Saturday, March 20, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Your Scene: Catch of the day in Cambodia
Source: Los Angeles Times (California, USA)
As Paul Prewitt of Laguna Beach watched from the shores of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, a woman and her children floated by with this reptilian passenger. “I wasn’'t sure whether the kids were playing with their pet snake or with their dinner,” Prewitt said. He captured the scene on this lake, which is better known for its harvest of carp, with a Nikon D-70. (Photo: Paul Prewitt)
As Paul Prewitt of Laguna Beach watched from the shores of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, a woman and her children floated by with this reptilian passenger. “I wasn’'t sure whether the kids were playing with their pet snake or with their dinner,” Prewitt said. He captured the scene on this lake, which is better known for its harvest of carp, with a Nikon D-70. (Photo: Paul Prewitt)
Thai rice farmers fret about free trade
3/7/2010Agence France-Presse
For many farmers in Thailand's rice belt, agreements between Asian countries to reduce trade barriers have not brought all the benefits that national leaders promised.
"We are afraid of the free trade area," says Chatree Radomlek, a 37-year-old farmer in Pathum Thani, about an hour's drive north of Bangkok but a world away from the capital's glitzy hotels and restaurants.
A rural community where local people boast of the nutritional benefits of eating field mice, its green paddies help make Thailand the world's biggest rice exporter.
But where humid weather and new farming technologies used to dominate local farmers' conversations, free trade is now the hot topic.
A free trade area between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Thailand is a member, and China took full effect on January 1, liberalising billions of dollars in trade and investments in a market of 1.7 billion consumers.
It is the world's largest free trade area by population, eliminating barriers to investment and tariffs on 90 percent of products.
"If cheap rice comes to Thailand from other countries, it might make our prices go down. I think the government should set up measures to protect us," says Chatree, looking out from under a wide-brimmed hat.
He says that rice from neighbouring Cambodia and Laos is "inferior" but that it could flood the Thai market, possibly leading Thai consumers to buy imported rice instead and lowering domestic prices for his grains.
Another fear is that middlemen could mix Thai rice with lesser varieties of the imported grain, hurting the quality of Thailand's product.
Bangon Radomlek, 57, says she has worked the rice fields since she was ten and adds, with a grin, that although the work is tough, "it's a life with freedom."
"But I don't like free trade," she says. "We only want to export. We don't want to import. We want to be the sole producer."
Rice is big business in Thailand. The country's Foreign Trade Department says that the nation exported 8.57 million tons of rice in 2009, worth five billion dollars.
It expects that the country will ship more than nine million tons in 2010.
The importance of rice to the economy led to a spat in recent months with fellow ASEAN member the Philippines, one of the world's biggest rice importers.
Bangkok wanted Manila to lower import tariffs on Thai rice to comply with the ASEAN free trade area but the Philippines said it could not afford to, fearing that freer trade would undercut its own rice industry.
Thailand's Commerce Ministry said the two countries had now struck a deal for the Philippines to buy 376,000 tons of Thai rice until 2014 without applying any of the usual 40 percent tariff.
The Philippines has the option, however, of not buying the rice if it produces enough for domestic consumption or finds a better price elsewhere. Manila will lower its tariff to 35 percent in 2015.
Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said the issue of rice underlines the sensitive nature of agricultural products and international trade.
He said "there are pros and cons" to free trade, meaning that while lower trade barriers could open more markets for Thailand, it also raises the prospect of cheaper rice entering the market from its neighbours.
"We are afraid of the free trade area," says Chatree Radomlek, a 37-year-old farmer in Pathum Thani, about an hour's drive north of Bangkok but a world away from the capital's glitzy hotels and restaurants.
A rural community where local people boast of the nutritional benefits of eating field mice, its green paddies help make Thailand the world's biggest rice exporter.
But where humid weather and new farming technologies used to dominate local farmers' conversations, free trade is now the hot topic.
A free trade area between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Thailand is a member, and China took full effect on January 1, liberalising billions of dollars in trade and investments in a market of 1.7 billion consumers.
It is the world's largest free trade area by population, eliminating barriers to investment and tariffs on 90 percent of products.
"If cheap rice comes to Thailand from other countries, it might make our prices go down. I think the government should set up measures to protect us," says Chatree, looking out from under a wide-brimmed hat.
