![\"Sri](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/83\/2013\/03\/SriLanka-Japan-Bhutan.jpg\" "\\"Sri")
<\/a>Sri Lanka, Japan, and (often most of all) Bhutan often elicit images of peaceful monks in flowing robes walking peacefully by. In Sri Lanka they go on orderly alms-rounds in villages, In Japan their temples are often sanctuaries in the midst of the chaos of an advanced industrialized economy, and in Bhutan the scene behind the monk is often a towering mountain, blue skies, and prayer flags releasing merit into the breeze<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\u00a0However many wonderful images may be conjured up at the mention of Buddhism<\/a> in each country, the religion also has its problems in each. Or we could say \u2018people of the religion\u2019 if we want\u2026<\/p>\n Several people have been injured in Sri Lanka\u2019s capital, Colombo, when Buddhist<\/a> monks led hundreds in an assault on a Muslim-owned clothing warehouse.<\/p>\n Buddhist monks were filmed throwing stones at the storage centre of popular garment chain Fashion Bug in a suburb of the capital on Thursday night.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Of course this is only one in a long history of conflicts between Sinhala Buddhists and their Muslim and Hindu neighbors and countrymen. In 1956 the Ven. Walpola Rahula said:<\/p>\n \u201cUnder the influence of the new religion the Sinhalese worked in peace and harmony, and the country became prosperous. But soon there came adventurers from South India who disturbed the peace and progress of the island. One such was Elara, a Chola prince, who invaded Ceylon about the middle of the second century B.C., captured the government at Anuradhapura, and ruled for about forty-five years.\u201d\u201dThough the northern part of the island was under a foreign rule, Rohana remained independent. This long period of foreign rule gave rise to several important developments, both national and religious, eg the history of the island. Duttha Gamani \u2026. undoubtedly the greatest national hero of early Buddhist Ceylon, organized a great crusade to liberate Buddhism from foreign rule. His war-cry was \u201cNot for kingdom, but for Buddhism.\u201d The entire Sinhalese race was united under the banner of young Gamani. This was the beginning of nationalism among the Sinhalese\u2026\u201d(Walpola Rahula, History of Buddhism in Ceylon: The Anuradhapura Period, Colombo, M.D. Gunasena & Co. 1956, p. 79)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Writing for the Washington DC think-tank, the East-West Center, Neil DeVotta states<\/a>\u00a0(.pdf):<\/p>\n \u2026nineteenth and twentieth century Buddhist nationalists deftly used the Durhagamani myth to institute Sinhalese Buddhist domination. According to Walpola Rahula, \u201cThe entire Sinhalese race was united under the banner of the young Gamini [i.e., Duthagamani]. This was the beginning of nationalism among the Sinhalese. . . . A non-Buddhist was not regarded as a human being. Evidently all Sinhalese without exception were Buddhists\u201d (Rahula 1956: 79). Rahula is no doubt influenced by the Durhagamani myth in dehumanizing non-Buddhists<\/strong><\/em>. [emphasis mine]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If you have the time, you can see the outcome of this dehumanization here<\/a>, at Channel 4\u2019s Peabody award winning documentary, \u201cSri Lanka\u2019s Killing Fields.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile in Bhutan, the land of Gross National Happiness<\/a> is also the land of high stress, hypertension, obesity, and increasing prevalance of STDs, including HIV \u2013 and that\u2019s just among the monastics (via Huffington Post<\/a>):<\/p>\n Warning signs of risky behavior among monks first appeared in 2009, when a report on risks and vulnerabilities of adolescents revealed that monks were engaging in \u201cthigh sex\u201d (in which a man uses another man\u2019s clenched thighs for intercourse), according to the state-owned Kuensel daily.<\/p>\n The health ministry got concerned when a dozen monks \u2014 including a 12-year-old \u2014 were diagnosed with sexual transmitted diseases a year later, Kuensel reports. At least five monks are known to be HIV-positive, the youngest being 19.