predator" and further, were Shimano's depredations become the subject of a lawsuit, the Conservancy might find itself dragged into a legal matter that was not of its own devising. The bad publicity associated with such a legal battle might not be to the Conservancy's benefit.
In a July 2, 2012, conversation with Rick Werwaiss , executive director of the Eastern New York Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, the Rev. Kobutsu Malone reiterated again and again his concerns and his argument that the Conservancy might want to steer clear of the deal. For his part, Werwaiss made it clear that the Conservancy would take its own due precautions, but essentially didn't care what history preceded any potential deal.  He seemed to be purposely ignoring the effect that a respected conservation organization’s bottom line support of a financially hemorrhaging organization that has never offered a sincere apology on the myriads of people who were victims of their disgraced leader and the decades long inaction of multiple Boards of Directors.  Survivors of Eido Shimano and his Zen Studies Society organization feel that the Nature Conservancy’s involvement at this time is the equivalent to a kick in the teeth as the Conservancy’s donor supplied funds will essentially be used to provide support for an already wealthy serial sexual predator who is completely unremorseful for the damage and hurt he has wrecked over the years.
It is not entirely clear at the moment where the negotiations stand. Neither Zen Studies Society nor the Nature Conservancy has offered any transparent discussion about the amount of land in question or the financial arrangements under consideration.
The Nature Conservancy's lock-step mantra of "our mission is to protect and preserve the lands and water on which all life depends," is likely to be perceived by survivors of Shimano's depredations as the equivalent of a kick in the teeth – in the same fashion as would be a statement by the Penn State Athletic Department to the effect of, "all we want to do is play football."

It is clear that everyone has to pay the rent.
The question is, at what cost?

View the original article here

An Open Letter from the Buddhist Community on Islamophobia

Home Issues

San Francisco, CA (USA) -- As disciples of the Buddha who live in the West, we would like to take the holy month of Ramadan as an opportunity to express our growing concern about Islamophobia, both within our governments and within the Buddhist community worldwide.

In North America and Europe, the past decade has seen peaceful Muslim communities targeted by hate crimes, police profiling, and even challenges to their basic human rights of free religion and free assembly. The New York Times reports that the New York City Police Department infiltrated peaceful Muslim groups across the Northeastern United States for indiscriminate surveillance. The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro in Murfreesboro, Tennessee has faced vandalism, arson, and legal challenges opposing their new mosque, while France and Belgium have outlawed wearing niqab in public over concerns about immigration, the status of women, and the diluting of European culture.

In the wider Buddhist community there have been media reports of Buddhist leaders—including monastics - endorsing human rights abuses against Muslim ethnic groups. For example, The Independent reports that Buddhist monastic organizations in Burma are blocking aid shipments to refugee camps for ethnically Rohingya Muslims in the western state of Rakhine. The article also accuses monastic associations of encouraging ethnically Rakhine Buddhists not to associate with Rohingya. Ethnic tensions have resulted in human rights abuses and loss of life on both sides of this conflict.

Meanwhile, Newsweek reports that the Thai government has set up military encampments inside Buddhist temples—even using some of them as torture chambers—in their ongoing fight against a violent Malay Muslim insurgency in the southern states of Patani, Yala, and Narathiwat. More disturbingly, Newsweek reports the Thai government is paying ethnic Thais to resettle in majority-Malay areas in order to dilute the Malay population. Once again, there have been many human rights abuses and much loss of life on both sides of the conflict.

In this time of conflict, we believe that the life and teachings of the Buddha can be a shining example for the world. He taught us to practice mutual respect among all people without prejudice, to work for the mutual benefit of all beings, and to try to solve our problems without resorting to violence. In those rare instances where violence is necessary, he taught us to practice restraint and to protect innocent lives. It is in this spirit that we are writing.

In our own countries, we ask law enforcement agencies to stop targeting Muslim communities with indiscriminate surveillance and profiling. And we call on Americans to see their Muslims neighbors as fellow citizens, bound together with them through the shared values of democracy, equality, and freedom.

In the wider Buddhist community, we ask our fellow Buddhists to refrain from using the Dharma to support nationalism, ethnic conflict, and Islamophobia. We believe that these values are antithetical to the Buddha’s teachings on loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.

The vast majority of Muslims the world over are peaceful, law-abiding people who share much the same dreams, hopes, and aspirations as their non-Muslim neighbors. They are our friends, our relatives, our colleagues, our neighbors, and our fellow citizens. Most importantly, they are our fellow sentient beings, all of whom, the Buddha taught, have loved and cared for us in the past. We stand with them during this holy month of Ramadan and denounce Islamophobia unequivocally.

