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NEWS ABOUT: Buddhist monks

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Tenth Tibetan Monk Sets Himself on Fire

China calls it a form of 'terrorist activity'

(Newser) - The recent self-immolation craze may have started in Tunisia, but no one’s been as devoted to it as Tibet’s Buddhist monks. Yet another monk reportedly set himself on fire yesterday in protest of Chinese rule, making him the tenth to do so since March, according to the AP... More »

South Korean Monks Pray for 1.9M Culled Animals

Foot-and-mouth disease outbreak worst in country's history

(Newser) - Buddhist monks in South Korea held a massive memorial service today for the more than 1.9 million animals killed in a desperate attempt to halt the country’s foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. Surrounded by the faithful, the monks bowed before photos of the culled animals, offering them chrysanthemums as a... More »

Thais Take Coffin Naps to Fix Karma

$5 buys a few minutes in monastery's gaudy pink boxes

(Newser) - As Thailand's economy slows and its government falters, growing numbers of deeply superstitious citizens are jostling into a pink coffin to "die," the Telegraph reports. At about $5 a head, monks in a monastery outside Bangkok officiate over the "dead bodies" in the coffins, before ushering in... More »

Young Burmese Monks Ready to Take Up Arms

Buddhist movement gets bolder; some suggest stockpiling weapons

(Newser) - After seeing nonviolent protesters killed or detained in last year’s protests against the ruling junta, younger segments of Burma’s Buddhist monks are becoming more radical, embracing armed resistance and overt dissent, the Christian Science Monitor reports. "We need weapons,” one young monk said. “That is... More »

50 Years On, Tibet's Secret War Simmers

Dalai Lama's brother was key to CIA-backed anti-China insurgency

(Newser) - The little-known Tibetan resistance struggle after China's 1950 invasion still affects its politics today, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Dalai Lama's brother played a vital role in the CIA-backed armed movement, largely made up of Buddhist monks, and Chinese suspicion still lingers over how much the spiritual leader himself... More »

1,000 Tibetan Monks Jailed to Prevent Protests

Entire monasteries cleared as Olympics start date approaches

(Newser) - The Chinese government has jailed more than 1,000 monks in an effort to prevent protests during the Olympic Games, reports the Times of London. Three large monasteries are empty near Lhasa, where hundreds of monks and supporters held protests amid gunfire in March. The government is holding the monks—... More »

Dalai Lama's Advice Runs to Earthier Tones

Exile's Indian headquarters draws seekers of celestial, and not-so-celestial, guidance

(Newser) - Driven by questions both spiritual and secular, more Westerners are heading to the Dalai Lama's headquarters-in-exile, the Wall Street Journal reports. Humble despite being proclaimed a “God-King,” Tibet's spiritual leader has sought “opportunities to be interactive” in the Indian town of Dharmsala—seeing a wide variety of... More »

Monks Provide Myanmar Relief

They offer comfort to 2.4 million struggling to survive

(Newser) - In the wake of Burma’s cyclone, Buddhist monks have become the only source of comfort—both “material” and “spiritual”—for many thousands of homeless and destitute who have been abandoned by the government, the New York Times reports. “Monks are like parents to us. The... More »

Monks Spoil China's PR Tour

Press visit disrupted by crying Tibetans

(Newser) - Tibetan monks burst into a carefully choreographed Chinese media event yesterday, breaking the image of restored calm China had hoped to project. China had allowed a small group of foreign reporters into the region, but even as one monk at Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple was expounding on the return to... More »

Lhasa Erupts as Tibetans Battle Police

Dowtown market in flames in biggest clash in 20 years

(Newser) - Nearly a thousand angry monks and lay Tibetans clashed with police in the capital of Lhasa today in the most dramatic anti-Chinese protests in almost 20 years, writes the Times of London and CNN. Rioters threw rocks at police who tried to block the lamas, and burned Chinese-owned shops, leaving... More »

Burma Pledges Free Elections in 2010

Opposition leaders dismiss move as 'public relations spin'

(Newser) - The military junta in Burma said today the nation will have multiparty, democratic elections in 2010, Reuters reports. Opposition leaders greeted the decision with a heavy dose of skepticism and charged that even if the vote goes through, the military will not release its grip on power. The regime has... More »

Tibetan Villagers Riot Over Monks' Arrest

190 people demanded alleged thieves' release

(Newser) - Simmering ethnic tensions between Tibetans and Chinese boiled over into a riot in a remote Tibet province, Reuters reports. After 3 monks were arrested following an altercation with a Chinese shop owner, hundreds of Tibetan herdsmen converged on the town to demand their release. When authorities failed to comply, they... More »

Burmese Monks Back in Streets

More than 100 march as rights group slams junta over recruiting child soldiers

(Newser) - Picking up their quashed demands, more than 100 Burmese monks marched in defiance of the military junta today in the first marches since the government crackdown on pro-democracy protests late last month. "This is very significant... we are very encouraged to see the monks taking up action," one... More »

3,000 Detained in Burma, by Junta's Count

Japan cuts aid, China supports UN diplomat

(Newser) - Burma’s military regime imprisoned roughly 3,000 people in last month’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the state-run newspaper announced today. Over 500 are still in custody, and more are being arrested each day. “Those who should be released will be,” the paper said. Meanwhile international outrage... More »

Myanmar Junta: 'You Are No Longer Monks'

Prisoners recount abject conditions after peaceful protests

(Newser) - Buddhist monks rounded up in protests in Myanmar faced torturous conditions, a recent detainee told Reuters. During days of interrogation, monks were beaten and denied medical treatment, water, and toilets. Prisoners were stripped of their iconic robes. “You are no longer a monk,” a guard told the prisoner,... More »

Burma Confiscates Phones, Computers to Silence News

Authorities move to shut down last lines of communication to outside world

(Newser) - The Burmese government is cutting the last lines of communication with the outside world, confiscating satellite phones and computers that reporters and bloggers were using to spread news of the violent repression of pro-democracy protests. Officials even demanded to see permits for satellite phones at a United Nations office. Authorities... More »

Junta Cremates Protesters

Crackdown carries on, as soldiers arrest more activists and the wounded are refused treatment

(Newser) - Burma's army is burning the bodies of activists in secret cremations, hiding their true death count forever, the Sunday Times reports. Locals near Rangoon report trucks are driving by a crematorium at night as smoke rises constantly from its chimneys. Rumors of victims burnt alive have swept the city, but... More »

Relentless Myanmar Junta Pursues Reprisals

Military continues roundup, beatings of activists

(Newser) - Burma's military junta is continuing to exact a harsh revenge on pro-democracy activists, despite an end to large-scale demonstrations. In the wake of a recent visit by a UN special envoy, the government is disregarding calls for restraint and continuing to round up and beat monks, nuns and civilians. Last... More »

Burmese Streets Quiet; Monks to be 'Sent Away'

Crackdown seems successful, people 'too scared' to march

(Newser) - The violent Burmese government crackdown appeared successful as heavily-armed police patrolled the quieted streets of Yangon today, and the BBC reported that some 4,000 detained monks were to be vanquished to prisons in the far north. BBC correspondents say the populace is afraid and helpless after riots that left... More »

Hunt's On for Burma's Hero Bloggers

Cyber dissidents on the lam

(Newser) - Burmese bloggers whose accounts and photos of the Saffron Revolution and the brutal crackdown by the military dictatorship riveted the world last week are now  being hunted by authorities, reports the Times of London. With the Internet shut down and the streets swarming with troops, the bloggers have gone underground. More »

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