New Zealand citizen Philip Blackwood, left, is escorted by a police officer following a court appearance in Yangon Thursday. Pic: AP.

YANGON, Burma (AP) A New Zealand bar manager and two Burma men have pleaded innocent to charges they insulted religion by posting an advertisement with an image of a pink Buddha wearing headphones.

Philip Blackwood, general manager of the V Gastro Bar, was arrested last week after posting the online advertisement for the bar in Burmas biggest city, Yangon. The charges carry a penalty of up to two years in prison.

The advertisement was removed and an apology was posted, but Blackwood and the two men were arrested. Four prosecution witnesses testified at their first trial session Thursday, and defense witnesses are to take the stand on Dec. 26.

About 90 percent of Burmas people are Buddhist. Perceived insults to Buddhism are taken seriously.

Read the rest here:
NZ man accused of insulting Buddhism goes on trial in Burma

New Zealand citizen Philip Blackwood, left, is escorted by a police officer following a court appearance in Yangon Thursday. Pic: AP.

YANGON, Burma (AP) A New Zealand bar manager and two Burma men have pleaded innocent to charges they insulted religion by posting an advertisement with an image of a pink Buddha wearing headphones.

Philip Blackwood, general manager of the V Gastro Bar, was arrested last week after posting the online advertisement for the bar in Burmas biggest city, Yangon. The charges carry a penalty of up to two years in prison.

The advertisement was removed and an apology was posted, but Blackwood and the two men were arrested. Four prosecution witnesses testified at their first trial session Thursday, and defense witnesses are to take the stand on Dec. 26.

About 90 percent of Burmas people are Buddhist. Perceived insults to Buddhism are taken seriously.

More here:
NZ man charged with insulting Buddhism in Burma

Students engage in a monastic debate session during the convocation/Dec 17, 2014

A modest convocation on Wednesday was attended, among others, by the Jhangtse Choeje as the chief guest, abbot of Gyudmed monastery, Tsering Youdon, member of the Tibetan parliament, and a representative of the Department of Religion and Culture.

The students also carried out short sessions of monastic debate during the convocation. The Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama advices Tibetans and his followers to study the Tibetan Buddhism as a branch of science and not out of religious faith. The system of monastic debate, His Holiness believes, can be used for studying other subjects in schools as an effective tool of learning.

13 boys and 7 girls, including one from Switzerland, had signed up for the course that Department of Religion and Culture says is one of the important activities being carried out as per the suggestions and guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The kind of learning and education at Gyudmed school was very effective. And I can't emphasise enough how important it is that every Tibetan graduates took part in this workshop. I am really grateful to the organising committee at Department of religion and Culture, and Gyudmed Tantric University, said Tenzin Saldon Naga, a graduate in Mass Communication from Bangalore.

The Department says it will continue the course in the future and make efforts to improve the quality of the course for the Tibetan youth.

The students will travel to Mundgod to attend the teachings on Lamrim by His Holiness from 23 - 29 December, 2014.

Read more from the original source:
Tibetan college students complete course in Tibetan language, Buddhist studies

BANGKOK

Last week, Yangons V Gastro Bar displayed a flier on its Facebook page depicting Buddha in vibrant, neon colors, wearing large DJ headphones, next to the words "Buddha.bar." It promoted discounted drinks and electronic music.

Authorities in Myanmar, also known as Burma, took note. They arrested the bars general manager, New Zealand native Philip Blackwood, and his two Myanmar business partners, Tun Thurein and Htut Ko Ko Lwin. The men now face charges under a law that outlaws words or images that deliberately offend religion.

The three, who are being held without bail, face fines and a jail term of up to two years. Days after being detained, they have yet to find legal representation because of the cases sensitivity. Blackwood is scheduled to appear in court Thursday.

Rights groups say the law in question, Section 295 of the penal code, is unjust. It was the second most frequently used law to charge political prisoners in the past, according to Burmas Forgotten Prisoners, a 2009 report released by New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Phil Robertson, the rights groups Asia director, said the law is so broadly and vaguely written that it can be easily abused by authorities or religious extremists, and the government should consider changing it.

