Heian-Period Buddhist painting on display at Byodoin temple
Heian-Period Buddhist painting on display at Byodoin temple |
- Heian-Period Buddhist painting on display at Byodoin temple
- Turmoil over Salt Lake Buddhist temple prompts protest
- Brainwashed into quitting medical school
- Sri Lanka East’s excavations suggest Meditation was early bird
- Pakistan struggles with smuggled Buddhist relics
- Bhutan aims to be first 100% organic nation
- Attack on Buddhist Temples premeditated: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
- Our Sixth Annual Online Auction is coming!
| Heian-Period Buddhist painting on display at Byodoin temple Posted: 07 Oct 2012 07:00 PM PDT THE ASAHI SHIMBUN, October 6, 2012Kyoto, Japan -- The public got its first glimpse of a famous Buddhist painting on Oct. 6, when the Byodoin temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, unveiled the "Nissokan-zu."
The painting, a national treasure, depicts a form of meditation from the Heian Period (794-1185). It will be on display at the temple's Museum Hoshokan through Dec. 14. Since the establishment of the temple in the 11th century, only a small group of people have had access to the picture, which is painted on two door panels placed behind the Seated Amida Nyorai (Amitabha Buddha) statue, the principal Buddhist image of Byodoin temple. The exhibition was planned following the start of major renovations of the temple's Phoenix Hall in September. "Nissokan" is a form of ascetic training that involves contemplating heaven while facing the setting sun. The original picture was painted on the two doors, each about 2.6 meters tall and about 1.2 meters wide. Painted on the left door is the sun setting over the sea, while on the right are mountains and a Buddhist temple. Most of the temple's 10 paintings executed on doors--all of which are designated national treasures--were put in storage over the years due to severe deterioration, but the "Nissokan-zu" had remained in the Phoenix Hall. The Phoenix Hall is currently closed to visitors due to construction work. Read More @ Source
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| Turmoil over Salt Lake Buddhist temple prompts protest Posted: 07 Oct 2012 06:00 PM PDT By Jasen Lee, Deseret News, Oct. 6 2012WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (USA) -- A complicated legal dispute has put members of a Utah religious group at odds. Chanting, "Give back our temple. Give back our temple," protesters on Saturday went to another Buddhist temple in West Valley City, where a group of monks had gathered for a national conference. The monks are members of the Vietnamese-American Unified Buddhist Congress in the United States of America. For the past year, the two groups have been embroiled in a legal battle over property rights to the temple in Rose Park. The Utah group agreed to donate the property to the congress, but that deed was given to a monk without the local group's knowledge. "So they are very frustrated and they want the congress to return back to them the title," said congress spokesman Thuan Tran. Litigation is ongoing, but the dispute has divided the Salt Lake Buddhist community. Local temple leaders even suspected the dispute had something to do with a break-in at their business office two weeks ago, although police have made no arrests in the case. Utah Sen. Luz Robles, D-Salt Lake, is not involved in the lawsuit but both temples are in her district. She showed up to offer her support to both sides. "It's a big deal, especially for the Vietnamese Buddhist community," Robles said. "It's becoming more of a pertinent issue. … There's some frustration going on." The frustration has been mounting among the local congregation that has worshiped at the Rose Park temple for 19 years. It's also a sacred burial ground for their loved ones who have passed on. "Suddenly, they've been deprived of their religious freedom and deprived of their rights to worship, the rights to worship their ancestors and that is very much hard for them to swallow," Tran said. 
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| Brainwashed into quitting medical school Posted: 07 Oct 2012 05:00 PM PDT By Kang Soon Chen, The Star/Asia News Network,Oct 6, 2012PETALING JAYA, Malaysia -- A group of Universiti Sains Malaysia medical students has allegedly been brainwashed into leaving their studies by a Buddhist monk.
"These students were led to believe that patients should not receive medical treatment for their condition as sickness is the result of their karma. "They are convinced that they should not become doctors as the act of treating patients will interfere with karma," said Chong. It is believed that the monk had approached the students in March this year and had gained a following through religious activities conducted off-campus. The monk also allegedly claimed that he had supernatural power and was able to tell the past and predict the future of the students. "Compassion is central to Buddhist beliefs. What the monk had propagated about leaving patients to their sickness is wrong. "We hope to curb the spread of misleading religious beliefs among students by creating better awareness on the true teachings of Buddhism," said Chong. The students are said to want to leave the medical school and transfer to other programmes such as nutrition and sports science. They are also having strained relationships with their family members following their decision to quit medical studies. It was understood that some of the students were in their third and fourth year of studies. A university official confirmed that three students had applied to transfer to other courses. Vice-chancellor Prof Dr Datuk Omar Osman said none of the students had received approval to switch courses and the university viewed the matter of students being influenced by misleading religious teachings seriously. "We do not want the students to simply switch courses because they are very good students and had worked very hard to gain a place to study medicine," said Prof Omar. He added that the university was reaching out to the students through counselling. Read More @ Source
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| Sri Lanka East’s excavations suggest Meditation was early bird Posted: 07 Oct 2012 04:00 PM PDT By Sandun Jayawardana, The Nation, October 7, 2012Colombo, Sri Lanka -- Three years after the end of the war, archaeologists are hard at work in the country's Eastern province. Teams from the Department of Archaeology have been exploring areas that were previously inaccessible for decades due to fighting. As these excavations are taking place, controversies regarding the history of these areas and who exactly arrived first are once again starting to arise.