He says that rice from neighbouring Cambodia and Laos is "inferior" but that it could flood the Thai market, possibly leading Thai consumers to buy imported rice instead and lowering domestic prices for his grains.
Another fear is that middlemen could mix Thai rice with lesser varieties of the imported grain, hurting the quality of Thailand's product.
Bangon Radomlek, 57, says she has worked the rice fields since she was ten and adds, with a grin, that although the work is tough, "it's a life with freedom."
"But I don't like free trade," she says. "We only want to export. We don't want to import. We want to be the sole producer."
Rice is big business in Thailand. The country's Foreign Trade Department says that the nation exported 8.57 million tons of rice in 2009, worth five billion dollars.
It expects that the country will ship more than nine million tons in 2010.
The importance of rice to the economy led to a spat in recent months with fellow ASEAN member the Philippines, one of the world's biggest rice importers.
Bangkok wanted Manila to lower import tariffs on Thai rice to comply with the ASEAN free trade area but the Philippines said it could not afford to, fearing that freer trade would undercut its own rice industry.
Thailand's Commerce Ministry said the two countries had now struck a deal for the Philippines to buy 376,000 tons of Thai rice until 2014 without applying any of the usual 40 percent tariff.
The Philippines has the option, however, of not buying the rice if it produces enough for domestic consumption or finds a better price elsewhere. Manila will lower its tariff to 35 percent in 2015.
Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said the issue of rice underlines the sensitive nature of agricultural products and international trade.
He said "there are pros and cons" to free trade, meaning that while lower trade barriers could open more markets for Thailand, it also raises the prospect of cheaper rice entering the market from its neighbours.
Third Year Maha Ghosananda Celebration
Click on the announcement in Khmer to zoom inWHEN:
Saturday 20 March 2010 - Starting from 6PM
Sunday 21 March 2010 - Starting from 9:30AM
WHERE:
Khmer Palelai Buddhist Monastery
240 Greenwich St., Philadelphia, PA 19147
Saturday 20 March 2010 - Starting from 6PM
Sunday 21 March 2010 - Starting from 9:30AM
WHERE:
Khmer Palelai Buddhist Monastery
240 Greenwich St., Philadelphia, PA 19147
------
The Biography of Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda
(1913-2007)
(1913-2007)
Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda Var Yav was born on May 23, 1913, Buddhist Era 2457, in Baray village, Trang district, Takeo Province, Kingdom of Cambodia. Parents name were Var Kut and Kim Keav. He has no siblings, only child of the family.
Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda got ordained novice Monk on April 7, 1927, Buddhist Era 2416, at the age of fourteen (14) years old in Baray Temple, Baray Village, Trang District, Takeo Province, Kingdom of Cambodia.
Samdech received his religious education from third to first classes of Dhammavinaya, Takeo Province, Kingdom of Cambodia, 1929-1932, Buddhist Era 2472.
Samdech then got ordained Buddhist Monk on April 19,1934, Buddhist Era 2477, age of 21, Keo Preahplaeng Monastery, Phnom Penh City, Cambodia, by Samdech Preah Mahasumetatipadey Chourn Nath Jotanhano, King of Cambodian Buddhist Monks, as his ordaining teacher.
Samdech had traveled and relocated himself to many different Monasteries in Phnom Penh City for fifteen years (15) 1938-1953, Buddhist Era 2481 to 2495. Monasteries such as Sampaomeas Monastery, Langka Monastery, Ounalom Monastery, and Keo Preahplaeng Monastery.
Samdech has received and taken a lot of advantages to learn and educate one another in one way or another. He received several Master degrees from several countries all over the world. He could also speak and write in fifteen different languages such as Cambodian, English, Sangscrit, French, Lao, Chinese, Boengkali, Burmese, German, Pali, Thai, Vietnamesse, Japanese, Hindi, and last but not least Korean.
In 1978, Buddhist Era 2520, when Cambodian was in a civil war Samdech was busy coordination with the United Nations and the United States of America with Peter Pond, King Phumipokn Adoknyadat and Princess Maha Chakrey Serindorn of Thailand to help Cambodian refugees in refugees’ camps located along Thai-borders.