"Unfortunately, the practice and defense of religion has gone to a more extreme stage in Burma, and what we can see is the willingness of the government to misuse provisions of law that are broadly drafted to take advantage of that, Robertson said. What we're also seeing is the effective criminalization of expression of views that go against some of the more extreme forms of Buddhism that are promulgated by the likes of the [anti-Muslim] 969 Movement and the mabatha."

The mabatha is a newly formed organization of monks, who refer to themselves collectively as the Organization to Protect Race and Religion and are becoming increasingly influential.

Robertson points out that the organization has used Section 295 to justify discriminatory practices against Muslims, whom they regard as a threat to Buddhism.

Hours after V Gastro Bars Buddha flier appeared on Facebook, the image had been shared several thousand times on social media. It since has been removed from the original page, replaced with an apology.

See more here:
Myanmar Detains 3 for Allegedly Offending Buddha

YANGON, Myanmar, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Owners of a Yangon, Myanmar, bar who allegedly offended Buddha by depicting him in an advertisement in headphones will face charges this week.

The general manager of the V Gastro bar, New Zealand national Phillip Blackwood, and two business partners, Tun Thurein and Htut Lo Ko Lwin were charged last week under a Myanmar law outlawing words or images that could deliberately offend religion. In a Facebook advertisement for the bar, an image of Buddha is seen with DJ-styled headphones, his eyes closed and surrounded by garish colors and the term "Buddha.bar." The three were detained under broad and vaguely written section of Myanmar's penal code, and could receive two-year sentences.

Their arrest began with a complaint from the government's religious department.

The law has been commonly used to detain political prisoners, a 2009 report by the activist group Human Rights Watch said.

The bar owners replaced the advertisement with an apology saying, in part, the ad was "was never to cause offense to anyone or toward any religious group. Our ignorance is embarrassing for us and we will attempt to correct it by learning more about Myanmar's religions, culture and history."

While Buddha statues and images are common in Western culture, as fashion accessories or as garden decorations, Asian Buddhists regard such displays as blasphemous, Buddhism scholar Dr. Paul Fuller told Voice of America.

"I think we're seeing it (outrage over perceived blasphemy) more and more because these fundamentalist Buddhist movements are fostering a sense of Buddhist identity tied in with national identity. Buddhism has always had a very privileged place within the western romantic understanding."

Related UPI Stories

2014 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

See the original post:
Three charged in Myanmar with insulting Buddhism

Tibetan Monks construct a sand Mandala of the Buddha of Compassion at the Chester Beatty Library. Photograph: The Irish Times

It seems the first Buddhist mission to the West was led by Irish man Charles Pfoundes in 1889, as discovered in recent research by academics in Ireland and Japan. Up to this it was believed the earliest Buddhist mission in the West was to California in 1899.

Buddhism focuses on personal spiritual development and the attainment of enlightenment through the practice and development of morality and meditation. The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was born in present-day Nepal more than 2,500 years ago.

Pfoundes, born Charles James William Pounds in 1840 in or near Waterford city, is believed to be the earliest Irish Japanologist of note. His studies in Japan predated those of Irish/Greek scholar Lafcadio Hearn by more than 20 years.

Widely travelled

Dr Laurence Cox of Maynooth University, Prof Brian Bocking of UCC and Prof Yoshinga Shinichi of Maizuru National College of Technology in Japan have found that in 1889 Pfoundes became the official London representative of the Japanese Buddhist Propagation Society.

Pfoundes emigrated to Australia aged 14 and travelled widely before arriving in Japan. He became fascinated by Japanese customs and culture, was soon fluent in the language and changed his name to Pfoundes, reflecting the Japanese spelling of Pounds.

He was in London from 1879 to 1893, when he returned to Japan. He died there on December 2nd, 1907, in Kobe city. Today Prof Yoshinaga and Dr Cox will visit Pfoundes grave in Kobes foreigners quarter.

Link:
Charles Pfoundes first to bring Buddhism to the West