Some of those stranded in Thailand’s calamitous floods are family pets. A group of volunteers has been heading into flooded Bangkok neighborhoods, rescuing frantic cats and dogs. Irwin Loy went along with one pet rescue team. Comment
Old prayer flags are replaced in the Himalayan foothills at Swayambhunath Stupa, Kathmandu, Nepal (framework.latimes.com).
A man rows a boat past a giant reclining Buddha statue submerged by a flood in Ayutthaya, Thailand (framework.latimes.com).More than 280 people have been killed since a series of tropical storms began hitting the country in late July. “Bangkok may face some problems in areas that are on the outer sides of the irrigation dikes… but inner Bangkok has extremely high defenses,” she told reporters, according to Reuters. More
Wat [Temple] Bowon Niwet Vihara Rajavaravihara, a Buddhist temple off most tourists' radars, is located on Thanon Bowon Niwet and Thanon Phra Sumen, close to the backpacker's [paradise] of Khao San Road.
This stunning temple, [with] small canals (khlongs) and plenty of trees and flowers, provides visitors with a rare piece of calm in otherwise buzzing Bangkok.
But beautiful as the grounds are, be sure to visit the monks' retreat, which is made up of tiny, beautiful kutis with terraces surrounded by flowers. Visitors are allowed in, so you can sit with the monks as they study and have a talk, or just watch them go about their daily lives.
Many events take place at Wat Bowon Niwet, including Buddhist holidays, funerals and -- a highlight -- the inauguration of the new novice monks.
Also within the huge Wat Bowon Niwet compound is the Buddhist Thammayut Nikaya University, where the dean is more than happy to let visitors follow a lesson in one of the classes. Entrance is free... More
Novice nun Dhammarakhita (center), dressed in adobe-colored robe after her ordination in Sri Lanka, gestures at Songdharmakalyani Temple in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand in this 2002 file photo. Formally known as Varangghana Vanavichayen, Ven. Dhammarakhita, a mother of two who divorced her husband to dedicate her life to Buddhist practice, became the first woman to be ordained as a monk in Thailand (AFP/Newscom File).BANGKOK, Thailand - Ven. Dhammananda Bhikkhuni grips a wobbly stack of feminine hygiene products and sorts them on a long table. Her followers watch before mimicking her quick movements.
“We will bring these donations to women who are in the local prison,” explained Ven. Dhammananda. “If we don’t then who [will]?”
Bhikkhunis (bee-KOO-nees), ordained female monastics, in Thailand consider their gender to be an essential bridge to the women they help through charity work and spiritual guidance, since women are forbidden to be alone with male monks, known as bhikkhus (bee-KOOS).
But Thai nuns have their own limitations, not just because they number only 25 compared with approximately 200,000 monks here. They lack legal recognition -- a denial that accompanies various withholdings of public benefits -- and it highlights a persistent issue of discrimination for women across the country. More
(Be2die4, June 6, 2011) Let's face the reality. Worldwide Cambodian communities are not blind to Hun Sen's autocracy or ignorant of what it is doing to Cambodia, plundering the nation. Cambodia needs leader not a tyrant or another Khmer Rouge military dictatorship. Of course the music, so popular in Asia, is not helping the awareness campaign. Bear with it, for there is an important message about what the [western] powers that be allowed or encouraged in Asia -- from Vietnam in the southeast to Afghanistan in the northwest.
Elsewhere in Asia, policeman attempts to beat Tibetan Buddhist monk to assert Chinese rule (damncoolpictures.com). China is Burmese dictatorship's main support.Authorities, however, felt he would be more useful to them elsewhere: he was bound and trucked to the country's eastern border, where he was forced to serve as a porter for soldiers fighting ethnic-minority forces.
A group of porters carry goods for Burmese soldiers in a village in Karen state (undated photo released by Free Burma Ranger/AP).The backbreaking duty of carrying mortars and rice sacks all day with meager provisions of food and water was the least oppressive part of his ordeal. The 21-year-old said he was regularly beaten by soldiers and forced into veritable suicide missions.
Monastics gather on stage (phathoc.net)
The all faiths yantra (lotus.org)
Sacred (sak) geometry (yant or yantra) tattooing refers to protective symbols embedded in the skin in Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. It is the ancient magical practice of using sacred geometry along with Buddhist, Brahminical (proto-Hindu), and animist imagery as well as magical incantations (kata or mantras), written in Khom (an ancient script used to write Pali-Sanskrit or Prakrit, which does not have a unique script).
It remains one of the largest unexplained mysteries of the universe, but particle physicists are gaining more confidence in a result from an atom smashing experiment that could be a step toward providing an answer. We exist because the universe is full of matter and not the opposite, so-called antimatter. When the Big Bang occurred, equal parts of both should have been created and immediately annihilated each other, leaving nothing leftover to build the stars, planets, or us.
Five premiers in as many years is a statistic that might give Ms. Yingluck pause for thought. Thailand has been beset by political division ever since Mr. Thaksin was ousted.
Yingluck, sister of fugitive Thai ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, greets her supporters during election campaign in Chiang Mai on May 21, 2011 (Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty Images).
His loyal supporters and bitter enemies have vied for power in parliament and on the streets. Last year, red-shirted demonstrators, the majority of whom were Thaksin allies, laid siege to parts of the capital, Bangkok.
The army was eventually sent in to put down the increasingly confrontational protest, which ultimately left more than 90 people dead. Both sides in this election campaigned on the need for unity after a period marked by bloodshed and bitter recrimination.
"She must now show that she is able to lead in her own right and step out of her brother's shadow"
The outgoing Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, focused the latter stages of his campaign on a warning -- that a vote for Yingluck was effectively a vote for Thaksin, and that would pave the way for the exiled leader's pardon and eventual homecoming. More
BANGKOK (Reuters, June 30, 2011) - Graft-busting "Massage Parlor King" Chuwit Kamolvisit must be the only candidate in Thailand's election who wants to be in opposition -- and he prefers being labelled a pimp rather than a politician. More
The Lady, Burma's Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Reclining Buddha passing into final nirvana (parinirvana) prior to cremation and disbursal of the relics, Thai megalith, Ayutthaya, Thailand (Marty Windle/Flickr)
Millions of Sri Lankan Buddhist devotees paid homage to sacred relics of the Buddha from Pakistan [until recently an ancient part of India called Gandhara alongside Afghanistan, formerly the Indian frontier region where Siddhartha was likely born and raised] during a 17-day exhibition of the sacred relics in Sri Lanka.
Sacred cremation relics of the Buddha on exhibition (IANS)
On June 17, the relics were brought back to Colombo to Mahamewna Asapuwa in Malabe. From June 17-19 they were kept in the inner chamber of the newly constructed stupa [pagoda] to sanctify and confer blessings on the new stupa. As a lasting testimony to this blessed event, the stupa was named the “Blessed Gautama Dharma-King Reliquary” (Siri Gauthama Dharmarajika Stupa).
Female novices at the Sathira-Dhammasathan Buddhist Meditation Center in Bangkok. Novices keep ten major precepts rather than the hundreds of rules protecting fully ordained monastics (telegraph.co.uk).
Has the male Sangha's stern frown on female ordination stopped women's determination to pursue a monastic life [in Thailand]?
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Sakyadhita Thailand reports from the Conference (Thai)
Victoria (Vcrump-haill) with novice monks, McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh, India"When I was participating in a ceremony at Andra Pradesh in India, a number of Buddhists requested me to send Buddhist monks to carry out Buddhist missionary activities. Some requested us to ordain them. Therefore, it is necessary to set up a bhikkhu training center in India," he added.
