Heracles was a hero of ancient Greek mythology. He’s better known to most of us by his Roman name, Hercules. Hercules was a favorite subject of Greek and Roman art. His muscular likeness was so widespread in the ancient world that it influenced Buddhist temple art in far-away China and Japan. This is the story of how Hercules reached Japan. This story begins with Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE), king of Macedonia. Before Alexander was born, Macedonia had conquered Greece... Read more
Tibet’s declaration of independence is a statement released by His Holiness the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso (1876–1933), on February 13, 1913. In this statement the Dalai Lama said that Tibet’s long-standing relationship with China had been one of priest and patron, between Tibetan Buddhism and the succession of Qing emperors, not with the nation of China. With the fall of China’s last imperial dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China, “the patron-priest relationship has faded like a... Read more
Britain invaded Tibet in 1903. The British did not intend to conquer Tibet but to warn Russia to stay out of it. British troops left Tibet in September 1904, believing they had made their point. But though this may be just a footnote of history, I say it’s a story worth telling. It reveals much about human nature, hubris, greed, confirmation bias, and the state of the world during a turbulent time. The invasion was not Tibet’s first encounter with... Read more
The government of China is in possession of a particular golden urn. This urn, it is alleged, is essential to choosing the tulku, or rebirth, of a Dalai Lama. You may be hearing a lot about the urn within the next few years. The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, is 87 years old. With all sincere wishes for his good health and long life, it must be acknowledged that he doesn’t have a lot of years left. And... Read more
China’s claim to Tibet as a territory of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is an ongoing controversy. According to China, the invasion of Tibet by PRC troops in 1950 was not an invasion but a liberation. China and Tibet have been one nation since the 13th century, according to China. As you might have heard, Tibetans tend to see things differently. A large part of China’s claim to Tibet involves the lineage of Dalai Lamas. The last post, on... Read more
The Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso (1683–1706) didn’t want the job. He was enthroned as the Dalai Lama at age 16, but he wanted only to be a teenager. He renounced monastic vows and preferred to spend evenings in taverns with his friends to studying Buddhist philosophy. Today he is sometimes called the Playboy Dalai Lama. But the Sixth Dalai Lama’s life story is more of a tragedy than a joke. The existence of the Sixth Dalai Lama was a... Read more
The Fifth Dalai Lama, His Holiness Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (1617–1682), was the first Dalai Lama to become the highest spiritual and political leader of Tibet. He is remembered by Tibetans as the Great Fifth. The boy who would be the Fifth Dalai Lama was born into a wealthy and aristocratic family in central Tibet. He also was born into a time of instability. Tibet had only recently been reunited after a period of fracturing, and the new King had ordered... Read more
In the years before the U.S. Civil War, three major Christian denominations split over slavery. These were the Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist. In all three denominations disagreements over the morality of slavery began in the 1830s, and in the 1840s and 1850s factions of all three denominations left to form separate groups. However, the circumstances that caused the splits were unique to each denomination. Some background: The Atlantic slave trade that took people from Africa to be enslaved in the... Read more
Misunderstanding abounds about the role of Christianity and the abolitionist movement, the 19th century movement to abolish slavery, in the U.S. People who don’t care for religion do love to mention that many Christian ministers of the U.S. antebellum South supported slavery. And that is true. However, they don’t seem to know that more U.S. Christian ministers opposed slavery. Indeed, northern evangelical and other Christian clergy were organizers and leaders of the abolitionist movement. The organized abolitionist movement in the... Read more
Ikkō-ikki was a name given to peasants’ revolts in 15th and 16th century Japan. Most of the organizers and leaders of the revolt were Buddhist priests of the Jodo Shinshu school. The fighters, mostly farmers, merchants, and artisans, were revolting against the dominance of the samurai. For a time the revolts succeeded. Some parts of Japan in effect became independent states governed by councils of commoners, free of shogun and emperor. The ikkō-ikki revolts would eventually be brutally suppressed by the... Read more
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