Signed,

Joshua Eaton, M.Div., Boston, MA, USA

Rev. Danny Fisher, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Rod Meade Sperry, Halifax, Nova Scotia, CANADA
Sharon Salzberg, Barre, MA, USA
Mushim (Patricia) Ikeda, Oakland, CA, USA
Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Carmel, NY, USA
Karma Lekshe Tsomo, San Diego, CA, USA
Charles Prebish, State College, PA, USA
William Aiken, Washington, DC, USA
Diana Winston, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Rev. Maia Zenyu Duerr, Santa Fe, NM, USA
Rev. James Ishmael Ford, Providence, RI, USA
Shastri Ethan Nichtern, New York City, NY, USA
Lodro Rinzler, New York City, NY, USA
Acharya Judith Simmer-Brown, Boulder, CO, USA
Lopon Rita Gross, Eau Claire, WI, USA
Gary Gach, San Francisco, CA, USA
Allan Badiner, Big Sur, CA, USA
Ven. Zenkei Blanche Hartman, San Francisco, CA, USA
Rev. Wakoh Shannon Hickey, Alfred, NY, USA
Koshin Paley Ellison, New York City, NY, USA
Steve Kanji Ruhl, State College, PA, USA
Martin Aylward, Cubjac, Aquitaine, FRANCE
Karma Yonten Gyatso, Richmond Hill, Ontario, CANADA
Rev. Beth Kanji Goldring, Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh, CAMBODIA
Chap. Mikel Ryuho Monnett, M.A., BCC, Columbus, OH, USA
Acharya Sujatin Johnson, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, ENGLAND
Rev. Josho Pat Phelan, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Tomoe Moriya, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, JAPAN
Rev. Daishin Eric McCabe, Pennsdale, PA, USA
Rev. Patricia Dai-En Bennage, Pennsdale, PA, USA
Kobutsu Malone-osho, Sedgwick, ME, USA
Carole Craven, Mableton, GA, USA
Genko Blackman, Seattle, WA, USA
Arun Gandhi, Rochester, NY, USA
Claire Michalewicz, Halifax, Nova Scotia, CANADA
Martin Whelan, Slingo, County Slingo, IRELAND
Lesley Grant, Fairfax, CA, USA
Susan Wirawan, Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
Luke McKean, Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
Miguel Marcos, Madrid, Community of Madrid, SPAIN
Catherine DeLorey, Boston, MA, USA
Stephen Hale, Muir Beach, CA, USA
Rik Center, San Francisco, CA, USA
Kris Freedain, Laguna Niguel, CA, USA
Rev. Michael Tran, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Brant Henne, Swampscott, MA, USA
Craig Thomas, York, PA, USA
Zoey Roy, Halifax, Nova Scotia, CANADA
Angela Gunn, Savannah, GA, USA
Laurie Knowlton, Boothbay, ME, USA
Jessica Bizub, Milwaukee, WI, USA
Robin Reed, San Francisco, CA, USA
Prof. Kristopher Short, Cranston, RI, USA
Vivien Phung, Laguna Niguel, CA, USA
Jean Lamont, State College, PA, USA
Kathleen de Vries, Napa, CA, USA
Peter Muller, New York City, NY, USA
Dee Levy, Swindon, Borough of Swindon, ENGLAND
Sandra Madera, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Chaplain Karen Morris, M.Div., Johnson City, TN, USA
Anda Peterson, St. Petersburg, FL, USA
Matthew Gegenhuber, Hawkins, WI, USA
Dean Hill, Albany, NY, USA
Karla Passalacqua, Atlanta, GA, USA
Ven. Hue Hai, Alhambra, CA, USA
Terry Evans, Bangor, North Wales, WALES
Jim Hasse, Walnut Creek, CA, USA
Karma Sonam Lhamo, Penllyn, PA, USA
Geoff Haynes, Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA
Lynnea Bylund, Dana Point, CA, USA
Victor Spence, Edinburgh, SCOTLAND
Upasaka Raymond M. McDonald, La Verne, CA, USA
Imtiaaz Gafoor, Johannesburg, Gauteng, SOUTH AFRICA
Nisar Ahmed, Karachi, Sindh, PAKISTAN
David Cabrera, Hollywood, FL, USA
Rev. Michael W. A. Henderson, Halifax, Nova Scotia, CANADA
Christina Omorochoe, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Kelly Hills, Ardmore, PA, USA
Thom Stromer, Baltimore, MD, USA
Roger K. James, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, BRAZIL
Stephanie Cianfriglia, Endicott, NY, USA
John Christensen, Chicago, IL, USA
Tanis Moore, Winnipeg, Manitoba, CANADA
Nancy A. Jefferis, Santee, CA, USA
Rev. Michele Kaishin Tae, Boise, ID, USA
David Coleman, Kilkenny, County Kilkenny, IRELAND
Rev. Jim Hokyo Dunn, Santa Fe, NM, USA
Penny Nakatsu, San Francisco, CA, USA
Robert McConnachie, Uithoorn, North Holland, THE NETHERLANDS
Shelly Griska, Monroe, GA, USA
Steven Ganci, St. Petersburg, FL, USA
Ettianne Anshin, Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA
Ericson AF Proper, Naples, FL, USA
Jaime Heiku McLeod, Lewiston, ME, USA
Tiffany Puett, Austin, TX, USA
Connie Nelson Ahlberg, Burnsville, MN, USA
James Cox, Omaha, NE, USA
Tracey McFadden, Elburn, IL, USA
Jim Hsiung, Taipei, Taiwan, REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Aron Weinberg, Austin, TX, USA