Some historians and archaeologists claim that there were a large number of Buddhist temples in the region which were subsequently destroyed by invading armies from South India, whose leaders built Hindu temples on top of the ruins of the Buddhist places of worship. This claim is in turn disputed by others, who say that Hinduism in the region predates Meditation by centuries. According to some, it was the destructive tsunami of 2004 which first 'revealed' archaeological evidence on a mass scale that there were many Buddhist ruins in the region. Jayalath Kulasinghe, Exploration Officer at the Department of Archaeology claims the tsunami exposed many Buddhist archaeological ruins in the region. He adds that with the war having concluded, conservation efforts are underway to help preserve these sites. However, he claims efforts are being hindered by certain elements who wish to hide the 'truth' about the history of Meditation in the region. Venerable Ellawala Medhananda Thera, who has been involved in investigating ancient Buddhist ruins throughout the island for decades, disputed Kulasinghe's claim that it was the tsunami which revealed clues about Buddhist heritage in the region. "On the contrary, clues regarding the existence of Buddhist places of worship in this region were present long before the tsunami. The Department of Archaeology didn't explore the region much for decades due to the war. But I have been involved in such investigations for 45 years, and those like me were able to find such places long before the tsunami," he said. Medhananda Thera said for example, archaeological sites such as the 'Muhudhu Maha Viharaya', 'Shashthrawela', 'Kuchchaweli', 'Sangaman Kanda', were just some locations in the East that bore evidence of Buddhist heritage in the region that stretched back thousands of years. The Thera went so far as to claim that "99.99 percent" of archaeological sites in the region were Buddhist. However, he said many of these sites are currently under threat from different quarters.
The Thera also claimed certain persons were involved in attempting to destroy Buddhist archaeological sites in the region. "For example, there is a place called Kathiraveli, between Eravur and Seruwila, where you find a Buddhist archaeological site with an ancient stone inscription which we haven't deciphered yet. When the LTTE was in control of the area, they actually had a camp there. A few weeks ago, we found out that someone had built a structure resembling a church on the site. Yet, the Archaeology Department had no idea about it till we informed them," he claimed. Medhananda Thera said he was deeply disturbed by the regularity of such sites being destroyed. "I visited a site called Karangawa in Pothuvil recently and found a 40 foot deep pit right in the middle of it. There was evidence that treasure hunters had spent weeks living at the site while digging for treasure. They were clearly allowed to continue unimpeded," he lamented. The Thera went onto add that there were over 10,000 archaeological sites in the Eastern province alone, most of them being Buddhist, and that "less than 1,000" have been clearly identified. "The authorities need to do far more to ensure that such sites are protected for future generations. If you're an archaeologist, you can't simply work for your salary. You need to treat it as a responsibility. No one pays me a salary for doing this, yet I've been engaged in this duty for 45 years. I wish more people will treat it as a responsibility rather than just a job," he said. While efforts are underway to identify and preserve archaeological sites in the East, debate also rages regarding the history of some prominent religious sites in the region. The Koneswaram Hindu Temple in Trincomalee is one such location whose history is under debate. Jayalath Kulasinghe of the Department of Archaeology claims Sun worship, probably one of the oldest forms of worship in the world, took place at two prominent locations on the island, namely Adam's Peak (Sripada) and Trincomalee, near the site where the Koneswaram Temple now stands. "Historical records indicate that a Jaina temple had been built at this spot and that in the 5th Century AD, King Mahasen destroyed it and built a Buddhist temple there," he claimed. Ven. Ellawala Medhananda Thera said that a Buddhist temple named "Gokanna Viharaya", built by King Mahasen, was located at the site where the Koneswaram temple now stands. "However, invading armies from South India destroyed this temple, and built a Hindu kovil on top of it," he claimed. He added a stone inscription found at the site and written in Sanskrit confirmed the existence of a Buddhist temple at Koneswaram site. However, Ramachandran Gangatharan, Office Manager at the Koneswaram temple in Trincomalee claimed they have no record of the existence of a Buddhist temple at the site. He added there were records indicating the Hindu kovil at the site had been in existence since the 7th Century. "But its existence is even mentioned in the Ramayana, so clearly it had been there for far longer," he said. Paranjothypillai Parameshwaram, President of the Temple's Administrative Board, claimed Koneswaram had been a place of worship for around 28,000 years. "The Koneshwaram Hindu temple was known as the '1000 pillar temple'. However, the Portuguese ransacked the temple and razed it to the ground after looting its treasures. It was only rebuilt in the 1950s," he said. Gangatharan and Parameshwaram said claims of a Buddhist temple being built at the site were recently brought forward by various sections, but that there was no record of such a temple. Pics courtesy: Archaeology Department Exploration Officer, Jayalath Kulasinghe Read More @ Source
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| Pakistan struggles with smuggled Buddhist relics Posted: 07 Oct 2012 03:00 PM PDT By The Associated Press SEBASTIAN ABBOT (Associated Press), ZARAR KHAN (Associated Press), October 4, 2012ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Lacking the necessary cash and manpower, Pakistan is struggling to stem the flow of millions of dollars in ancient Buddhist artifacts that looters dig up in the country's northwest and smuggle to collectors around the world.