<\/p>\n The 2012 report of the U.N. agency focused on AIDS response and progress also noted cases of HIV among Bhutan\u2019s monks.<\/p>\n Bhutan\u2019s Commission for the Monastic Affairs says stricter discipline is a solution. While corporal punishment is banned, monks told Kuensel it is still practiced.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So while the man in charge says stricter discipline is needed, including \u2013 apparently \u2013 corporal punishment, the story goes on to say that:<\/p>\n Psychiatrists suggest the spread of disease could be a result of mental stress. It is not uncommon for monks and nuns, mostly between the ages of 15 and 25, to visit psychiatrists. Even senior monks show symptoms of severe stress, especially when they are undergoing long periods of meditation, Dr. Damber Kumar Nirola told Kuensel.<\/p>\n \u201cAbout 70 to 80 percent of (senior) monks are obese, hypertensive and also suffer from back ache because of their sitting posture and sedentary lifestyle,\u201d urologist Lotay Tshering told the paper.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And not to leave the East Asian Buddhists out, we go to Tokyo, Japan. This time with a story from Yahoo News<\/a>:<\/p>\n Japanese Buddhist monk\u00a0Yoshinobu Fujioka\u00a0enjoys bringing his congregation together, one cocktail at a time.<\/p>\n Fujioka\u00a0owns the 23-seat \u201cVowz Bar\u201d in\u00a0central Tokyo, where Buddhist chants replace karaoke songs and the shaven-headed bartenders serve up sermons and homilies along with the drinks.<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n Vowz Bar has been going strong for 13 years and the cocktail list includes the vodka and cognac-based \u201cPerfect Bliss\u201d as well as \u201cInfinite Hell\u201d \u2013 a vodka, raspberry liqueur and cranberry juice concoction with a splash of tonic water.<\/p>\n The special is called \u201cEnslavery to Love and Lust\u201d and costs around 800 yen (5.59 pounds).<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day, my heart gets tainted by dirt in the secular world, so I come here to repurify it over some drinks and fun,\u201d said regular patron Noriko Urai, a 42-year-old businesswoman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I suppose all of this news may do us a service insofar as it disabuses any notions that there is some \u2018pure\u2019 \u2018holy\u2019 and fully upright Buddhism out there. Even with all of the scandal<\/a>, cult-behavior<\/a>, and so on that we can find in American Buddhism, we can rest assured that it\u2019s not unique to American Buddhism, and hey, it\u2019s not a \u201cmodern\u201d thing either<\/a>. Also, don\u2019t worry, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, and others all have similar \u2013 but uniquely their own \u2013 issues.<\/p>\n Now, where can I find a glass of \u201cEnslavery to Love and Lust\u201d in the UK?<\/strong><\/p>\n (PS. small aside, but these are often the same people, with echoing voices in the West, who get so upset about Buddha images on bikinis<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0tatoos<\/a>\u00a0of the Buddha, \u201coh, that\u2019s so offensive!\u201d \u2013 But spreading disease, getting people drunk, and committing war crimes in the name of the Buddha-Dharma, that\u2019s ok? As it is Good Friday, perhaps we can take a note from a nice\u00a0Palestinian\u00a0Jewish rabble-rouser from around 2000 years ago:<\/p>\n \u201cJudge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother\u2019s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, \u2018Let me remove the speck from your eye\u2019; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother\u2019s eye.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Matthew 7:1-5)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sri Lanka, Japan, and (often most of all) Bhutan often elicit images of peaceful monks in flowing robes walking peacefully by. In Sri Lanka they go on orderly alms-rounds in villages, In Japan their temples are often sanctuaries in the midst of the chaos of an advanced industrialized economy, and in Bhutan the scene behind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism"],"yoast_head":"\nThe <\/span>BBC reports today<\/a>\u00a0\u201cSri Lanka crowd attacks Muslim warehouse in Colombo\u201d \u2013<\/span><\/h3>\n
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