Word: buddhists
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...exploding flares, though there was no hiss or smoke, no sparkling arc back to earth. To a cynic like myself, they looked indisputably man-made. But to the believers?gathered in the tens of thousands along the riverbank?this was the breath of the Naga, the mythical serpent of Buddhist lore that many Thais believe haunts the broad reaches of the Mekong in Nong Khai province...
...Locals know the phenomenon as bung fai paya nak (Naga fireballs), which have been bubbling up from the mighty river on the late autumn night of the full moon at the end of the Buddhist Lent for as long as anyone can remember. "I've seen them since I was a little girl," says Pang Butamee, 70, who lives in a flood-prone hut on the river's edge. Nearby is Wat Paa Luang?an elegant, 450-year-old temple and one of the most popular spots to watch the fireballs. "I've seen them come up from the river...
...With mad-scientist intensity, he deluges me with data and baffles me with charts for hours. His hypothesis is that the Buddhist Lent full moon coincides with the period when the earth is passing closest to the sun. The sun's pull of gravity, he says, combined with a higher degree of UV radiation increases the concentration and volatility of oxygen at ground level that could cause existing methane escaping from the riverbed to spontaneously ignite. "In fact, it's not only one night per year," he insists. "The fireballs occur over several nights in October, and again...
...movie stirred mild dismay among the Buddhist faithful in Nong Khai, home of the actual fireballs. But the ITV documentary has sparked a full-fledged furor. Local politicians have threatened to sue ITV for more than $23 million; incensed residents staged a protest march; and Laos' ambassador to Thailand, Hiam Promjan, said his country was "shocked" by the claim. Real or fake, there seems to be little doubt about the incendiary properties of the fiery orbs...
...Gyokusenji, the Buddhist temple that in 1856 became the American consulate, is a good place to start a Shimoda excursion. Harris lived in the temple until 1857, and inside visitors will find drinking glasses, pipes and other belongings of the consul's, as well as somewhat ghastly life-size figurines of Harris and Okichi. There's also a passage from Harris's diary, engraved on a large outdoor marker, in which the New Yorker waxes severe: "At half past two p.m. of this day (Sept. 4, 1856) I hoist the first consular flag ever seen in this empire," he begins...