Word: buddhism
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...reigning nat goddess, the Muslim princess Mae Wunna who converted to Buddhism, is said to have died of a broken heart when her twin sons were executed by a jealous King. They now rule by her side, enclosed in a glass shrine along with 34 other life-size plaster images bedecked with bright scarves and with the offerings of hopeful devotees at their feet...
...11th century, a Pagan King banned the sacrifice of animals at the rocky crag. He also started constructing temples and monasteries at its summit in an effort to curtail nat worship in order to establish Buddhism's dominance. He had only mixed success. Today, Popa Daung Kalat is one of Burma's major pilgrimage sites; visited by a steady stream of Burmese who turn to the nats to resolve problems in this life, and look to Buddhism for assurances in the next...
...popular culture. The Japanese word burakumin literally translates as “village people”—and the burakumin are outcasts in Japanese society. Discriminated against since the 15th century, the burakumin were undertakers and public executioners, and some still work in trades considered impure in Buddhism and Shinto. Though some measures have tried to recompense for past isolation, a rift between burakumin and the rest of society exists even today...
...activist, its roots lie in the rise of materialism and state control of the religion. Both began in earnest half a century ago when Thailand started fervently pursuing Western-style development. The military government employed slogans such as "work is money, money is happiness." Those messages were antithetical to Buddhism, which teaches that suffering is quelled by rejecting material desires. In its constitutional role as protector of the state religion, the government began co-opting the clergy into supporting its new consumer culture. By the mid-1980s, the economy was booming and people were working hard to pay for fancy...
...Buddhism isn't the only religion plagued by scandals, Sulak notes, pointing to the pedophilia revelations rocking the Catholic Church. But with even prominent abbots involved in debauchery, there is often little the monk police can do. "They are well-intentioned," he says, "but some of the worst wrongdoers are more powerful than they are." Indeed, reformist monks are severely hampered by an insular, feudal clerical structure. "There's a lot of politics in the temple," says Sanitsuda...