Samdech is a founder of International religious Council for Peace to search for a formal that can be used to find out truth, peace, and happiness. Samdech got appointed as King of Buddhist monks by Khmer Buddhists monks and laymen, by Cambodian leaders, and by the Cambodian people, and was officially recognized by United Nations and the United States of America in 1988, Buddhist Era 2530.
Samdech got honored “Doctorate” from Providence college, State of Rhode Island for his intelligence, compassions, and great favor in rescuing all kinds of human beings and educating about truth, happiness, and peace regardless of their classes which took place during Buddhist Era 2531, in 1989. Samdech also preach to educate Cambodian leaders of all parties and simple people to stop hatred and killing each other violently but to follow path of morality, good manners, truth, humanity, development, intelligence, and law as mean to resolve and settle all kinds of problems in own society. (Peace Maker all around the World)
Samdech got appointed member of Supreme International Religious Council and went to take part in an extraordinary meetings to discuss about altering war using military weapons to war using psychological weapon, in Chicago City, State of Illinois, in 1993, B. E. 2535.
Samdech wrote an book named “Step by Step”, a guide leading to truth, happiness, and peace for all Cambodians as well as for other nations in the whole world if they all follow the eminent path or ideas. His famous saying in the book he wrote was “The suffering of Cambodian has been deep, from this Suffering come great Compassions, great Compassions makes a Peaceful Heart, a Peaceful Heart makes a Peaceful Person, a Peaceful Person makes a Peaceful Family, a Peaceful Family makes a Peaceful Community, a Peaceful Community makes a Peaceful Nation, a Peaceful Nation makes a Peaceful World, and may all Beings live in Happiness and Peace in Our Universe Forever.” This book “Step by Step” was published in 1993, Buddhist Era 2535 in many different languages.
Samdech has received nominee his first “Nobel Peace Prize” from Mr. Pell, Chairman of the House, senate of the United States of America in 1994, Buhhdist Era 2536. He also got elected as Supreme counselor of Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks Center, in the United States of America in 1994, Buddhist Era 2539-2544. He then received his second, third, forth, and fifth nominee “Nobel Peace Prize” in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998, Buddhist Era 2537, 2538, and 2539.
Samdech, heroic leader of Dhammaytra walks, to share paying his gratitude to his country, religion, monarch, and people, by doing his best to stop wars as well as to cause true happiness and real peace to our beloved homeland Cambodia. He sacrificed all of his physical and spiritual strength, including his intelligence and skills, to help his homeland and many leaders on International Arena.
Samdech Preah Mahaghosananda has led Khmer Buddhist Monks delegates, Preah monastic Supreme Sao Khon Dhammathero, Venerable Yem Nak, and preah Bhikkhu Pinn Mahamonirath Intapanyo to join a special meeting with leaders of world religions, invited by United Nations, which held about 500 religions in the world participating, held in the Conference Hall of the United Nations, New York City for four days, which costed 100 millions dollars.
Samdech got appointed to lead the second Dhammayatra in Cambodia, which started moving from Siemrab Province to Phnom Penh City. The Dhammayatra walk was interrupted many times by war between government troop and Khmer Rouge. One B-40 bomb was dropped about two meters from Samdech, but fortunately it didn’t exploded probably due to the power of his purely holy mind and power of the Triple Jewels. Dhammayatra takes total times of 7 years from 1992 to 1998, Buddhist Era 2534 to 2540. For 7 years, the Dhammayatra walk took a total distance of more than 1 million kilometers.
Sandwich also joined meeting with leaders of Sri Lanka in Colombo City, Sri Lanoka to discuss about solidarity and sociology in which each leader must have good intelligence and compassion toward their own people, and have moral power to bring forth development, truth, happiness, peace to their own nation and people in the entire Sri Langka which took place in 1994,
Buddhist Era 2536.
Samdech offered his preaching on television and in radio of Israel to educate youngsters there, to make themselves good descendants of their families and country as “Bamboo-Shot in place of Bamboo”. The Fivefold characteristics of good descendants of families are “To listen and follow up with good advice of parents physical, verbally, and spiritually”, second “Take effort in learning up to higher education for knowledge is the basic of one’s own value and his family value as well as all times”, third “To listen and follow up with lesson taught use them to cause value to own self, family, country, and making own-self”, forth “To use knowledge that own-self has got as means of causing value and reputation to his own family and teachers”, and last is “To have plans of making, maintaining, and protecting own family and own country as well as walking towards real development, intelligence, justice, physically and spiritually, so they can catch up with modern societies of human in the whole world.
