Posted on 03/30/2008 4:29:08 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Monk-led protests show Buddhist activism
By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Writer
Sun Mar 30, 1:38 AM ET
Buddhist monks hurling rocks at Chinese in Tibet, or peacefully massing against Myanmar's military, can strike jarring notes.
These scenes run counter to Buddhism's philosophy of shunning politics and embracing even bitter enemies — something the faith has adhered to, with some tumultuous exceptions, through its 2,500-year history.
But political activism and occasional eruptions of violence have become increasingly common in Asia's Buddhist societies as they variously struggle against foreign domination, oppressive regimes, social injustice and environmental destruction.
More monks and nuns are moving out of their monasteries and into slums and rice paddies — and sometimes into streets filled with tear gas and gunfire.
"In modern times, preaching is not enough. Monks must act to improve society, to remove evil," says Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile and a high-ranking lama.
"There is the responsibility of every individual, monks and lay people, to act for the betterment of society," he told The Associated Press in Dharmsala, India, discussing protests in Tibet this month that were initiated by monks.
In widespread protests over the past three weeks, crimson-robed monks — some charging helmeted troops and throwing rocks — have joined with ordinary citizens who unfurled Tibetan flags and demanded independence from China. Beijing's official death toll from the rioting in Lhasa is 22, but the exiled government of the Dalai Lama says 140 Tibetans were killed there and in Tibetan communities in western China.
Bloodshed also stained last fall's pro-democracy uprising in Myanmar, dubbed the "Saffron Revolution" after the color of the robes of monks who led nonviolent protests against the country's oppressive military regime.
In Thailand, followers of a Buddhist sect took part in street demonstrations which led to the ouster of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra two years ago.
In Sri Lanka, the ultra-nationalist Jathika Hela Urumaya party, led by monks, has pushed for using brute force against the country's Tamil rebels. In 1959 a monk assassinated a prime minister over a law giving some protection to the Tamil language.
Indeed, the activism reflects another side of Buddhist history. Despite the faith's image of passivity, an aggressive strain has long existed, especially in the Mahayana school of Buddhism, practiced in Japan, Korea, China and Tibet.
The sohei, monks in Japan, fought pitched battles with one another and with secular clans for over 600 years until around 1600. China's Shaolin Temple, a martial arts center to this day, was allowed to retain warrior monks from the 7th century by emperors who sometimes used them to put down rebellions and banditry.
The monk Saya San became a national hero in the 1930s in Myanmar — then Burma — by leading a revolt. The British colonials hanged him after fielding 12,000 troops to suppress his peasant army.
The self-immolation of monk Thich Quang Duc on a Saigon street became an iconic image of protest against the Vietnam War.
Before China's takeover of Tibet in 1959, warrior monks sometimes wielded more power — and weaponry — than the army. Lhasa's Sera monastery, a hotbed of the recent protests, was particularly noted for its elite fighters, the "Dob-Dobs," who in 1947 took part in a rebellion that took 300 lives.
"Use peaceful means where they are appropriate, but where they are not appropriate, do not hesitate to resort to more forceful means," said the previous, now deceased Dalai Lama when Tibet fought the Chinese in the 1930s.
Christopher Queen, an expert on Buddhism at Harvard University, says the new trend among some of the world's 350 million faithful is expanding from individual spiritual liberation to attacking problems such as poverty and environmental blight that affect whole communities or nations.
Sri Lanka's Sarvodaya Shramadana, or "Mundane Awakening," provides everything from safe drinking water to basic housing in more than 11,000 poor villages. And in India, Buddhist groups are fighting for the rights of "the untouchables," the lowest caste.
Global and loosely affiliated, originating at the grass roots rather than atop religious hierarchies and more muscular than meditative, this movement is widely known as Engaged Buddhism.
"Engaged Buddhists are looking at the social, economic, and political causes of human misery in the world and organizing to address them. The role of social service and activism is clearly growing in all parts of the Buddhist world," Queen said in an interview.
While not immune to spilling blood, Queen says "the Buddhist tradition is rightly known for the systematic practice of nonviolence." That leads scholars to doubt it will turn to terrorism or sustained violence other than occasional spontaneous outbursts. They note that Buddhism doesn't advocate killing heretics or otherwise spreading the faith by force.
Indeed, the Dalai Lama has decried the recent violence while supporting peoples' rights to peaceful protest. And Samdhong, the prime minister-in-exile, adds: "If (monks) want to fight, they have to disrobe and join the fighters."
___
Associated Press writers Anita Chang in Beijing, Ben Stocking in Hanoi, Ambika Ahuja in Bangkok, Burt Herman in Seoul, Gavin Rabinowitz in Dharmsala and Ravi Nessman in Colombo contributed to this report.
Ping!
“Warrior Monks?” I’ve come to wonder, just how many “Monks” are there in Tibet? Are “Monks” Tibet’s number one product? Why would Monkdom be so attractive to so many Tibetans? Are the women that ugly? Does monkdom pay well?
In a land of endless poverty, monks were the only ones guaranteed to eat.
I just returned from China a few days ago. I took a vacation there for a few weeks. I have been there several times and have been to 7 Buddhist temples combined from Shanghai, Zhanjiang and Hainan. This one man’s opinion is that the temples and the monks are akin to stationary gypsies.
I was at one temple in Zhanjiang that had monks that separated people from the group. They would then say nice things about the person and convince them to a palm reading for a “small fee.” They then go for the hard sell and if you try to walk away they get belligerent. My fiancee fell for that. By they time I got to her, she had spent 300RMB. If they do that several times an hour, that is a lot of money for a monk vowed to poverty.
When she walked away all happy at her great reading, I said let me guess, He told you that you will be rich in the future, that you will have changed coming and that you have a great love. She said yes and asked how I new. I told her that she is a Chinese woman with an American man and you were wearing a diamond engagement ring. Throughout the rest of our trip the same scenario was followed at every temple.
If the temples in Tibet are the same way, I have zero sympathy for them.
Those may have not been truly buddhist temples and there are many cases in Taiwan where traditional (i.e. pig sacrificing) temples will also have figures of the Buddha and such. ChiNanGong near Taipei is one such example, with a section each for the Taoists, traditional gods, and then the Bhuddist section.
It was also China, so they probably went back to their wives all night. If you where with a tour group, your guide would have been paid a steering fee for bringing you there.
Some were guided tours, others were not. You make a good point about them going home to their wives. The entire thing could be mocked up. My cynicism deepens....
"Engaged Buddhism" doesn't fly with my teacher. It is just politically correct westernized nonsense. Self defense is another matter entirely. Tibetan Buddhism is not pacifistic it is non-aggressive. There is a big difference.
There is no way people can seriously study Buddhism. There could be serious people who are doing it on their own. Communism does not allow spiritual competitors.
No wonder they are panhandler/gypsies. Charlatan monks, Buddhist poseurs, are not uncommon in the street of other countries, either. Those with donation box next to them or hanging around in the busy streets too long are suspects.
You can find true monks only after communists are gone in China. Do not confuse those poseurs with real ones.
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