On the Buddhism Beat: Buddhist world-news headlines and delightful odds and ends

Looming large in this latest round-up from our resident Buddhist world-news newshound, Danny Fisher: The G-20, the Nobel Peace Prize, U.S. foreign policy, freedom of the press, and China. Plus, a “gigantic” lost Buddha, and more.

Human rights concerns in both Burma and Tibet have continued to dominate headlines inside and outside of the Buddhist world of late. There is increased attention on Vietnam as well, between the conflict at Bat Nha Monastery and talk this week that Thich Quang Do, patriarch of the government-banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, might win the Nobel Peace Prize. (In a surprise twist, the award went to U.S. President Barack Obama.) The situation in Sri Lanka, meanwhile, cries out for more international attention. There are interesting and delightful odds and ends from Afghanistan, the U.K., and elsewhere too.

AFGHANISTAN

• The BBC profiles Dr. Zemaryalai Tarzi, an Afghan archaeologist in search of “a gigantic reclining (parinirvana) Buddha lost in the sands of Bamiyan.”

BURMA

• Reuters succinctly brings us the big news: “Following a U.S. policy review on [Burma], the Obama administration said this week it would pursue deeper engagement with [Burma]’s military rulers to try to spur democratic reform but would not ease sanctions for now.”

• Representatives of the junta, though, will not meet with President Obama when he meets with leaders from the other countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations soon.

• In a less surprising development, Burma’s ruling military junta this week rejected Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s appeal of her latest house arrest sentence.

• The next day, Suu Kyi was escorted to surprise talks with the junta’s Relations Minister Aung Kyi at a guest house near her home. It was the first such dialogue in almost two years. The Associated Press reported that “details of the talks were not immediately known,” though the meeting came after Suu Kyi’s offer to help the country get international sanctions lifted.

• Suu Kyi then met a second time with the Relations Minister, and was allowed to meet with foreign ministers (from the U.S. and Australia).

• Speaking of historic talks, Kurt Campbell, assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Asia, said he met Burma’s Health Minister U Thaung “on the margins of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday”—the first talk of this kind in about ten years.

• Also on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly: a meeting between U.S. Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) and the junta’s General Thein Sein.

• Dozens of Buddhist monks attended a Senate hearing on Burma as a sign of protest against Webb’s positions on what to do about Burma.

• Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party marked the occasion by calling for her release from house arrest.

• The Agence France-Presse notes the NLD’s wariness about boycotting next year’s election.

• Two of Suu Kyi’s lawyers, Nyan Win and Kyi Win, have agreed to represent Burmese-American Kyaw Zaw Lwin, who was recently jailed by the junta for “planning to incite unrest.”

• In addition, the U.S. has formally protested to the junta about Kyaw Zaw Lwin’s alleged mistreatment.

• The Associated Press reports that “Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged a ministerial meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to take a tougher line with fellow member [Burma].”

• State media reports that “landslides triggered by heavy rains in southern [Burma] have killed three Buddhist monks and damaged monasteries and homes.”

• The Democratic Voice of Burma reports that “Bangladesh’s border patrol army has sent troops to its border with Burma after the Burmese government resumed construction of its controversial border fence.”

• The Associated Press reports that “nearly 200 boat people fleeing persecution in Myanmar have fled their temporary shelters in Indonesia after the government threatened to expel half of them.”

• The New York Times talks to Win Tin, Burma’s longest-serving political prisoner who was recently released from Insein Prison, and the “new kind of torment” he now faces: “watching colleagues from his political party decide whether to play by the rules of the junta that put him behind bars.”

• At the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok, protesters marked the second anniversary of the “Saffron Revolution”. (Security was apparently very tight inside Burma during the anniversary.)

• The Irrawaddy reports on how Burma’s imprisoned monks’ struggle is continuing behind bars.

• Buddhist monks who participated in the 2007 uprising led about 80 supporters “across the Roberto Clemente Bridge toward the G-20 summit,” chanting the Metta Sutta.