Samdech is a top Khmer Monastic intellectual, who has multi-Doctor degrees. He got Doctor degree in Buddhism Philosophy from NALANDA University, India, Honor Doctor degree from Rhode Island College, Doctor degree from Preah Suramair College from Phnom Penh City; Kingdom of Cambodia. He traveled all around the world with Venerable Pinn Mahamonirath Intapanyo to join meetings with the International Peace Council in the state of Kentucky and Ohio and more. Samdech was a chairman of “Soul Memorial Ceremony”, for all Cambodian victims who passed away from 1975-2001; invited by Lady Doctor Roberson m an official of the Refugee Immigration Service Ministry of the United States of America.
Preah Samdech Mahaghosananda last breathe on this earth was located at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in North Hampton, Mass, third floor. In present there was Novice Rinh Kim, student of Master Venerable Pinn Mahamonirath Intapayno on March 13, 2007 at 8:15 a.m. with an announcement from his doctor.
By Netzwerk Engagierter Buddhisten
October 1997
Maha Ghosananda, 68, is a Supreme Patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism and a well-known Buddhist leader worldwide. In particular, he has played a major role in various nonviolent activities to promote reconciliation among the Cambodian people following the nation's civil strife, offering support to refugees and encouraging the rebuilding of the nation. His warm personality and great compassion have won him accolades as "Cambodia's Gandhi," "a Living Treasure," and "the Living Truth."
Cambodia achieved independence from French colonial rule in 1953. In 1970, a coup took place after which the monarchy was replaced by a pro-American democratic government, but there was no end to the internal strife, and in 1976, Pol Pot established Democratic Kampuchea. That government pursued extreme communist policies, moving people from urban centers to the countryside for forced labor. Those other than farmers were severely persecuted, and it is said that more than two million Cambodians, including the country's leading intellectuals, died of illness or starvation or were executed during the three years and eight months of the Pol Pot regime. Cambodian Buddhism was especially hard hit, with the country's 3,600 temples totally shut down, and many members of what had once been a 60,000-strong Buddhist clergy persecuted and slain. Only 3,000 names were listed again as members of the priesthood after the Pol Pot regime collapsed in 1979.
Maha Ghosananda is one of those few remaining Buddhist clergy. When civil war broke out in Cambodia he was in southern Thailand engaged in the discipline of meditation and escaped the worst of the turmoil. Regrettably, however, most of his family in Cambodia was slain by the Pol Pot forces. Confronted by the tragedy that was engulfing his country, Maha Ghosananda threw himself with vigor into the nonviolent peace movement, doing all he could for his fellow Cambodians. He established temples in all of the Cambodian refugee camps on the Cambodia-Thailand border, including Sakeo and Khao-ee-dang, and traveled from camp to camp to preach. The sight of Ghosananda in his saffron robes stirred the Cambodian refugees to tears. Their weeping is said to have echoed throughout the refugee camps.
After the signing of the 1991 peace accord, Maha Ghosananda led the first of the Dhammayietra Walks for Peace and Reconciliation in emulation of Shakyamuni, who led his disciples to places of strife and warfare while practicing meditation and preaching detachment from suffering and the way to peace. When a procession led by Maha Ghosananda passed through villages, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people are said to have followed it. Through these Walks, Maha Ghosananda became a bridge of peace, bringing together people who had been separated by war, and wiped away their fears with his call for peace. He has continued to promote nonviolent means, not only for peace, but also for solutions to a wide range of peace-threatening issues such as deforestation and the use of land mines.
Maha Ghosananda has had a profound influence upon movements for peace around the globe through his advisory role in such NGOs as the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB), the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF), and the Ponleu Khmer, the citizens' advisory council to the Cambodian Constitutional Assembly. He has been a leader in interreligious communication, as evidenced by his attendance at the sixth World Conference on Religion and Peace held in Italy in 1994.
