$5 buys a few minutes in monastery's gaudy pink boxes
Daily Telegraph (UK) Oct 1, 08 7:44 PM CDT
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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 the next group of people hoping to rid themselves of bad karma.
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Buddhist movement gets bolder; some suggest stockpiling weapons
Christian Science Monitor Sep 20, 08 6:41 AM CDT
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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 the only way we can bring down this regime."
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Dalai Lama's brother was key to CIA-backed anti-China insurgency
Wall Street Journal Aug 30, 08 2:23 PM CDT
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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 was involved.
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Entire monasteries cleared as Olympics start date approaches
Times (UK) Jul 7, 08 2:35 AM CDT
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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—many of them young ethnic Tibetans—in nearby prisons and detention centers, according to sources.
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Exile's Indian headquarters draws seekers of celestial, and not-so-celestial, guidance
Wall Street Journal Jun 9, 08 3:00 PM CDT
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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 visitors and dispensing wisdom on career choices and broken relationships … as well as religion.
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They offer comfort to 2.4 million struggling to survive
New York Times May 31, 08 10:50 AM CDT
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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 government wants us to shut up, but monks listen to us,” says one cyclone survivor.
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Press visit disrupted by crying Tibetans
Financial Times (UK) Mar 27, 08 11:37 AM CDT
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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 normalcy, 30 younger monks burst in, shouting “We want a free Tibet!”
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Dowtown market in flames in biggest clash in 20 years
Times (UK) Mar 14, 08 4:53 AM CDT
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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 one of the city's main markets in flames. The violence is the latest episode in an upsurge of protests against Chinese rule of Tibet ahead of this summer's Beijing Olympics.
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Opposition leaders dismiss move as 'public relations spin'
Reuters Feb 9, 08 4:00 PM CST
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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 been under heavy international pressure for reform since its violent crackdown on protesters in the fall.
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190 people demanded alleged thieves' release
Reuters Nov 29, 07 6:28 PM CST
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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 vandalized Chinese-owned shops, government offices, and clashed with police.
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More than 100 march
as rights group slams junta over recruiting child soldiers
BBC Oct 31, 07 8:52 AM CDT
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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 Burmese human rights watcher told the BBC.
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Japan cuts aid, China supports UN diplomat
Associated Press Oct 17, 07 9:01 AM CDT
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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 has prompted Japan and China to distance themselves from the regime, the AP reports.
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Prisoners recount abject conditions after peaceful protests
Reuters Oct 11, 07 12:09 PM CDT
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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, slapping him. “You are just an ordinary man with a shaven head.”
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Authorities move to shut down last lines of communication to outside world
Guardian (UK) Oct 9, 07 4:06 AM CDT
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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 also searched other offices in a Rangoon hotel and office building for equipment.
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