• Reuters reports that Japan’s new foreign minister Katsuya Okada says the East Asian nation has been assured by the junta that “it [is] not developing nuclear weapons even though it [is] working with Russia on a nuclear energy program.” While meeting with the junta’s foreign minister Nyan Win, Okada also called for next year’s elections in Burma to be “fair and transparent.”

• The Jewish Tribune reports on efforts to keep the Jewish spirit alive in Burma, which has a small population of Jews.

SRI LANKA

• Amnesty International USA wonders about the authenticity of reports that civilians displaced by fighting at the end of the county’s civil war have begun returning hope—especially considering two major hazards.

• AIUSA reports that a Sri Lankan journalist is at risk as well.

THAILAND

• Violence in the south continued this week, with four deaths in the Tak Bai district of Narathiwat province.

TIBET

• The big story this week continued to be U.S. President Barack Obama’s delaying of a meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in what appears to be a move to appease China.

• His Holiness has shrugged off the snub, though, and Tibet’s special envoy Lodi Gyari says that the decision not to meet this week was a mutual one.

• The Obama Administration has since been on the defensive about the issue, though.

• His Holiness did meet with New Mexico Governor and former presidential candidate Bill Richardson, though. He also received the first ever Lantos Human Rights Prize from U.S. lawmakers—a fact China was none too happy about.

• In addition, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week announced the appointment of a new coordinator on Tibetan issues for the Obama Administration: Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero.

• The Chinese government marked the 60^th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Beijing made a special point this year of giving a more prominent role to the People’s Armed Police in the celebrations. (The paramilitary group did the primary cracking-down during unrest in Xinjiang and Tibet recently.)

• Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party “celebrated” the occasion by sponsoring screenings of films critical of the Chinese government’s treatment of those in Tibet and Xinjiang.

• The government of Nepal was set to deploy armed police to their border with Tibet after some 80 protestors were detained in Kathmandu.

• Pakistan’s Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said this week that the South Asian nation’s friendship with China is “all-weather and time-tested” and that it “seconds China’s views on Tibet and Taiwan.”

• The U.K.’s Junior Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis, who recently became the first British minister ever to visit Tibet, writes for The Guardian that “China still has a human rights deficit.”

• According to the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, “a 54-year-old retired Tibetan doctor named Yeshi Choedon was given 15-year imprisonment by the Intermediate People’s Court in Lhasa on charges of leaking out secrets to the outside world during the peaceful protests in March last year…Meanwhile, eleven monks of Pangsa monastery in Tibet are still missing following the peaceful protest in Tibet last year.”

• Orville Schell writes for The New York Times about the literal “thaw at the roof of the world.”

• China says it has discovered “gas hydrates on the Tibetan Plateau worth 35 billion tons of oil in energy.”

• The Association of Tibetan Journalists appealed to the participants of the World Media Summit to “raise the issue of media censorship and violation of freedom of speech and expression in China and Tibet.”

• The Tibetan Youth Congress marked its 40^th anniversary this week.

• The Indo-Asian News Service reports that “three Buddhist devotees have travelled hundreds of kilometres on foot from Tibet and reached the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya to pray for the long life of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.”

• The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama this week announced a gift of $50,000 to the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative, “a project to develop a science education curriculum for Tibetan monastics.”

• Twenty years after receiving his Nobel Peace Prize, His Holiness also offered warm congratulations to President Obama on his award this week.

• Speaking of His Holiness, the Washington Post takes a closer look at his unique “entourage.”

• Finally, the Agence France-Presse profiles the man himself—“the spiritual leader who won’t slow down.”

THE UNITED KINGDOM

• The BBC reports that “two police horses from the West Yorkshire force have been blessed in a Buddhist ceremony in Leeds.”

THE UNITED STATES

• A group of Buddhists and Catholics gathered together at St. Paul Seminary in Pittsburgh for a 40-hour prayer vigil during the G-20 summit in the city.

• As MahaSangha News reported, the Association of Soto Zen Buddhists met for their annual conference and workshop at Sokoji Temple in San Francisco this week.

VIETNAM

• Trouble at Bat Nha Monastery continues.