Maha Ghosananda opens one of his many writings with the following verse:
Maha Ghosananda offers his unlimited compassion to all people, whether friend or foe. In both spirit and deed, he has shown the way to a fundamental resolution of regional and ethnic strife around the world.
1929: Born in Takeo Province in south central Cambodia.
1943: Initiated into the Cambodian Buddhist Order.
1953: Entered Nalanda University in Bihar State, India.
1956:
1969: Received doctoral degree from Nalanda University, title Maha Ghosananda bestowed. He also entered the hermitage of Thai meditation master Venerable Achaan Dhammadaro.
1978:
1980:
1983: Met with His Holiness Pope John Paul II in Rome to discuss religious basis for world peace before planned meeting in Assisi.
1986: Invited by Pope to participate in Day of Prayer for Peace with world religious leaders in Assisi (now an annual event always attended by Maha Ghosananda).
1988:
1992:
Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda got ordained novice Monk on April 7, 1927, Buddhist Era 2416, at the age of fourteen (14) years old in Baray Temple, Baray Village, Trang District, Takeo Province, Kingdom of Cambodia.
Samdech received his religious education from third to first classes of Dhammavinaya, Takeo Province, Kingdom of Cambodia, 1929-1932, Buddhist Era 2472.
Samdech then got ordained Buddhist Monk on April 19,1934, Buddhist Era 2477, age of 21, Keo Preahplaeng Monastery, Phnom Penh City, Cambodia, by Samdech Preah Mahasumetatipadey Chourn Nath Jotanhano, King of Cambodian Buddhist Monks, as his ordaining teacher.
Samdech had traveled and relocated himself to many different Monasteries in Phnom Penh City for fifteen years (15) 1938-1953, Buddhist Era 2481 to 2495. Monasteries such as Sampaomeas Monastery, Langka Monastery, Ounalom Monastery, and Keo Preahplaeng Monastery.
Samdech has received and taken a lot of advantages to learn and educate one another in one way or another. He received several Master degrees from several countries all over the world. He could also speak and write in fifteen different languages such as Cambodian, English, Sangscrit, French, Lao, Chinese, Boengkali, Burmese, German, Pali, Thai, Vietnamesse, Japanese, Hindi, and last but not least Korean.
In 1978, Buddhist Era 2520, when Cambodian was in a civil war Samdech was busy coordination with the United Nations and the United States of America with Peter Pond, King Phumipokn Adoknyadat and Princess Maha Chakrey Serindorn of Thailand to help Cambodian refugees in refugees’ camps located along Thai-borders.
Samdech is a founder of International religious Council for Peace to search for a formal that can be used to find out truth, peace, and happiness. Samdech got appointed as King of Buddhist monks by Khmer Buddhists monks and laymen, by Cambodian leaders, and by the Cambodian people, and was officially recognized by United Nations and the United States of America in 1988, Buddhist Era 2530.
Samdech got honored “Doctorate” from Providence college, State of Rhode Island for his intelligence, compassions, and great favor in rescuing all kinds of human beings and educating about truth, happiness, and peace regardless of their classes which took place during Buddhist Era 2531, in 1989. Samdech also preach to educate Cambodian leaders of all parties and simple people to stop hatred and killing each other violently but to follow path of morality, good manners, truth, humanity, development, intelligence, and law as mean to resolve and settle all kinds of problems in own society. (Peace Maker all around the World)
Samdech got appointed member of Supreme International Religious Council and went to take part in an extraordinary meetings to discuss about altering war using military weapons to war using psychological weapon, in Chicago City, State of Illinois, in 1993, B. E. 2535.
Samdech wrote an book named “Step by Step”, a guide leading to truth, happiness, and peace for all Cambodians as well as for other nations in the whole world if they all follow the eminent path or ideas. His famous saying in the book he wrote was “The suffering of Cambodian has been deep, from this Suffering come great Compassions, great Compassions makes a Peaceful Heart, a Peaceful Heart makes a Peaceful Person, a Peaceful Person makes a Peaceful Family, a Peaceful Family makes a Peaceful Community, a Peaceful Community makes a Peaceful Nation, a Peaceful Nation makes a Peaceful World, and may all Beings live in Happiness and Peace in Our Universe Forever.” This book “Step by Step” was published in 1993, Buddhist Era 2535 in many different languages.
