Gunfire at the Wat Munisotaram New Year celebrations here in Minnesota. A tragedy. Nobody hurt, and one person in jail as a result.
Rising Cambodian studies scholar Trent Walker recently gave a talk on Smot (ស្មូត្រ) singing with demonstrations and a show. I wish I’d been there. Anyone have recordings of any sort?
You must watch this video lecture of Gregory Schopen, the Buddhist Studies author whose work has made quite substantial waves in the field. Hat tip to Danny Fisher, whose birthday is today!
Tim Sakhorn was previously abducted from his temple in Cambodia, forcibly defrocked, and then illegally transported across national borders into Vietnam, where he was tried in a Vietnamese court, and recently released to a highly supervised existence.
Recently he traveled through Cambodia, and has now apparently fled to Thailand, awaiting a decision on refugee status to the USA.
Japan’s Marathon Monk – Neatorama.
I use a film about these folks, called the Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei, in classes (thanks to Tom Borchert for recommending the film to me originally), so it’s fun to see another one of them finished this unbelievably grueling path…
A 44-year-old Japanese monk named Genshin Fujinami has just completed what probably is the most grueling race in history: a 7-year 24,800 mile (~40,000 km) journey – an equivalent of a trip around the world!
Since 1885, only 46 other so-called “marathon monks” of the Tendai sect have survived the ritual, which dates to the 8th century and is believed to be a path to enlightenment, according to temple officials. The last monk to complete it returned in 1994.
A few have done it twice; many more have not lived to finish. Traditionally, any monk, or gyoja, who can’t continue to the end must take his own live, either by hanging or disembowelment.
A rigorous regimen dictates that in each of the journey’s first three years, the pilgrim must rise at midnight for 100 consecutive days to pray, run along an 18-mile trail around Mount Hiei — stopping 250 times to pray along the way. He can carry only candles, a prayer book and a sack of vegetarian food. [...]
His most difficult trial, however, comes during the fifth year when he must sit and chant mantras for nine days without food, water or sleep, in a trial called “doiri,” or “entering the temple.”
In the sixth year, he walks 37.5 miles every day for 100 days. And in the seventh, he goes 52.5 miles for 100 days and then 18 miles for another 100 days, before returning to the temple, located in Otsu city, about 234 miles southwest of Tokyo.
Busy writing dissertation stuff lately, and have been neglecting my blog. Here are a few things that have happened of note in the last few weeks. At any rate, it’s the Cambodia-centered stuff that I’m interested in…
Andy Brouwer is one of Cambodia’s most famous non-Khmer bloggers (some graciously give us foreign bloggers the honorary title of cloggers, but I prefer ‘floggers,’ since it takes the air out of our unearned pretention). Andy’s posts are most commonly on temples, and are extremely fun and worthwhile. But here’s a post which deals with the mummified, displayed body, of murdered monk Sam Bunthoeurn, who figures briefly in my dissertation. Warning – the pictures can be disturbing for those squeamish about bodies and decomposition….
Mandevu is back, with a couple of fantastic posts on current fieldwork in the agricultural sector. Great photos of field inventories, and on the production of roof thatch. Can’t wait to see how this work turns out!
You must read the second part of Ka-Set’s interview with Richard Rechtman, French psychiatrist and anthropologist dealing with trauma, death, and memory. Fascinating stuff. (see also part one).
Economic stuff is looking bleak for 2009. The ILO reports that 500,000 Cambodians have been significantly affected already, with another million to be affected during 2009. More precise numerical predictions can be found in the article itself over at the Phnom Penh Post, along with a nice little factoid sidebar. Yikes.
Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC), about which I have often written in these pages and elsewhere, has been nominated for the Martin Ennals award in Human Rights. Ennals was the founder and first president of Amnesty International. Mony deserves the recognition, and I hope it accompanies a resurgence in local support and labor activism and solidarity.
Ros Sovannareth was a union official and activist within the FTUWKC, when he was assassinated on May 7, 2004. He worked at the Trinunggal Komara Garment Factory, and was gunned down by two men riding a motorcycle. Just as in the murder of FTUWKC president Chea Vichea months previously (brother of Chea Mony), a patsy was found to take the legal fall. Now, with the accused killers of Chea Mony beginning to possibly receive a new trial, the accused killer of Ros Sovannareth will also receive an appeal. This isn’t justice, but it’s a necessary step forward.
Good news, Dougald O’Reilly, archaeologist, founder of Heritage Watch, and acclaimed scholar (I’m slowly working my way through his engaging book “Early Civilizations of Southeast Asia” in the five minute breaks between getting into bed and falling asleep these days, and am grateful for his work), has received a major award for Heritage Watch’s work. The Archaeological Institute of America’s Conservation and Heritage Management Award, was given to Dougald just a few days ago. Congratulations Dougald!
