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More than 1,000 Buddhist extremists armed with clubs, swords and stones ferociously attacked a Catholic church in the town of Crooswatta, Sri Lanka on December 6, destroying the altar, statues and pews. L’Osservatore Romano reported that Father Jude Denzil Lakshman, pastor of Our Lady of the Mystical Rose, said “I still can hear their shouts in my ears, ‘Cut him to pieces, kill him’.” The attack took place after the 7 p.m., Sunday Mass, leaving several parishioners wounded. “It is obvious that the attack was well-planned and that the mob waited for us to come out after Mass,” Father Lakshman...

SNIPPET: "SUSPECTED Islamic insurgents shot and killed two people and wounded three others in a bomb blast in Thailand's troubled Muslim-majority south, police said. Gunmen broke into a house in Yala province and shot dead a 16-year-old Buddhist girl, also wounding her 29-year-old husband, they said.... More than 3900 people have died in shootings, bomb blasts, beheadings and crucifixions since a separatist insurgency erupted in Thailand's southern provinces bordering Malaysia in January 2004."

All Army chaplains wear the same uniform, and...answer to the same calling: to provide comfort and to relieve the suffering of American soldiers. But one chaplain stands out from the crowd. Thomas Dyer is the first and only Buddhist chaplain in the history of the U.S. Army. Dyer will be deployed to the Middle East in December along with the 278th Armored Calvary Regiment. Although his faith is grounded in pacifism, the 43-year-old Dyer says war has become a necessary part of peace. "My teacher has concluded that without the military, without civil protection, the world would enter into a...

(RNS) The election of an Episcopal bishop in Michigan who has practiced Buddhist meditation and changed traditional church prayers appears headed for defeat, according to an unofficial tally kept by a newspaper reporter. The Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester was elected bishop of the sparsely populated Diocese of Northern Michigan in February. Under Episcopal Church rules, a majority of bishops and 111 regional standing committees must vote to ratify his election before it is valid. On Friday (June 5), the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which has kept an unofficial running tally of the voting, reported that 56 standing committees—a majority—have voted to withhold...

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, April 16 (Compass Direct News) – Buddhist mobs attacked several churches in Sri Lanka last week, threatening to kill a pastor in the southern province of Hambanthota and ransacking a 150-year-old Methodist church building in the capital. On April 8, four Buddhist extremists approached the home of pastor Pradeep Kumara in Weeraketiya, Hambanthota district, calling for him to come out and threatening to kill him. The pastor said his wife, at home alone with their two children, phoned him immediately but by the time he returned, the men had left. Half an hour later, Kumar said, the...

For centuries, the Swat River valley was a Buddhist haven. According to tradition, Buddha himself journeyed to Swat during his last reincarnation, and preached to the local villagers. And by the 6th-century A.D, Buddhist pilgrims from as far away as China flocked to the Swat valley, a beautiful lush land of orchards and rushing mountain streams. One early Chinese account describes as many as 1400 Buddhist monasteries perched along the valley walls in the 7th century. Devout Buddhist artists left an incredibly rich legacy in Swat. Since the valley lay along a major route of the Silk Road -- which...

Chinese archaeologists on Wednesday opened a 1,000-year-old steel case that was believed to contain Buddhist relics. A pagoda top wrapped in silk emerged after archaeologists removed two steel panels of the cube-shaped case, which is 0.5 meter long, 0.5 meter wide and 1.34 meters high. Hua Guorong, vice curator of the Nanjing City Museum where the case was opened, said an initial analysis showed the object was a pagoda about 1 meter high. He said Buddhist relics, which were formed from the ashes of cremated Buddhist masters and were an important aspect of the religion, were likely to be under...

Madison, WI - Seated cross-legged onstage in a large upholstered chair, one of the world's best-known religious leaders delivered his trademark messages of compassion, peace and unity with typical humor, verve and humility Saturday afternoon. In response to a written question from the audience about Tibetan culture being strong enough to still mount widespread demonstrations against Chinese rule this year, he also ventured into the political arena. “I want to make clear. We always respect the Chinese people, not the Chinese government,” he said, to loud applause, adding that the uprisings were pro-freedom, not anti-Chinese. For the more than 7,000...