View the original article here

Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi Pleads For Ethnic Minority Rights

Home Asia Pacific South East Asia Myanmar

Rangoon, Burma -- In her first speech before the Myanmar parliament, pro-democracy activist and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has pleaded for the country to respect the rights of its various ethnic minorities.

<< In her first speech before the Myanmar parliament, pro-democracy activist and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has pleaded for the country to respect the rights of its various ethnic minorities.

Suu Kyi’s comments come after weeks of unrest and violence in the Rakhine state of western Myanmar (also known as Burma) where the Muslim minority Rohingya have been attacked and targeted by the majority Buddhists. Government troops are also still fighting the ethnic tribes in Kachin state in the northern part of the country.

"To become a truly democratic union with a spirit of the union, equal rights and mutual respect, I urge all members of parliament to discuss the enactment of the laws needed to protect equal rights of ethnicities," she said.

"Furthermore, the flames of war are not completely extinguished.”

Suu Kyi, however, did not explicitly mention the Rohingya by name and has been strangely silent on the issue of the ethnic clashes in Rakhine.

The Nobel Peace Prize recipient, who recently returned from a global tour, also called for the government to address the widespread poverty found among ethnic minorities.

Burma has a large number of ethnic minority rebel groups, some of whom the government has entered into peace deals with in recent years.

According to Stimson, a research and analysis group, Burma has at least fourteen ethnic minority groups, with the Shan (9 percent) and the Karen (7 percent), the two largest by population.

The Shan are closely related to the peoples of neighboring Thailand -- their communities are endangered by huge construction projects, including dams at the Irrawaddy and Salween rivers, as well the proposed Sino-Burma oil and gas pipeline.

The Karen have fought the Burmese ever since the nation was granted independence from Britain after World War II. As a result of decades of military conflict, a large population of Karen refugees reside in crowded camps on the Thai border.

The Burman (or Bamar) majority are believed to represent about 70 percent of the nation’s population.

View the original article here

The Arakan Conflict and Nationalist Threats In Burma

Home Issues

On-going anti-Rohingya campaign poses danger to ethnic harmony in Burma

Rangoon, Burma -- The continuing strife in western Burma signifies a dangerous future for an ethnically diverse country that has experienced ethnic conflicts for more than 60 years. It is not simply a campaign against the minority Rohingya as a group. It is a reflection of a tragic political hangover of the nation-state system that operates through an ominous and troubling nationalism.

The Arakan conflict is about nation-state building and state territorialization, which are being articulated by mainstreaming a singular ethno-religious identity - Buddhist Burmese, the basis of official nationalism. The root cause of the historical antagonism between the dominant Burman leadership and ethnic groups has been reactivated.

Politics of identity and difference

The first danger the anti-Rohingya campaign poses to ethnic harmony at the national level, not just at the Arakan (also known as Rakhine) state level, relates to the politics of identity and difference. Historically, ethnic Rakhine were antagonistic to ethnic Burmans for ‘destroying’ the Rakhine kingdom in the 18th century despite the fact that the majority of both ethnic groups were Theravada Buddhists. Nationalists now have mobilized Buddhist Burmans for their campaign against the Rohingya by presenting Arakan state as the western gate of Buddhist Burma against ‘flooding’ Muslims from Bangladesh.