Samdech has received nominee his first “Nobel Peace Prize” from Mr. Pell, Chairman of the House, senate of the United States of America in 1994, Buhhdist Era 2536. He also got elected as Supreme counselor of Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks Center, in the United States of America in 1994, Buddhist Era 2539-2544. He then received his second, third, forth, and fifth nominee “Nobel Peace Prize” in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998, Buddhist Era 2537, 2538, and 2539.
Samdech, heroic leader of Dhammaytra walks, to share paying his gratitude to his country, religion, monarch, and people, by doing his best to stop wars as well as to cause true happiness and real peace to our beloved homeland Cambodia. He sacrificed all of his physical and spiritual strength, including his intelligence and skills, to help his homeland and many leaders on International Arena.
Samdech Preah Mahaghosananda has led Khmer Buddhist Monks delegates, Preah monastic Supreme Sao Khon Dhammathero, Venerable Yem Nak, and preah Bhikkhu Pinn Mahamonirath Intapanyo to join a special meeting with leaders of world religions, invited by United Nations, which held about 500 religions in the world participating, held in the Conference Hall of the United Nations, New York City for four days, which costed 100 millions dollars.
Samdech got appointed to lead the second Dhammayatra in Cambodia, which started moving from Siemrab Province to Phnom Penh City. The Dhammayatra walk was interrupted many times by war between government troop and Khmer Rouge. One B-40 bomb was dropped about two meters from Samdech, but fortunately it didn’t exploded probably due to the power of his purely holy mind and power of the Triple Jewels. Dhammayatra takes total times of 7 years from 1992 to 1998, Buddhist Era 2534 to 2540. For 7 years, the Dhammayatra walk took a total distance of more than 1 million kilometers.
Sandwich also joined meeting with leaders of Sri Lanka in Colombo City, Sri Lanoka to discuss about solidarity and sociology in which each leader must have good intelligence and compassion toward their own people, and have moral power to bring forth development, truth, happiness, peace to their own nation and people in the entire Sri Langka which took place in 1994,
Buddhist Era 2536.
Samdech offered his preaching on television and in radio of Israel to educate youngsters there, to make themselves good descendants of their families and country as “Bamboo-Shot in place of Bamboo”. The Fivefold characteristics of good descendants of families are “To listen and follow up with good advice of parents physical, verbally, and spiritually”, second “Take effort in learning up to higher education for knowledge is the basic of one’s own value and his family value as well as all times”, third “To listen and follow up with lesson taught use them to cause value to own self, family, country, and making own-self”, forth “To use knowledge that own-self has got as means of causing value and reputation to his own family and teachers”, and last is “To have plans of making, maintaining, and protecting own family and own country as well as walking towards real development, intelligence, justice, physically and spiritually, so they can catch up with modern societies of human in the whole world.
Samdech is a top Khmer Monastic intellectual, who has multi-Doctor degrees. He got Doctor degree in Buddhism Philosophy from NALANDA University, India, Honor Doctor degree from Rhode Island College, Doctor degree from Preah Suramair College from Phnom Penh City; Kingdom of Cambodia. He traveled all around the world with Venerable Pinn Mahamonirath Intapanyo to join meetings with the International Peace Council in the state of Kentucky and Ohio and more. Samdech was a chairman of “Soul Memorial Ceremony”, for all Cambodian victims who passed away from 1975-2001; invited by Lady Doctor Roberson m an official of the Refugee Immigration Service Ministry of the United States of America.
Preah Samdech Mahaghosananda last breathe on this earth was located at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in North Hampton, Mass, third floor. In present there was Novice Rinh Kim, student of Master Venerable Pinn Mahamonirath Intapayno on March 13, 2007 at 8:15 a.m. with an announcement from his doctor.
-----
Maha Ghosananda
Supreme Patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism
Spiritual Head of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists
Maha Ghosananda
Supreme Patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism
Spiritual Head of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists
By Netzwerk Engagierter Buddhisten
October 1997
Maha Ghosananda, 68, is a Supreme Patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism and a well-known Buddhist leader worldwide. In particular, he has played a major role in various nonviolent activities to promote reconciliation among the Cambodian people following the nation's civil strife, offering support to refugees and encouraging the rebuilding of the nation. His warm personality and great compassion have won him accolades as "Cambodia's Gandhi," "a Living Treasure," and "the Living Truth."