One of the largest markets in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, is in flames and at least one police car has been burnt as angry monks and Tibetans clash with police today. The surge of violence follows almost a week of demonstrations by lamas from monasteries around the Tibetan capital, who have been demanding greater freedom of religion before the Olympic Games as well as independence for the deeply Buddhist Himalayan region.

...One estimate puts the average age of Buddhist converts (about a third of the American Buddhist population) at upwards of 50. This means that the religion is almost certain to see its numbers reduced over the next generation as boomer Buddhists begin to die off without having passed their faith along to their children. And Jewish and Christian models offer the most logical solution for reversing that decline. The basic problem is that non-Asian converts tend not to regard what they practice as a religion. From the beginning, Buddhism has been seen in its American incarnation not as an alternative...

Burma's ruling generals have rejected a UN plan for three-way talks involving detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to state media. Minister Kyaw Hsan told UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari that Burma would not accept interference in its sovereignty. Mr Gambari arrived in Burma on Saturday for his second visit since protests in September were brutally suppressed. BBC UN correspondent Laura Trevelyan says diplomats privately admit omens for Mr Gambari's mission are not good. Publicly, UN officials are saying they cannot confirm the junta's decision to reject the talks proposal, according to our correspondent. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon...

More than 100 monks have marched in central Burma, the first time they have returned to the streets since last month's bloody crackdown on protests. The monks chanted and prayed as they marched through Pakokku, the site of an incident last month that triggered pro-democracy protests nationwide. The government said 10 people died during the crackdown, but diplomats believe the toll was much higher. Thousands more - many of them monks - were thought to have been detained. Separately, the Human Rights Watch organisation has accused the Burmese army of forcibly recruiting children to cover gaps left by a lack...

The country's top brass seem to have learned nothing from the contempt they drew from the international community for their conduct 19 years ago when Burmese generals put down the popular uprising in 1988. Then Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, as the country's army commander-in-chief, blithely headed a high-ranking delegation to Rangoon shortly after the junta's resort to violence left some 3,000 people dead, and sent hundreds of thousands seeking refuge in Thailand. The visit was tantamount to condoning a military dictatorship elsewhere decried for the excesses against demonstrators. The trade-off? Some kind of arrangement involving Burmese timber and fishery. Not long...

The US has banned dozens of members of Burma's military government from obtaining US travel visas because of ongoing violence against protesters. A state department spokesman said more officials would be added to the list if they were judged responsible for human rights abuses. Reports from Burma say military may have succeeded in limiting the scale of the protests in the main city, Rangoon.

President George W Bush has led international condemnation of Burma after more people were killed in its crackdown on popular protests. The US imposed sanctions targeting Burma's military leaders and called on China, one of Burma's closest partners, to put more pressure on the country. Beijing appealed for calm, and Burma's neighbours, in unusually harsh criticism, expressed "revulsion". Nine people were killed on Thursday, official media reported. They included eight protesters and a Japanese video journalist.

Truckloads of soldiers and riot police have surrounded a number of monasteries in Burma's largest city, Rangoon, to try to prevent a ninth day of protests. But groups of people are massing on the streets, apparently to prepare for more demonstrations - despite a ban on gatherings of more than five people. In another sign of increased tensions, two key dissidents have been arrested. Analysts fear a repeat of the violence in 1988, when troops opened fire on unarmed protestors, killing thousands

Thousands of monks and civilians are marching through Burma's former capital in what appears to be the biggest anti-government protest so far. Eyewitnesses said the number of people demonstrating on Monday was as high as 30,000. It follows Sunday's march in Rangoon by 20,000 monks and nuns, in what was the largest protest for almost 20 years. Events are now moving unpredictably, analysts say. So far the ruling generals are showing unusual restraint. Monks are revered in Burma and any action against them by the military government would spark an outcry. But there are fears of a repeat of 1988,...