As the anti-Rohingya campaign began to intensify in November 2011, Buddhism became the common ground for fostering an alliance between the Rakhine and Burmans. Discourses of anti-Rohingyas came to be constructed in term of protecting amyo barthar thartana - race/nation and religion. Religion refers exclusively to Buddhism.

In this situation, the already unclear definition of amyo (race/nation), and the elements that constitute this category, further blur the boundary between ethnic Rakhine, Burmans and Burmese citizenry. But it takes the general categorical form of ‘Buddhist and/or Burmese’ where ‘Burmese’ generally refers both to the country’s citizens as well as the majority ethnic Burmans. They also blur the boundaries between Rohingyas, Islam and Burmese Muslims. Ethnic Burmans, with or without the Rakhines’ mobilization, joined the campaign in the name of “safeguarding the nation.”

Therefore, differences and historical antagonism between ethnic Rakhines and Burmans have temporarily faded into a common “Buddhist Burmese” identity vis-à-vis the Rohingya. This merger is obvious as the Burmese government as well as senior opposition leaders from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party including Tin Oo, Nyan Win and Win Tin jumped on the bandwagon to speak out against the Rohingyas. Well-known celebrities, scholars and well-respected writers agreed.

The supposed global champion of freedom and democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, said during her Europe trip in June this year that she did not know if Rohingya were citizens of Burma. She did not even say one clear word that insults and deadly attacks on vulnerable Rohingyas must stop immediately.

Ko Ko Gyi, the leader of the 88 Generation Students, even denounced the Rohingya as a threat to national security. Likewise, Burmese freedom fighters and refugees in the West have openly campaigned against the Rohingya, arguing that denial of citizenship for them is the majority’s desire, however racist and exclusive, effectively turning democracy into mob rule. Some activists, just like the junta, claim that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights does not fit with Burma.

The Burmese media, especially the domestic journals, also launched a media war by supporting attacks and expulsion of the Rohingya from Arakan state – all in the name of protecting the nation.

The most disturbing statement came from President Thein Sein who told UN refugee agency officials that the Rohingya would be sent to camps and delivered to third countries as refugees. All these are a reflection that those who dominate Burma’s political and social lives express and engage in political actions based on deeply ingrained nationalist sentiment, however deadly and violent.

Geographical misconception of history and territory

Another important factor in the Arakan conflict is the public’s geographical imagination of national history and territory. For example, the title of a book written by a retired army officer, Thaung Wai Oo, is literally translated as We love [the land] because it is the inheritance from our forefathers. These words are also the lyrics of the national anthem. The book is about Thaung Wai Oo’s experience working with army officers who were deployed in counterinsurgency operations in various parts of the country.

It is odd that the author, being a Burmese military officer from the central plain of modern Burma, imagines ethnic territories beyond the plain as an inheritance from forefathers as if these ethnic territories have been part of modern Burma since time immemorial. Such a perception misses an important historical reality — that modern Burma itself is very new. Today’s ethnic territories that appear on the national map as unified ethnic states were separate and relatively independent polities with distinct ethnic groups, cultural practices, and political histories.

It was only in 1947 when the rulers and leaders of these polities voluntarily attached their lands to “Burma Proper” [the lowland plain region in central Burma] to establish the Union of Burma. They were convinced by the promises of independence hero General Aung San and his forward-looking colleagues to join the Union on equal terms.

As General Aung San and his fellows were assassinated before independence, the Burmese nationalists also killed Aung San’s promises. The result is internal colonization. When the dictator Ne Win took over the country in 1962 in the name of protecting the nation from disintegration, he denied Aung San’s promises to ethnic peoples. Over time, Ne Win’s self-important textbook history convinced the public that they are indigenous to all the lands within the modern national borders, as imagined by Thaung Wai Oo.

The reality is that these ethnic states are not in any way the inheritance of Burman elites. They are lands historically, politically, and symbolically specific to ethnic minority groups. Failure to understand the historical geography of the nation has led the public to internalize Ne Win’s lies that ethnic groups demanding the fulfillment of Aung San’s promises are separatists and ‘rebels’. The Burmese term for insurgents ‘thaung gyan tu’ means rioters, looters and criminals – or a combination thereof.

Constructing official nationalism vis-à-vis foreigners and ethnic ‘separatists,’ Ne Win instilled a strong nationalistic attitude among the public. Before his coup, Burman nationalists’ promulgation of Buddhism as a state religion in 1961 dismayed ethnic groups whose majority members practice Christianity or traditional belief systems.

