Way Forward to Buddhist Taliban Sri Lanka
A new bill is about to be passed. A two year jail term or a fine of Rs. 100,000 is to be imposed on those found guilty of misusing the image of the Lord Buddha.
That is the most hideous illogical thing I heard in quite some time.
First of all, how would they plan to define the image of Buddha? Is Chinese laughing Buddha included in this? How about Japanese Buddhist images? How about almost naked bodhisattva images in India and Afghanistan?
First Buddhist statues created by Greeks whom never seen Buddha in flesh. Till then people used different symbols to represent Buddha, that practice till today. Even those statues we have today, still looks like Greek statues with soft manly body and curly hair.
How do they plan to prove each image of Buddha is really an image of Buddha?
Next, what is misuse? Misuse of 'Buddhist image' for gain political power? Or use Buddhist statues for collect money from poor people? Or use 'Buddhist image' for control people? Can a painter use Buddha's image in his painting anymore? Can I use a Buddhist statue as paperweight?
Who going to make the final decision of 'misuse or not'? There must be some kind of judicial body implemented for take that decision. Are they planning to implement religion police or similar institute in Sri Lanka? Isn't such a conceipt itself contradictory with very basic teaching of Buddha?
Buddha told to treat Dharma (his teaching) as equal and same position as himself once he was gone. So he was gone quite some time back and Dharma is the Buddha now. That means, 'misuse of Buddha's image' automatically equal to 'misuse of Buddha's teaching' too. Since who ever the person passes this bill and executes this law, violate and misuse Buddha's teaching of forgiveness and compassion, he himself viable to two year jail term or fine of Rs. 100,000 automatically.
Holy Crap! If this law executes, Judge, diffendant and accuser - all three parties should go to jail at the same time for misuse of Buddha.
Taliban demolished the Buddhist statues - they are just bricks and rocks. They are forgiven. But those religious extremists in Sri Lanka are demolishing very foundation of Buddhism..
Labels: Affairs of Sri Lanka, Freedom, Religion
22 January, 2007
January 22, 2007 8:03 AM
More importantly, it hinders the freedom of expression.
January 22, 2007 8:30 AM
I think the government is just crazy! I totally agree with what you are saying...the statues and painting we see of buddha are all art forms who knwos if thats hwo lord buddha really was? ppl are just taking the art form to a next level modernising it and its now fined? comon
January 22, 2007 11:43 AM
I usually dont follow your blog regularlt and at times which I have, I cant remember when I was accepting what ever you said :)
However with this post I totally agree with you. What is happenning as far as I can see is that instead of becoming rational people Lord Buddha might have wanted them to, the Buddhists are becoming religious fanatics placing him at the position of an all powerful god. (However this too is to be expected, according to the teachings themselves, everything deteriorates and changes, the teachings are no exception)
P:S:
I guess this is something to do with the inherent need of humans to be identified as a 'group'. Last week I saw few stickers that were obvious translations of 'Jesus Lives'. (They had something like, Buddhism, The Path to Freedom). Although what it say may be true to a Buddhist, I really wonder if its the goodwill to spread the good news that is the intention or to merely counter 'Lord is my shepard'
January 22, 2007 4:50 PM
Well that's just politics. The government simply wants to strengthen its Buddhist street cred.
I'm not too worried about this law. It's just a political statement and won't be put into practice as strictly as you seem to fear. This is just a formal legalisation of something that already exists in Sri Lanka. I mean they've banned Buddha bar and Buddha lingerie and all that in the past. Obviously this is not something new and there's wide social support for it.
I think the main target of this act are evangelical groups that abuse and vilify Buddha as a part of their proselytisation process. It also addresses the concerns that some of these people dress up as monks and do lewd things in public.
Identity politics have nothing to do with the Buddhist philosophy. So what? Does it have to be. Sinhala Buddhist politics in Sri Lanka were never about Buddhist teachings.
These sorts of anti-blasphemy laws exist in many countries in the world. The one in England protects the "tenets and beliefs of the Anglican Church".
This is the political Buddhists' way of sticking it in the face of the liberals, secularists and minorities that this is our country and we make the rules.
January 22, 2007 6:31 PM
This post has been removed by the author.
February 11, 2007 7:13 PM
Correct me if I am wrong, isn't this post a bit misleading? I was under the impression the new law applies to any inappropriate use of all religious paraphernalia.
February 12, 2007 5:26 AM
Tish,
It doesn't matter is that for all religions or just one religion. Religions turning in to laws are not the most pleasant experience we can have right now.
No. I don’t think this is misleading. Buddhism or Islam, no matter what it is, we Sri Lankan turning in to religion fanatics with all sort of new religiously inspired laws. In that process, we use Buddhism brand name.
October 20, 2007 8:55 AM
Hi,
I know those crazy islamic people believe someone called muhammad, but the true this is that he had copied only the unimportant things in Buddhism and now they claim that is thier religion, Jesus did the same thing while he is in india for six years.
Zaneer
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