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has greeted Buddhist monks protesting against the military junta. Apparently unable to hold her tears, Aung San Suu Kyi came out of the house she has been detained in since 2003 as the monks were let through a roadblock. At least 2,000 monks are staging a sixth day of protests through the streets of the main city of Rangoon. Up to 10,000 marched through Mandalay with protests also taking place in five townships across Burma. (snip) The area around University Avenue where Ms Suu Kyi's house is located has been closed to traffic...

Leaders of protests by Buddhist monks in Burma say they intend to continue their peaceful demonstrations until the military government collapses. The statement by the Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks came as 1,500 monks took to the streets of Rangoon in their biggest protest yet. This is the fifth straight day of marches by monks in protest at recent government attempts to silence critics. Diplomats at the United Nations have expressed concern at the crisis. In a strongly-worded statement, seen by the BBC, the Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks described the military government as "the enemy of the...

Hundreds of Buddhist monks have marched around Burma's most revered temple, in a third consecutive day of protests against the military government. The monks were allowed into the Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon for the first time since their protests began. They walked through the city surrounded by a human chain of civilians holding hands to protect them. They want a government apology for the violent break-up of a recent rally, triggered by protests over price rises.

Thousands of Buddhist monks have protested in several Burmese cities in escalating protests against the military government. In the western port city of Sittwe, nearly 2,000 monks demanded the release of four monks arrested on Tuesday. About 1,000 monks marched through Mandalay, and several hundred more in Rangoon, the former capital.

Military officials in Burma have used tear gas to disperse hundreds of monks holding a rally in the north-west city of Sittwe, reports from the area say. Some of them were beaten and several were arrested, eyewitnesses say. Large numbers of monks have also held protests in at least five other towns and cities across the country, including the former capital Rangoon.

Many people in Burma have been surprised by the sheer persistence of the protests in recent weeks. In a country where the authorities show zero tolerance of even the slightest criticism, such public displays of defiance have not been seen for almost 20 years. These protests stem from a decision by the military government to suddenly raise the price of fuel by up to five times on 15 August. Transport fares rose and that triggered a sharp rise in the price of consumer goods, hitting poor people particularly hard. The generals must have hoped that the momentum of the demonstrations...

Snapped Shot has an update on the situation at George Mason University, where the Muslim Student Association has basically taken over a “shared meditation room” and is intimidating Christian students who try to use it:

Irony is the ultimate entertainment, and today the Chinese government has outdone even itself. In effect the Godless Communists have proclaimed themselves God. In an effort to culturally castrate Tibet, Chinese Communist Party Hacks (forgive the quadruple redundancy) have laid their heavy police state hands on Tibetan social systems, transportation, immigration, and even religious practices. Not content to control Tibetan temporal transactions, China’s chief thugs are now targeting the afterlife. Buddhists — Tibetan and otherwise — believe in reincarnation, that they will be born again into this world, which stands as the most complete form of auto-masochism ever conceived. They...

Claims galore as Buddhist history claims new territory Parul Sharma “High time Orissa got its due as a prominent centre” Making a point: Professor James Freeman in New Delhi. Photo: V.V. Krishnan NEW DELHI: Even as there are claims and counter-claims about Lord Buddha being born in Kapileswar village near Bhubaneswar and not Lumbini in present-day Nepal as believed all along so far, an American anthropologist says it is time Orissa got its due as one of the most prominent centres of Buddhism in the world. “The numerous Buddhist sites in Orissa, the antiquities and sculptures found there reflect many...

Major Buddhist site comes to light Tuesday July 10 2007 14:16 IST VIJAYAWADA: A chance digging by mulberry farmers in agricultural lands have uncovered major Buddhist architectural finds in Kanthamanenivarigudem of West Godavari district. Two ancient sites are not only seen as prototypes of the present-day temples, but they have also provided the first-ever proof of the existence of another major Buddhist sect apart from the hitherto known Mahayana, Hinayana and Vajrayana sects. Interestingly, the new finds are just 2 km away from the famous Second Century rock-cut Buddhist caves of Guntupalli or Jilakarragudem in West Godavari, known as the...