In short, imagining the entire national territory as a singular entity and the land mass as that of the Burmese (whatever the term refers to exactly), and deeming the country a Buddhist nation led to inscribing the national space with singular ethno-religious identity, a common but problematic practice of nation-state building.

This predicament has results in burning churches, and beating and killing religious leaders in the Kachin, Chin, Karen and Karenni states and making the accusation that Christianity is encroaching on a Buddhist nation. In the ongoing Kachin conflict, churches have been turned into temporary military camps. Worse, Kachin News Agency reported in May 2012 that Burmese soldiers gang-raped an ethnic Kachin woman in a church.

The same logic applies to the Arakan conflict. Imagining the Arakan state as a unified territory in the west of Buddhist Burma, it is deemed to be an entirely Buddhist Burmese space. This completely disregards the fact that Arakan state is a combination of multiple territories inhabited by peoples with distinct cultures, religions and languages, just as in the Shan state where there are territories of the Wa, Kokant, etc.

Imagining a different reality in political centers far away from Arakan state, the Burmese disregard the reality that non-Buddhists, non-Burmese and non-Rakhine also have lived in different territories within Arakan state for centuries. Just as with all other borderlands in the world, peoples from both sides of the border move around in the Burma-Bangladesh borderland, known today as Arakan state. Having ‘illegal’ immigrants does not negate the reality that a segment of Muslims – whether they call themselves Rohingya or not – are indigenous to some territories in Arakan state.

This reality does not matter. The Burmese from political centers, alongside Rakhine nationalists, claim Muslims’ territories by means of wiping them out: Thein Sein’s plan, which is supported by the public. All these examples of state territorialization signify that internal colonization from the political centers is still the principle of politics in Burma.

The Arakan conflict and Burma’s ethnic future

The nationalist response to the Arakan conflict raises an important question of what this conflict means to the country’s broader ethnic relations. The Arakan conflict is testimony that the political mainstream continues to be nationalistic. Just like the state, mainstream oppositions stand up not for the principles of freedom, democracy and human rights, but for their own interests against power. They united against the Rohingya with complete disrespect for human life, dignity and human rights. Who would guarantee that they would not react to potential crises involving other minority groups just like the way they responded to the Rohingya?

This is a legitimate question especially because the mainstream political opposition has never taken the plight of ethnic peoples seriously. For the mainstream opposition, both at home and in exile, the problems are about the lack of democracy, human rights, and lately the ‘rule of law’.

According to them, ethnic affairs that consist of broken promises to ethnic groups, loss of territorial rights, human rights violations in ethnic states, cultural oppression, and a federal state based on equal political representation are not the primary concerns. Their fight for democracy has rather sidelined anything ‘ethnic’.

That is why the mainstream opposition has not taken any proactive stance against a decades-long history of deadly violence in ethnic states despite the military’s openly stated commitment to ‘wiping out’ all insurgent groups. As witnessed, the military’s attempt to ‘wipe out’ insurgent groups does not discriminate between insurgents and civilians, resulting in mass execution, torture, sexual violence and expulsion of people.

Even in a reformed Burma where people can speak freely, the mainstream opposition including Aung San Suu Kyi has not spoken out clearly against the Burmese military’s offensives and human rights violations in Kachin State. This is an indication that the mainstream political opposition is not on the same page as ethnic groups.

In such a political environment, bolstering Burmese nationalism, although in opposition to Rohingyas in the context of defining who belongs to the nation, reinforces the centrality of Buddhist Burmese in the political life, which automatically further relegates the position of minorities to oblivion.

The Arakan conflict demonstrates that the political mainstream can be easy prey if nationalism is exploited. This is even disconcerting as those who dominate political stage, the media, the youth, celebrities etc. are all prepared to not only speak the language of oppressors but also to act with them in the name of race/national and religion or national security.

If the government frames a potential conflict with an ethnic group just as the Arakan conflict was framed along nationalist lines, who will guarantee that the majority with the tools of power would be fair? Who would guarantee that they would not band together and parade behind the military against those they deem to be the nation’s enemies, as plotted by the government’s sick drama via discourses of amyo barthar thartanar?

Until the mainstream Burmese stand up for the principles of freedom and human rights including enfranchisement of the minorities, the ethnic minorities are vulnerable. Until the people realize that modern Burma as a nation-state is not homogenous, but composed of territories with diverse cultures and religions, internal colonization and conflict will ensue.