Cambodia achieved independence from French colonial rule in 1953. In 1970, a coup took place after which the monarchy was replaced by a pro-American democratic government, but there was no end to the internal strife, and in 1976, Pol Pot established Democratic Kampuchea. That government pursued extreme communist policies, moving people from urban centers to the countryside for forced labor. Those other than farmers were severely persecuted, and it is said that more than two million Cambodians, including the country's leading intellectuals, died of illness or starvation or were executed during the three years and eight months of the Pol Pot regime. Cambodian Buddhism was especially hard hit, with the country's 3,600 temples totally shut down, and many members of what had once been a 60,000-strong Buddhist clergy persecuted and slain. Only 3,000 names were listed again as members of the priesthood after the Pol Pot regime collapsed in 1979.
Maha Ghosananda is one of those few remaining Buddhist clergy. When civil war broke out in Cambodia he was in southern Thailand engaged in the discipline of meditation and escaped the worst of the turmoil. Regrettably, however, most of his family in Cambodia was slain by the Pol Pot forces. Confronted by the tragedy that was engulfing his country, Maha Ghosananda threw himself with vigor into the nonviolent peace movement, doing all he could for his fellow Cambodians. He established temples in all of the Cambodian refugee camps on the Cambodia-Thailand border, including Sakeo and Khao-ee-dang, and traveled from camp to camp to preach. The sight of Ghosananda in his saffron robes stirred the Cambodian refugees to tears. Their weeping is said to have echoed throughout the refugee camps.
After the signing of the 1991 peace accord, Maha Ghosananda led the first of the Dhammayietra Walks for Peace and Reconciliation in emulation of Shakyamuni, who led his disciples to places of strife and warfare while practicing meditation and preaching detachment from suffering and the way to peace. When a procession led by Maha Ghosananda passed through villages, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people are said to have followed it. Through these Walks, Maha Ghosananda became a bridge of peace, bringing together people who had been separated by war, and wiped away their fears with his call for peace. He has continued to promote nonviolent means, not only for peace, but also for solutions to a wide range of peace-threatening issues such as deforestation and the use of land mines.
Maha Ghosananda has had a profound influence upon movements for peace around the globe through his advisory role in such NGOs as the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB), the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF), and the Ponleu Khmer, the citizens' advisory council to the Cambodian Constitutional Assembly. He has been a leader in interreligious communication, as evidenced by his attendance at the sixth World Conference on Religion and Peace held in Italy in 1994.
Maha Ghosananda opens one of his many writings with the following verse:
The suffering of Cambodia has been deep.
From this suffering comes Great Compassion.
Great Compassion makes a Peaceful Heart.
A Peaceful Heart makes a Peaceful Person.
A Peaceful Person makes a Peaceful Family.
A Peaceful Family makes a Peaceful Community.
A Peaceful Community makes a Peaceful Nation.
And a Peaceful Nation makes a Peaceful World.
May all beings live in Happiness and Peace.
From this suffering comes Great Compassion.
Great Compassion makes a Peaceful Heart.
A Peaceful Heart makes a Peaceful Person.
A Peaceful Person makes a Peaceful Family.
A Peaceful Family makes a Peaceful Community.
A Peaceful Community makes a Peaceful Nation.
And a Peaceful Nation makes a Peaceful World.
May all beings live in Happiness and Peace.
Maha Ghosananda offers his unlimited compassion to all people, whether friend or foe. In both spirit and deed, he has shown the way to a fundamental resolution of regional and ethnic strife around the world.
-----
A Brief Biographical Sketch
of Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda
"The Gandhi of Cambodia"
A Brief Biographical Sketch
of Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda
"The Gandhi of Cambodia"
1929: Born in Takeo Province in south central Cambodia.
1943: Initiated into the Cambodian Buddhist Order.
1953: Entered Nalanda University in Bihar State, India.