I’m very happy to announce the publication of a new book on Cambodia, which includes an essay by yours truly:
People of Virtue: Reconfiguring Religion, Power, and Moral Order in Today’s Cambodia. 2008. Alexandra Kent and David P. Chandler, eds. (NIAS Studies in Asian Topics). University of Hawai’i Press.
My contribution is a chapter titled “Between forests and families: death, desire, and order in Cambodia.”
I’ve updated the long-neglected publications page as a result of this. Cheers!
Table of Contents
Section 1 – Historical Change
1. Alexandra Kent and David Chandler – Introduction
2. Alain Forest – Buddhism and reform: imposed reformed and popular aspirations. Some historical notes to aid reflection.
3. Anne Hansen – Modernism and morality in the colonial era.
4. Alex L. Hinton – Truth, representation and the politics of memory after genocide.
Section 2 – Desired Ideals
5. John Marston – Wat Preah Thammalanka and the legend of Lok Ta Nen
6. Alexandra Kent – The recovery of the king.
7. Erik Davis – Between forests and families: a remembered past life.
Section 3 – Remaking Moral Worlds
8. Judy Ledgerwood – Buddhist practice in rural Kandal province, 1960 and 2003: an essay in honor of May M. Ebihara
9. Kobayashi Satoru – Reconstructing Buddhist temple buildings: an analysis of village Buddhism after the era of turmoil
10. Eve Zucker – The absence of elders: chaos and moral order in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge
11. Penny Edwards – The moral geology of the present: structuring morality, menace and merit.
Section 4 – Questions of Changing Culture
12. Heng Sreang – The scope and limitations of political participation by Buddhist monks
13. Ven. Sovanratana – Buddhist education today: progress and challenges
14. Christine Nissen: Buddhism and corruption
15. Vandra Harris – Development workers as agents of change
16. Heng Monychenda – In search of the dhammika ruler.
Oh glory:
“After some discussion, it was agreed some controversial scenes will be modified,” he said, explaining that the biggest sticking-point for the clergy was that the performance change a line by the narrator from “the monk wants a girl” to “the monk turned into a playboy”.
While the cast sent a letter to the Council to apologise for any offense they caused, show organisers also used the meeting to reiterate what they feel is the show’s unique value to Khmer culture, he added.
The proposed changes must first be approved by a committee that includes representatives from the government, Buddhist clergy and show directors before it can be televised nationally.
I guess freedom of speech would be too much to hope for. Not sure if I’m more disappointed by the clergy, the council, or the cast.
via The Phnom Penh Post – Elephant agrees to modify scenes in bid to appease Buddhists.
Still skeptical, but the story continues, this time with pictures (of the stele, not the urn or the relics) over at Epoch Times (via Shambala Sunspace)
Ummmm…..good? Check out the part where he claims to have first encountered Buddhism while on a family vacation in Thailand. Yeah. Interesting that freakishly criminal Westerners find ‘comfort’ in Buddhism, while freakishly criminal Cambodians find ‘comfort’ in Christianity.
Fritzl turns to Buddhism and says ‘I realise now that I’m not normal’
By Hannah Wood, Mirror.co.uk 26/11/2008 Read the rest of this entry »
Really? This seems like big news.
LONDON: Archaeologists have claimed that a 1,000-year-old miniature pagoda, unearthed in Nanjing, China, holds a piece of skull belonging to
Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism.
According to a report in the Telegraph, the pagoda was wedged tightly inside an iron case that was discovered at the site of a former temple in the city in August this year.
The four-storey pagoda, which is almost four feet high and one-and-a-half feet wide, is thought by archaeologists to be one of the 84,000 pagodas commissioned by Ashoka the Great in the second century BC to house the remains of the Buddha.
The pagoda found in Nanjing is crafted from wood, gilded with silver and inlaid with gold, coloured glass and amber.
It matches a description of another of Ashoka’s pagodas, which used to be housed underneath the Changgan Buddhist temple in Nanjing.
A description of the contents of the pagoda indicate the presence of a gold coffin bearing part of Buddha’s skull inside a silver box.
Although scans have confirmed that there are two small metal boxes inside the pagoda, experts have not yet peered inside.
According to Qi Haining, the head of archaeology at Nanjing Museum, “This pagoda may be unique, the only one known to contain parts of Buddha’s skull”.
But he said there would be a lengthy process before the cases could be opened.
“The discovery of the relic will have a huge influence on the cultural history of Buddhism in China and will establish Nanjing as a premier site. It will be a great encouragement for Buddhists as well as for future studies,” said De Qing, an expert in Buddhism in Nanjing.
On the other hand, I always get a bit skeptical when experts involved in such religious discoveries make remarks like the following. Remember Jesus’ coffin?
“It is important for Buddhism as a religion to have these sarira, or relics, to show its followers. The more a Buddhist practises, the more relics will remain of him after his death. I am hugely excited. I think they should take the skull outside of the container, it is a sacred item, but it is not an untouchable item,” he added.
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