The term "bleeding-heart liberal" has been bandied about for years, in an effort to illustrate the faux or at least hyperbolic sense of compassion attributed to those on the left.  The lefties in America and Europe would like to be known as those who care, unless you happen to be a Bible-following Christian, a conservative or a fetus. The information age has facilitated the dissemination of all things cultural, spiritual and intellectual.  One of the most important developments in the West has been the study and practice of Eastern religions and "ways."  Zen Buddhism, for instance, is thought of by...

Suspected Islamic rebels shot dead two Buddhist women in Thailand's restive Muslim-majority south as the country's army-installed premier began a one-day visit to the region Friday. The victims, aged 17 and 20, were gunned down late Thursday in a drive-by shooting while riding a motorcycle in Narathiwat, one of three violence-torn southern provinces bordering Malaysia, police said. Also in Narathiwat, militants set ablaze an elementary school early Friday, destroying a wooden building, while three Army rangers were hurt when a roadside bomb exploded late Thursday in nearby Yala province.

NARATHIWAT - An elderly Buddhist man was shot dead and his body set on fire Sunday in Thailand's restive south, police said, days after a similar incident provoked angry protests. The 70-year-old man was attacked by suspected Islamic militants as he drove his motorbike home from a market in Narathiwat, one of three Muslim-majority southern provinces beset by a separatist insurgency. The attackers shot the man three times in the head and torso, before setting his body on fire. Passers-by were able to rescue the corpse before it was badly burned, a local police officer said. A 26-year-old Buddhist woman...

Another bomb at bus terminal, four others defused; communal emotions run high A bomb exploded in a busy market yesterday, wounding 11 people as hundreds of angry Buddhists gathered in the town centre to call for tougher security measures. The bomb, packed with shrapnel, was placed next to a pork stall inside a water pipe left behind by construction workers. Police believe the explosion was set off by mobile phone. Two soldiers and a police officer were among the injured. A second bomb went off in the bathroom of Yala's main bus terminal, but there were no injuries. Reports of...

If you're a Tibetan Buddhist or you're leaning that way, you may not know it, but you need Jesus. That's the thinking behind a series of Christian evangelical workshops -- including one later this month in Wheaton -- that will coincide with the Dalai Lama's trip to Chicago and other American cities this spring. Interserve USA is putting on the workshops to teach Christians how to talk to Buddhists and, perhaps, to win converts. "We welcome the Dalai Lama here, but we also want to have a chance to reach Tibetan Buddhists with the gospel," said Doug Van Bronkhorst, executive...

Buddhist monk arrested over child prostitution, A 25-year-old Buddhist monk from the Shogetsuin Temple in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, was arrested Friday for engaging in child prostitution with a 15-year-old girl who he met through a cell phone dating website. According to police, Nobuhiro Suetsugu had sex with the girl at a hotel in Toshima ...

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Women are jailed for being on the street alone after dark in parts of Indonesia, long held up as a beacon of moderate Islam. Gamblers are caned, Christian schoolchildren are forced to wear headscarves and a proposed law would sentence thieves to lose their hands. In January 2006, this woman was caned by a Shariah law officer in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, for violating a law forbidding contact between unmarried men and women.Although most people in the world’s most populous Muslim nation practice a tolerant form of the faith, a small but determined group of conservatives is chipping...

Some are already calling it war, a brutal Muslim separatist insurgency in southern Thailand that has taken as many as 2,000 lives in three years, with almost- daily bombings, drive-by shootings, arson and beheadings. It is a conflict the government admits it is losing. [...] A new policy of conciliation pursued by Thailand's junta since it took power in a coup five months ago has been met by increased violence, including a barrage of 28 coordinated bombings in the south that killed or injured about 60 people a week ago. [...] "Buddhist monks have been hacked to death, clubbed to...