-------------
Sai Latt is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University in Canada. This article first appeared in Asia Sentinel. The views expressed in this article are his own

View the original article here

In Buddhist Myanmar, Monks Gone Wild

Home Issues

For a country steeped in Buddhism, Myanmar is accruing terrible karmic debts.

Yangon, Myanmar -- Alarming news and images of attacks and killings by the Buddhist majority in Rakhine Province against a Muslim minority there have been slowly trickling out onto the Internet and the wider world. Pictures of charred bodies and crying parents have stirred largely unheeded calls for intervention, mostly from Muslim nations.

“The attacks have been primarily one-sided, with Muslims generally and Rohingyas specifically the targets and victims,” Benjamin Zawacki, a Bangkok-based researcher for Amnesty International, told The Associated Press. “Some of this is by the security forces’ own hands, some by Rakhine Buddhists with the security forces turning a blind eye in some cases.”

The government in Myanmar, recently lauded for taking steps toward democratization, declared a state of emergency in June following the outbreak of violence allegedly sparked by the rape and killing of a Buddhist woman by members of the Rohingya minority -- a largely Muslim group on the country’s western border with Bangladesh. The official death toll stands at 78, though activists say it is likely much higher.

The Rohingya, meanwhile, remain caught between a hostile populace and a neighboring Muslim nation in Bangladesh that refuses to open its borders to fleeing refugees.

Such is the irony in a country famous for its Valley of the Temples and its unrivaled devotion to the Buddha. Alas, while Buddhism through a Western lens can appear rosy for its message of compassion, inner peace, and self-cultivation, in Asian societies Buddhism as an institution has much broader political applications.

Five years ago thousands of monks across Myanmar led in mass demonstrations against the military junta that paralyzed the former capital Yangon and other cities. The catalyst was an economic crisis, coupled with a devastating typhoon that destroyed homes and rice fields. The government’s failure to respond drove the monks to revolt, leading to the arrest and beating of hundreds of clergy. In such an overwhelmingly Buddhist country as Myanmar, the crackdown posed serious risks for the leadership.

For the monks, on the other hand, if fighting on behalf of the people seemed a moral necessity, such “spiritual engagement” apparently does not extend to the country’s Muslims -- estimated at around 800,000. They are a population denied citizenship and, by extension, the beneficence of the Buddha.

In 2001 monks handed out anti-Muslim pamphlets that resulted in the burning of Muslim homes, destruction of 11 mosques and the killing of over 200 Muslims in the Pegu region. Four years earlier, another anti-Muslim riot broke out in Mandalay during the worship of a Buddha statue at the Maha Myatmuni pagoda. In that incident, an estimated 1,500 Buddhist monks led the attack on nearby mosques and Muslim-owned businesses, looting as they went.

As for the current crisis, Human Rights Watch is strongly urging the Burmese government to end arbitrary and incommunicado detention, and “redeploy and hold accountable security forces implicated in serious abuses. Burmese authorities should ensure safe access to the area by the United Nations (UN), independent humanitarian organizations, and the media.”

“The Burmese government needs to put an immediate end to the abusive sweeps by the security forces against Rohingya communities,” noted Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Anyone being held should be promptly charged or released, and their relatives given access.”

So far the killings have garnered little attention in the West, where they have registered little more than a blip in the news cycle. Equally as troubling, however, has been the muted response of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi – an icon of human rights across Southeast Asia. Her recent tepid call for ethnic equality in Myanmar, nearly two months after the violence erupted, was met with uniform criticism around the world.

In the 1960s the renowned Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh coined the term “Engaged Buddhism.” The intent, then as now, was to exhort fellow monks to emerge from their temples and engage with a society then in the grips of war.

The practice continues across much of South and Southeast Asia today. One example is the long drawn out war in Sri Lanka, during which militant monks formed their own political party, held seats in parliament and advocated military solutions to the conflict with the Tamil Tigers.

In Vietnam, the ruling class knows each time a Buddhist monk sets himself ablaze they'd better watch out. That was certainly true in 1963 when a Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc immolated himself in downtown Saigon to protest a crackdown on Buddhism. Unrest grew as civilian fear turned into anger, and the Catholic controlled regime of Ngo Dinh Diem fell soon afterward. The current communist regime still keeps a number of leading clergymen under house arrest for fear for a popular revolt.

