Tag: Buddhist nationalism

Thai Buddhist calls for action against nationalism

February 17, 2017 Bodu Bala Sena, Buddhist nationalism, Ma Ba Tha, Myanmar, Rohingya, Sri Lanka, Thailand

A Thai Buddhist has called for Buddhist-majority countries like Thailand to halt the rise of nationalism, intolerance and hate speech. “It’s very dangerous, much more dangerous than weapons,” said Sulak Sivaraksa during a recent panel discussion on the Channel NewsAsia programme Between The Lines. As World Watch Monitor reported in . . . Read More

Sri Lankan church lives on, despite destroyed building and death threats from Buddhist monk

January 16, 2017 Sri Lanka Buddhist nationalism, Converts

The leader of a Sri Lankan church destroyed by a mob earlier this month has vowed that the church will continue to meet. Kamal Wasantha, leader of the Kithu Sevana prayer centre, told Asia News, “No attack can stop us. We shall continue to meet and pray under a tree”. . . . Read More

USCIRF says Myanmar must ‘control’ its military

December 21, 2016 Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, Buddhist nationalism, Chin, Churches, Kachin, Ma Ba Tha, Myanmar, Naga, Rape, Torture

A new, critical report on religious freedoms in Myanmar by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom says the major challenge facing Aung San Suu Kyi’s government is “bringing the military under civilian control”. The report says the Burmese Army, which, due to constitutional provisions, is beyond civilian control, has . . . Read More

‘Peaceful’ Buddhism’s violent face in Sri Lanka

October 10, 2016 Sri Lanka Bodu Bala Sena, Buddhist nationalism, Maithripala Sirisena

Image, ‘Buddha in front of wood fence,’ by Harminder Dhesi, 2010 CC License Thanks to its promotion by figures from Hollywood (Richard Gere) and Silicon Valley (Steve Jobs), Buddhism in the West presents a ‘peaceful’ face. Yet Christians in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka, as well as other minority religions, see things . . . Read More

Myanmar’s Christian population grows to 6.2 per cent

August 3, 2016 Myanmar Buddhist nationalism, Kachin, Ma Ba Tha, Myanmar, UN

Tower of a Catholic church next to a Buddhist statue, Myanmar Nov. 2015World Watch Monitor Myanmar’s Christian population has increased dramatically, according to the latest figures in a supplement to the 2014 Population and Housing Census, conducted by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). Christians now make up 6.2 per cent . . . Read More

Monk stokes religious tension in Myanmar

June 8, 2016 Myanmar Buddhist nationalism, Cardinal Bo, Catholics, Churches, Hlaingbwe, Karen, Myanmar, Religious freedom

An influential Myanmar monk looks set to continue his controversial plan of building Buddhist temples on or close to the grounds of churches, says . On 6 June, Myaing Kyee Ngu and his supporters arrived near St Mark’s church in Hlaingbwe – one of the largest townships in Karen State, . . . Read More

Myanmar monk builds pagoda on church grounds

April 28, 2016 Myanmar Buddhist nationalism, Churches, Karen, Myanmar

A Myanmar Christian leader appealed for calm Wednesday after an influential Buddhist monk built pagodas within the compound of a church in a country beset with religious tensions, . Supporters of the monk Myaing Kyee Ngu erected a religious statue and planted a Buddhist flag on a church’s grounds in . . . Read More

Bhutan – a ‘happy’ place, but not for all

April 14, 2016 Bhutan Buddhist nationalism

The visit of the young UK Royals, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (“Will and Kate”), to Bhutan is shining a spotlight on a small Himalayan nation perhaps best known for its own King assessing his country’s performance by factors which contribute to “Gross National Happiness”. But despite this apparent . . . Read More

Minorities fear backlash over Sri Lanka’s proposed new constitution

January 27, 2016 Sri Lanka Bodu Bala Sena, Buddhist nationalism, Constitution, Maithripala Sirisena

Sri Lanka’s minority religious groups are concerned after Buddhist hardliners reacted angrily to the President’s proposed new constitution. President Maithripala Sirisena’s new constitution, proposed on 9 Jan., would decentralise power in a bid to prevent ethnic tensions in the country, but Buddhist hardliners say it contains provisions that regulate the . . . Read More

Myanmar’s Christians cautiously hopeful

November 12, 2015 Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi, Buddhist nationalism, Chin, Elections, Kachin, Ma Ba Tha, Myitkyina

In Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy , has won a landslide victory in the first freely-contested election in 25 years, winning the needed two-thirds of the vote to enable it to nominate the country’s new President. Even though she herself is barred from that role, Suu Kyi has . . . Read More

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