To keep her perfect attendance record, Tahera Ali's 13-year-old daughter used to go to school for only a couple of hours on the Islamic Day of Ashurah, getting out just in time to attend prayers for what is a holy day of sorrow. "We wear all black on that date, and she would have to change in the car on the way" to the mosque, said the Bridgewater mother. This year it will be different. Using a little-known process that intertwines education and religion, Ali petitioned her district and this year the day was placed on New Jersey's approved list...

FIVE people were shot dead and one policeman was wounded in a string of drive-by shootings by suspected Islamic militants in Thailand's restive Muslim-majority south, police said. A 60-year-old Buddhist cattle raiser was gunned down while walking, before suspected insurgents burned his body and left it on the roadside in Yala, one of three violence-torn southern provinces bordering Malaysia. A 52-year-old Buddhist street ice cream seller was also shot dead on Friday by two suspected insurgents on a motorcycle in Yala where another Muslim villager, 27, was killed late on the same day while riding a motorcycle, police said. In...

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan (AFP) - In a huge cavity dug into the side of a cliff, workers search through the rubble to exhume the remains of the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan. At the scene of the crime carried out in 2001 all evidence points to Osama bin Laden as the mastermind. "This is the terrorism of the Taliban," says Rahim, an official at the work site in front of the empty niche of the biggest of the two statues, one of which stood 55 metres (182 feet) tall and the other 38 metres. Wearing a hard hat and a mask over...

IGER Woods got ambushed by an evangelical guest of Nike on Oct. 9 during an exclusive golf outing for top business and entertainment executives. ... "During the lunch, there was a Q&A session with Woods, and most people were asking about their swings or golf questions," our source said. "Until some guy - a guest of Nike - stood up and said, 'Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? And if not, prayfully, would you?' " The source added, "You could have heard a pin drop. People were mortified. But Tiger was as unflappable as he is on...

Islamic militants today shot dead four Buddhists in two separate attacks in Thailand's mainly Muslim south, where an insurgency has raged for more than two years... In one attack, two teenagers in Islamic students' dress and riding a motorcycle, shot and killed three Buddhists in Yala... “The militants exploited the fact that the men were shopping at a grocery store and could not defend themselves, even though they had a gun,” police Colonel Somsak Wannawak said. Earlier a militant shot dead a Buddhist man in Pattani province while he was riding a bus... More than 1400 people have died in...

Buddhism was introduced to the United States near the beginning of the 20th century, but over the past 30 years or so, Buddhism has crept into our cultural consciousness. For some it is known as having been co-opted into a marketing campaign (such as to promote the Zen Micro MP3 player), for others as a cause for Hollywood celebrities, for still others a trend in architectural design, etc. But for many others – approximately one million U.S. believers among 380 million worldwide who profess to be Buddhists rather than merely being spiritually or creatively influenced by its philosophies – it...

Posted by Pennywise on Friday September 12, @04:51PM from the there-is-no-spoon dept. His Holiness the Dalai Lama recently made a surprising suggestion -- neuroscientists should turn to Buddhism and use meditation as a tool for investigating the mind. The suggestion comes as the Dalai Lama is set to speak to a sold out crowd at MIT tomorrow about bringing Buddhists and scientists together to explore the brain and mind. Scientists who have met the Dalai Lama say they have been struck at his openness to science. He has said he has been interested in science since he was a boy,...

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Protesters calling for an end to recent violence in Sri Lanka found themselves brawling with hardline Buddhist monks on Thursday, after a rally dubbed a "peace protest" turned unexpectedly violent. Organisers said there were around 1,000 people in a park in the capital, Colombo, listening to a range of speakers when hardline saffron-robed monks opposed to concessions to Tamil Tiger rebels mounted the stage and erected banners. Some more moderate Buddhist monks, protesting for peace, were already on the stage when punches were thrown. Soon, monks' robes and fists were flying, although no one was badly hurt,...

