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The Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama today opened a three-day Buddhist convention in the city of Patna, Bihar, India. In his speech at the opening, he praised India’s tolerance for multiple religions. He also said it was significant that the convention was taking place in what was once the land of Emperor Ashoka, an ancient Indian emperor responsible for spreading Buddhism through India, Sri Lanka and to through trade to other parts of south-east Asia throughout his reign.
The convention is being attended by hundreds of delegates from around the world, most of them scholars and monks. As well as India, there are delegates from Thailand, Sri Lanka, China, Myanmar,United Kingdom and Japan and some other countries.
Sander Dekker, culture minister of the Netherlands.
The Dutch culture minister, Sander Dekker, has announced plans to overhaul the allocation of broadcast subsides. At present, religious groups receive public funds in order to produce broadcast material.
The amount of money each group receives depends on it’s relative size within the country. The government plans to abolish this system.
Catholic bishops have spoken out harshly against the move, and a Jewish group has expressed concern that some broadcasters would have to stop altogether, as the smaller ones would have no other way of getting the necessary funding.
Sangwon Temple, South Korea.
Ven. Myogongdang Daehaeng, a Buddhist nun who played a major role in modernising Korean Buddhism, died yesterday in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.
She was born in 1927 in Seoul and assisted with the rebuilding of the Sangwon Temple in 1963. She also set up 15 Buddhist temples in South Korea and 10 outside of the country in the USA, Brazil and Thailand.
She received the Sarvodaya Award given by a Sri Lankan religious welfare agency in 2001 and won the Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award given by the United Nations in 2002.
Twitter logo.
Pakistan has blocked the website Twitter following it’s refusal to remove posts about cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). Mohammad Younis Khan, a government spokesman, said “There was blasphemous material on Twitter. Both Facebook and Twitter were involved. We negotiated with both. Facebook has agreed to remove the stuff but Twitter is not responding to us.”
Twitter is used widely in Pakistan, including by many sportsmen and celebrities in the country where cricket is very popular. It is also used by former exiled president Pervez Musharraf.
Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director at Human Rights Watch, said the latest ban was “ill-advised, counter-productive and will ultimately prove to be futile as all such attempts at censorship have proved to be. The right to free speech is non-negotiable and if Pakistan is the rights-respecting democracy it claims to be, this ban must be lifted forthwith.”
Pema Chhinjor, Tibetan minister for Religion and Culture.
Pema Chhinjor, the Religion and Culture Minister of the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, India, has today claimed there is an increased threat towards the Dalai Lama. The Indian government has responded by increasing security around his seat of government in exile.
Pema Chhinjor said “The Central Tibet Administration is grateful to government of India for the efficient security arrangements provided to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The Central Tibet Administration is cautious to all concerns to remain vigilant and alert in this regard.”
In a recent interview to an international media, the Dalai Lama had mentioned that he has information of China planning to send in fake female devotees to assassinate him.
Lady Gaga.
Catholic religious groups in the Philippines have called for Lady Gaga to cancel all her concerts in the country and called on the government to ban her from enterting the country. Bishop Arturo Baste was quoted as saying “Her attitude seems to promote godlessness, offensive to any religion. Christians must exercise self-censorship to avoid shows that are harmful to their faith.”
South Korea and Indonesia have previously banned concerts by the pop star, but not banned her entirely from entering either country. Many religious groups in the Philippines plan to attend a protest today against Lady Gaga’s planned concert.
The Beaufoy Institute building.
The controversial Diamond Way group, led by Ole Nydahl, has purchased the Beaufoy institute building in London, UK for £9 million (€11 million / $14 million). The building was built in 1907 as a school, but was more recently used as a community centre before being derelict and empty for almost a decade. The local council for the area (Lambeth) decided to put it up for sale due to government funding cuts in April of 2011. It had previously refused an application from the Prince of Wales for an arts centre at the site. The site was under the control of the Beaufoy Trust, which was set up to promote
Ole Nydahl with a female follower.
education of poorer students. The Trust itself is still listed on with the Charity Commission, but does not appear to have actually spent any money at all for many years, so may be de facto defunct. Since 2011, the council has refused applications from two local arts colleges and instead sold the building to the Diamond Way group. Part of the building will now be made into their new ‘London meditation centre’, with the rest being turned into living quarters for members of the controversial group.
There has been local protests and criticism of the council’s processes, largely due to concerns about racist and anti-Islam comments made by the group’s leader, Ole Nydahl, and his links to right-wing groups. There have also been reports of him sexually abusing female followers.
The Dalai Lama speaking at a press conference after the ceremony.
The Dalai Lama was awarded the 2012 Templeton prize and donated the prize money of £1.1 million (€1.35 million / $1.74 million) to the ‘Save The Children’ charity. The ceremony at St. Pauls Cathedral in London was a multi-faith event which featured both Buddhist chanting and Christian gospel singing. During his speech at the event, he expressed concern about last summer’s riots in the UK, and also expressed sympathy for the anti-capitalist protesters who had recently been evicted from the steps at the front of the cathedral. He said “Money and power fail to bring inner peace. One poor person, in the material field is poor but mentally a very, very happy person. You can see that. All the time, in the newspapers we hear ‘money, money, money. Whether we believe in religion or not, we must pay more attention to our inner beings in order to be happy. The Government always says ‘money, money, money’, so from childhood we are in some way brainwashed to think we should see money as the ultimate source of happiness. That, I think, is wrong.”
President Obama of the USA.
President Obama of the USA has come out in support of giving same-sex couple equal marriage rights, despite opposition from religious leaders in the country. Opposition has been particularly staunch from Christian leaders in the USA, who see marriage as a religious ceremony reserved only for ‘traditional’ couples.
Delman Coates, of the Maryland Baptist Church, was among Christian leaders who took part in a conference call with President Obama, and said afterwards “They were wrestling with their ability to get over his theological position”. Mitt Romney, the Republican leader who seems most likely to challenge Obama in a future election said “Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman. When all is said and done, there’s nothing more important than our families.” Mr. Romney follows the Mormon faith, which has also been a point of controversy for many of the USA’s conservative Christians.
Despite this, a recent poll suggests that the issue of gay marriage is not important to the majority of Americans, with 60% saying it would affect how they vote.
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