But if Myanmar’s monks held the moral high ground five years ago when they protested against government oppression, that standing has quickly turned into a deep and dark sinkhole of depravity amid calls for the majority to oppress their neighbors.

“Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech and a life of service and compassion renew humanity,” the historical Buddha, Gautama Siddharta, once said.

One wonders what he would say now, as innocent blood is shed in his name, and the path toward enlightenment that he taught to relieve the suffering of all beings had somehow derailed into a dark road of rebirth in the lowest levels of hell?

---------------
NAM editor, Andrew Lam, is author of East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres and Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora. His next book, Birds of Paradise Lost, a collection of short story, is due out in 2013.

View the original article here

Sri Lanka Buddhist monks' organization objects moves to restrict monks only to teaching

Home Asia Pacific South Asia Sri Lanka

Colombo, Sri Lanka -- The National Buddhist Monks' Federation (Jathika Sangha Sammelanaya) of Sri Lanka has launched a campaign against moves to restrict Buddhist monks to teaching in government schools and temple schools for clergy.

The Jathika Sangha Sammelanaya handed over a letter today to the Most Reverend Davuldena Gnanisara Thero, the Chief Prelate of Buddhist Amarapura Chapter begging to take actions to avert such moves.

Chief Prelates of the three main Buddhist Chapters of Sri Lanka on July 17 handed in a letter to the President Mahinda Rajapaksa requesting to suspend granting appointments of Development Assistants to the Buddhist monks.

The Buddhist clergy leaders demanded the monks given appointments only for teaching in schools and temple schools.

View the original article here

Buddhist gives all for monks’ ritual

Home The Americas US Northeast

Woman spends life savings on text ceremony

NEW YORK, USA -- Dayangji Sherpa lives with her 25-year-old daughter, Nima, in a one-bedroom apartment in Queens, where they sleep in the same bed to save money. But Sunday, they stood on a dais before an altar of glittering gold Buddhas while some of the highest-ranked Buddhist monks from the region bowed their heads to the women and showered them with benedictions.

<< Nima Sherpa, right, bows with Buddhist monk Sangay Tenzin after a ceremonial reading of the Kangyur, the Tibetan language version of the sacred Buddhists texts, in a monastery in New York, last week. (BRIAN HARKIN / The New York Times)

It was the culmination of a rare ceremony where every single text of their Buddhist canon is read from morning until night by monks, who are fed, housed and paid by a sponsor until all 108 books are read.

It took more than a month. And it cost more than $50,000 - the elder Sherpa’s life savings.

Completing the Kangyur, the Tibetan-language version of the sacred Buddhist texts, is done as a form of prayer for peace for all sentient beings, several monks explained. For nearly 40 days, ending last week, about a dozen monks called from around the region read eight hours a day, aloud and simultaneously, seated cross-legged in a converted brick church.

There had never been such a reading in New York, according to Urgen Sherpa, 41, a former general secretary of Sherpa Kyidug, which represents Sherpas in the United States, including an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 in New York. (Urgen Sherpa is not related to Dayangji Sherpa. Many Sherpas, who are an ethnic group from high in the Himalayas in eastern Nepal, use the surname.) Kangyur readings are rarely commissioned even in Nepal, Urgen Sherpa said, because of the cost.

Dayangji Sherpa, 54, a home health aide, estimates she paid about $111 per monk per day. It included twice-daily meals of Nepalese and Tibetan comfort food at a restaurant and an attendant to provide an endless supply of traditional salted butter tea. Other members of the community also made donations.

“People can do this, but nobody does it,” she said. “I’m not rich. I wanted a do a good thing.”

In a fur hat, her long braid laced with pink thread, Dayangji Sherpa doled out envelopes of money to each monk Sunday, her daughter following behind her. As trumpets sounded and cymbals clashed, she limped across the dais on her artificial leg: When she was eight, her leg was amputated after it was crushed by an avalanche while she tended yaks near Kunde, her village. At 22, her family disowned her when she eloped with a man from a lower caste. When she was five months pregnant with Nima, the couple split up; Dayangji Sherpa raised her daughter alone, eventually moving to the United States about a decade ago.

Even in a religion that rejects materialism, her modest means made the ceremony noteworthy, said Sherry Ortner, an anthropology professor at the University of California Los Angeles and an author on Sherpa culture.

Dayangji Sherpa’s father and grandfather, who owned a successful teahouse near the Mount Everest base camp, each sponsored such a reading in the past. Ortner said that in Tibet and Nepal, such events are typically paid for by the wealthy. That a person of lesser means is sponsoring the Kangyur in the United States suggests that in the diaspora those old hierarchies are shifting.