Japanese researchers said they found a seventh-century painting of a mythological Persian bird in Afghanistan's Bamiyan ruins, showing the region's Buddhism was influenced by pre-Islamic Iran. The team unearthed an image of what appears to be a Simorgh, the giant and powerful bird that figures prominently in Zoroastrian-era Iranian legends. The faded painting emerged after Japanese researchers removed soot from a Buddhist cave in Bamiyan, the region where Taliban Islamic extremists dynamited the world's tallest standing Buddha statues in 2001. "This is the first time a vivid image of this creature was confirmed" in Bamiyan, an expert involved in the...

A fire in a 1,000-year-old Buddhist temple in a remote valley of Himachal Pradesh has reduced the pinewood-structure to ashes and also destroyed a number of scriptures, artefacts and murals, officials said. The fire at the temple in Ribba in Kinnaur valley, about 200 km from Shimla, started late on Friday and caused losses of nearly Rs 125 million, they said. Besides, 170 Buddhist scriptures written over centuries by monks on birch paper rolls, many murals of Lord Buddha, antique jewellery and other artefacts have been reduced to ashes. Himalayan pinewood planks that were used to construct the temple only...

MOSCOW, JULY 4, 2006 (Zenit.org).- A Russian Orthodox Church official called for a "global union" in the world that respects various traditions, especially religious ones. Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, president of the Foreign Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, made that comment at the historic meeting of some 200 leaders of the world's religions. The leaders, from 40 countries, are meeting for three days in the Russian capital to discuss their positions on the problems that afflict contemporary society. The objective of the meeting was to influence politicians' decisions favorably and to favor a general change in the...

2,300-year-old artefacts may change Ashoka-Buddhist history (FOC) BHUBANESWAR: Orissa Institute of Maritime and South East Asian Studies (OIMSEAS) has unearthed some 2,300-year-old artefacts at Jajpur district in Orissa, which, it claimed, could change some historical narratives on the Ashokan period. The description of Chinese pilgrim Hieun-Tsang about Ashoka that he had constructed 10 stupas in Odra country where Buddha had preached may come true. Earlier, historians refused to accept the narrative. We have already analysed five stupas and found three more similar structures,” OIMSEAS Director Debaraj Pradhan told mediapersons here. He said a huge inscribed monolithic stupa along with other...

MOSCOW, JUNE 6, 2006 (Zenit.org).- A world summit of religious leaders will take place in Moscow in July, according to a bulletin of the Russian Orthodox Church. The meeting was announced by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, head of the External Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, during a recent interview with Hubert Colin de Verdière, secretary-general of France's foreign ministry. It was reported by Europaica, the bulletin of the Orthodox Church's representation to the European Union. Metropolitan Kirill hopes the July 4-5 summit will "play an important part in the prevention of extremism." It is expected that the...

Remains of past emerge from the dark - Ancient buddhist stupas discovered in bihar districts SANTOSH SINGH A mound discovered recently at Turki in Bihar’s Vaishali district. Telegraph picture Patna, May 7: A forgotten chapter of ancient history is emerging, slowly and silently, in Bihar with Patna’s KP Jaiswal Research Institute identifying as many as 70 Buddhist stupas, 50 of which remain buried underground. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) approved project plans to document all the stupas by September this year, said director of the institute Vijay Chaudhary. Buddhist texts indicate that when the Buddha died, he was cremated...

When this Indian monk chanted, the West wondered how he created a choral effect. Ngawang Tashi Bapu or Lama Tashi—who mesmerised music lovers with his multi-phonic chanting—found a place in Grammy nominations and triggered a chain of vocal experiments, is changing track. He will now sing in monotone, in his “normal voice”. Last year, Lama Tashi took the US by storm with his solo album Tibetan Master Chants comprising 12 Buddhist mantras of compassion and tranquillity. On the eve of the 48th Grammy Award presentation — the “world’s biggest music show” — the 38-year-old Monpa monk from Arunachal Pradesh has...