The black market trade in smuggled antiquities is a global problem that some experts estimate is worth billions of dollars per year. The main targets are poor countries like Pakistan that possess a rich cultural heritage but don't have the resources to protect it.
Many of the sites are in the Swat Valley, a verdant, mountainous area in the northwest that was once part of Gandhara, an important Buddhist kingdom that stretched across modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan more than 1,000 years ago. Police seized a large container filled with nearly 400 artifacts in the southern port city of Karachi in July that were being trucked north to be smuggled out of the country. About 40 percent were found to be genuine, including nearly 100 Buddhist sculptures up to 1,800-years-old worth millions of dollars, said Qasim Ali Qasim, director of archaeology and museums in southern Sindh province. That changed in 1975 when the government passed a set of laws criminalizing the practice. But Kakar, the federal archaeology chief, said the laws are difficult to enforce given a lack of funds, and people who are caught rarely receive punishments severe enough to act as much of a deterrent. Police arrested several people connected to the seizure in Karachi in July, but they have yet to be formally charged. Two men who were arrested last October for excavating a statue of Buddha from a site in Swat were only fined about $ 50 each, far less than the maximum punishment of a year in prison and a fine of more than $ 800 they could have received, said Syed Naeen, a public prosecutor in the area. A Manhattan art dealer, Subhash Kapoor, is under arrest in neighboring India for allegedly smuggling millions of dollars in antiquities out of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan that he sold to museums and private collectors from his gallery in New York and online, according to police investigators involved with the case. The 30-year-old high school dropout was contacted by The Associated Press through the owner of a tea shop in the area and showed off a sample of his wares, including a small statue of the Buddha's head. He said he recently received an order from a man in Sri Lanka to make a 3-foot tall "fasting Buddha" statue and expected to make a little more than $ 200 in the process. Locals who deal in real Buddhist artifacts they have stolen from sites in the northwest likely make much more money, but it's almost nothing compared to what people higher up the food chain earn. Looters receive on average less than 1 percent of the final sale price of an item, while middlemen and dealers get the other 99 percent, according to the former head of the U.N. Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, Sandro Calvani. Kakar, the federal archaeology chief, tried to stop Christie's auction house in New York from selling a "fasting Buddha" from the 3rd or 4th century last year as well as dozens of other Buddhist relics he claimed were smuggled out of Pakistan illegally. Christie's went ahead and sold the Buddha for nearly $ 4.5 million and has asked Pakistan to provide proof of its claims, the auction house said. Kakar was more successful with two shipments of Buddhist artifacts from Dubai and Tokyo that were seized by U.S. customs authorities in 2005, he said. He was able to prove the sculptures came from Pakistan by analyzing the age and composition of the stone, and the U.S. returned them, said Kakar. Neil Brodie, an expert on the illicit trade in antiquities at the University of Glasgow, said it was critical for authorities to put pressure on private collectors and museums whose demand for ancient relics is fueling the black market. Some museums, particularly in Italy and Britain, have become more diligent about avoiding antiquities with questionable histories, but those in the U.S. have much more work to do, he said. "You are losing the archaeological record on the ground by the destruction that is entailed by digging these relics out," said Brodie. ___ Associated Press writers Sherin Zada in Mingora, Pakistan, Adil Jawad in Karachi, Pakistan, and Ashok Sharma in Chennai, India, contributed to this report. Read More @ Source
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| Bhutan aims to be first 100% organic nation Posted: 07 Oct 2012 02:00 PM PDT Sapa-AFP, October 7, 2012Timphu, Bhutan -- The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, famed for seeking "happiness" for its citizens, is aiming to become the first nation in the world to turn its home-grown food and farmers 100-percent organic.