“The status system is changed,” she said.

Spending her savings was an act of faith, said Urgen Sherpa of the community association. Buddhism rejects materialism as one of the Three Poisons that lead to suffering.

“She is giving away some materials,” he said. “That means a destroying of one of the poisons: greed, attachment.”

Pema Sherpa, a nanny, makes $700 a week and has supported one of the monks for the past two years and will continue to do so indefinitely, providing him a room in her house and $600 a month.

She explained Dayangji Sherpa’s generosity: “What do you need in life? You have food, shelter, what else do you want? This is karma.”

As the final ceremony wrapped up, Nima wearily removed her hat. She had quit her job at a bus company to tend to the monks, brewing vats of butter tea in the basement and even cleaning the toilets. Her devotion was to her mother as much as the faith, she said, explaining that her Nepalese peers felt similar commitment to their parents: “We feel like we owe them our life, because they’ve done so much for us in our life.”

After nearly 40 days bound to the monks, the moment was bittersweet, she said. Not that there was time for nostalgia.

“First thing I’m going to do tomorrow,” she said, standing in her floor-length traditional gown, “is wake up and look for a job.”

View the original article here

Buddhist order spreads temple cuisine

Home Asia Pacific North Asia S/N Korea Temple Stay

Seoul, South Korea -- Korea’s Buddhist temple cuisine is becoming more popular among healthy eaters within and outside Korea.

<< A spread of temple food is shown in this 2009 file photo taken at a temple food restaurant in Seoul. More health-conscious Koreans are enjoying the benefits of the cuisine. / Korea Times file

Reflecting the trend, the main theme of the largest Korean Buddhist order’s visit to New York last month was food. It organized a two-week promotional campaign to highlight and raise awareness about temple cuisine, one of the highlights of the templestay program which marks its 10th anniversary this year.

The Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism, an affiliate of the Jogye Order, has tried to modernize the recipes and make them more accessible to the public here and abroad.

“Temple food practices reflect some important values, such as the beauty of doing things slowly and sharing with others,” Ven. Beopjin said in an interview with The Korea Times last week. “New Yorkers were excited to learn about the templestay program and temple cuisine.”

Temple food, referring to what monks and visitors eat at temples, is basically vegetarian and prepared with natural ingredients without artificial seasoning. At temples, eating is a part of the meditative discipline.

Ven. Beopjin, director of Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism, was in New York to oversee the activities.

Small groups of 20 to 50, spanning from chefs, food specialists, and media to travel industry consultants, were invited to the Astor Center in Manhattan to taste various Korean temple food dishes for luncheon and dinner events over three days.

Travel consultants received a detailed introduction to the templestay program, available at over 100 temples all over Korea. Food specialists had a chance to taste Korean soy sauce and fermented soy bean paste made using traditional methods in the temples.

“In the future, we will publish recipe books and develop promotional material on temple food, while expanding opportunities for the general public to come to temples and make the cuisine themselves,” Ven. Beopjin said.

Although Korean temple cuisine is vegetarian, in which meat, poultry and fish are forbidden, its practice is closer to vegan, as eggs are also not eaten and dairy is used sparingly. Five pungent vegetables - chives, leeks, garlic, onion and scallion - are prohibited for the reasons of causing hindrance in spiritual practice and to avoid an attachment to strongly flavored spices.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the templestay program, which made more people familiar with Korean Buddhism including non-believers and foreigners.

The programs usually include monastic formal meals made up of healthy, vegetarian dishes; tea ceremonies; morning and evening chanting; and “Seon” or Zen meditation. The communal Buddhist meal or “balwoo gongyang” is a unique way of eating in Korean temples, where food is consumed in total silence and not a single grain of rice is wasted.

Since it was first adopted 10 years ago, it has become one of the most popular tourist activities Korea.

“The popularity of the program among Koreans and foreigners stem from different reasons,” Ven. Beopjin said. “A recent survey showed that Koreans were most interested in templestays for relaxation. For foreigners, they were most interested because they wanted to learn more about Korea’s traditional culture and Buddhist culture.”

The Jogye Order has tried to make templestay programs more attractive to non-Korean participants. It has designated 15 temples that specialize in templestay specifically for foreigners, where they have professional interpreters.

There are three in Seoul, including Geumseon Temple, Myogak Temple and Bongeun Temple. A full list is available at www.templestay.com

View the original article here