Its development model measuring "Gross National Happiness" instead of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been discussed at the United Nations and has been publicly backed by leaders from Britain and France, among others. It banned television until 1999, keeps out mass tourism to shield its culture from foreign influence, and most recently set up a weekly "pedestrians' day" on Tuesdays that sees cars banned from town centres.
"Bhutan has decided to go for a green economy in light of the tremendous pressure we are exerting on the planet," Agriculture Minister Pema Gyamtsho told AFP in an interview by telephone from the capital Thimphu. "If you go for very intensive agriculture it would imply the use of so many chemicals, which is not in keeping with our belief in Buddhism, which calls for us to live in harmony with nature." Bhutan has a population of just over 700,000, two-thirds of whom depend on farming in villages dotted around fertile southern plains and the soaring Himalayan peaks and deep valleys to the north. Overwhelmingly forested, no more than three percent of the country's land area is used for growing crops, says Gyamtsho, with the majority of farmers already organic and reliant on rotting leaves or compost as natural fertilisers. "Only farmers in areas that are accessible by roads or have easy transport have access to chemicals," he explained, saying chemical use was already "very low" by international standards. In the large valleys, such as the one cradling the sleepy capital, chemicals are used to kill a local weed that is difficult to take out by hand -- a challenge compounded by a lack of farm labour. Elsewhere, the fertiliser urea is sometimes added to soil, while a fungicide to control leaf rust on wheat is also available. "We have developed a strategy that is step-by-step. We cannot go organic overnight," Gyamtsho said, describing a policy and roadmap which were formally adopted by the government last year. "We have identified crops for which we can go organic immediately and certain crops for which we will have to phase out the use of chemicals, for rice in certain valleys for example." Bhutan's only competitor for the first "100-percent organic" title is the tiny self-governing island of Niue in the South Pacific, which has a population of only 1,300. It aims to reach its objective by 2015-2020. Nadia Scialabba, a global specialist on organic farming at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, says the organic food market and its premium prices are attractive for small countries and territories. "This is happening in very small countries who are not competitive on quantity, but they would like to be competitive in quality," she told AFP. The global organics market was estimated to be worth 44.5 billion euros ($ 57 billion) in 2010, according to figures from the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements. Bhutan sends rare mushrooms to Japan, vegetables to upmarket hotels in Thailand, its highly prized apples to India and elsewhere, as well as red rice to the United States. By shunning fertilisers and other chemicals, the country also stands to gain by reducing its import bill -- a particular concern for a country short on foreign currency. Peter Melchett, policy director at Britain's organic Soil Association, says the main benefit of becoming 100-percent organic is an assurance of quality to consumers. "Because there won't be pesticides or other chemicals on sale in the kingdom, they would be able to offer a high level of guarantees that products are organic," Melchett explained. In countries like Spain, for example, there is a problem of contamination when organic farms are next to highly industrialised producers using large quantities of artificial chemicals, Melchett said. "It's difficult for organic farmers in those circumstances to keep their crops and supply-chain free of contamination." Bhutan's organic policy would "start to give the country a reputation of high-quality organic food, which in the long-run would give them a market advantage and the possibility of price premiums," he added. Jurmi Dorji, a member of the 103-strong Daga Shingdrey Pshogpa farmers' association in southern Bhutan, says his fellow members are in favour of the policy. "More than a decade ago, people realised that the chemicals were not good for farming," he told AFP. "I cannot say everyone has stopped using chemicals but almost 90 percent have." Read More @ Source
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| Attack on Buddhist Temples premeditated: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Posted: 07 Oct 2012 01:00 PM PDT |
| Our Sixth Annual Online Auction is coming! Posted: 07 Oct 2012 12:00 PM PDT
The Shambhala Sun Foundation gratefully thanks our auction partners for their generous donations. All proceeds support our communication of the dharma. Donations are still welcome; please contact Cindy Littlefair at c.littlefair[at]shambhalasun.com. Donating is easier than you think! Read More @ Source
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<<The original "Nissokan-zu," right, painted on two doors during the Heian Period, and a re-creation of the picture, left, are on display at Kyoto's Byodoin temple. (Kazunori Takahashi)
<< Remnants of statues at Sella Hatharagama Kovil
<< Photo credit: AP | In this photo taken on July 6, 2012, A Pakistani official looks at Buddha statues confiscated by custom authorities in Karachi, Pakistan. Lacking the necessary cash and manpower, Pakistan is struggling to stem the flow of millions of dollars in ancient Buddhist artifacts that shadowy criminal gangs dig up from the country's northwest and smuggle to collectors around the world. (AP Photo/B.K. Shakil Adil)
The tiny Buddhist-majority nation wedged between China and India has an unusual and some say enviable approach to economic development, centred on protecting the environment and focusing on mental well-being.
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