1956:
- Attended the Sixth Sangha Council of Buddhism (2500 BE) at Kaba Aye Pagoda in Rangoon, Burma, as member of the
- Cambodian delegation under its former Sangha Raja, Chuon Nath.
1969: Received doctoral degree from Nalanda University, title Maha Ghosananda bestowed. He also entered the hermitage of Thai meditation master Venerable Achaan Dhammadaro.
1978:
- Met first influx of Cambodian refugees entering Sakeo camp following expulsion of Khmer Rouge regime from power.
- Distributed tracts to the refugees, reminding them of the Buddha's words: "Hatred can never be appeased by hatred, hatred can only be appeased by love."
1980:
- Represented Khmer nation-in-exile as consultant to the UN Economic and Social Council.
- Co-founded Inter-religious Mission for Peace. Launched ecumenical initiatives, world days of prayer for "Peace in Cambodia and the Whole World."
1983: Met with His Holiness Pope John Paul II in Rome to discuss religious basis for world peace before planned meeting in Assisi.
1986: Invited by Pope to participate in Day of Prayer for Peace with world religious leaders in Assisi (now an annual event always attended by Maha Ghosananda).
1988:
- Led contingents of Buddhist monks to U.N.-sponsored Cambodian peace negotiations, proposing a compromise and reminding national leaders that "Peace is our common goal."
- Elected as Supreme Patriarch of Buddhism in Cambodia.
1992:
- Received the title Samdech Preah from King Sihanouk in Phnom Penh. Popularly known as Samdech Song Santipeap (the leaders of Religion for Peace) in Cambodia.
- Led the First Dhammayietra-Walk for Peace and Reconciliation for one month through northern Cambodia just prior to full implementation of United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC).
- "Step by Step: Meditations on Wisdom and Compassion" by Maha Ghosananda was published by Parallax Press, USA (since translated and published in Khmer, Thai, Spanish and Portuguese).
- Awarded 1992 Rafto Foundation Prize for Human Rights, Bergen, Norway.
- Led Second Dhammayietra through area of civil war before first Cambodian elections, encouraging citizens to overcome fear of political violence and intimidation and exerice their right to vote.
- Named honorary leader of Ponleu Khmer, citizens' advisory council to the Cambodian Constitutional Assembly. Ponleu Khmer presents proposals for the protection of human rights and for nonviolent resolution of the continuing Cambodian conflict.
- Invited to attend the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago.
- Asked to bless the opening ceremony of the Interfaith Pilgrimage for Peace and Life at Auschwitz, Poland.
- Led Third Dhammayietra through the most heavily war-torn western province of Cambodia. The walk was caught in crossfire between government and rebel forces and two peace walkers were killed. Proclaiming "this violence is indeed the reason we walk," Maha Ghosananda led the Dhammayietra to its completion.
- Led contingent of highest-ranking monks to peace negotiations held under the auspices of King Sihanouk in Pyongyang, North Korea and to a second round of negotiations later in Phnom Penh.
- Led interreligious delegation to peace negotiations in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to help seek an end to that country's long-standing civil war.
- Nominated for 1994 Nobel Prize for Peace by US Senator Claiborne Pell, Chairman of US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
- Nominated for a second time by Sen. Pell and an anonymous Nobel laureate for the 1995 Nobel Prize for Peace.
- January: Dedicated Disabled Persons' Center, Phnom Penh.
- February: INEB conference, ashram, Nakhon, Nayok, Thailand.
- March: International Women's Day, Phnom Penh/Battambang.
- March: Buddhist Teachers' Meeting (Asian-Western) Dharamsala, India.
- April: International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture, Atami, Japan.
- International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture, Windsor Castle, UK.
- May: Cambodian Engaged Buddhist Nuns and Laywomen, conference in Takmau.
- May-June: Led Fourth Dhammayietra for Peace and Reconciliation in Cambodia, walking from the Thai border to the Vietnamese border. Continued calls for peace negotiations and educating public about the ongoing dangers from land mines and unexploded ordinance in Cambodia.
- September: Preparatory meeting for a Peace Council, UK.
- Led International Peace Day Ceremonies, during Cambodian Festival of the Dead, for a ban on land mines.
- October : Attended UN Review Conference on the Convention on Conventional Weapons to present the suffering of ordinary people due to land mines and plea for a total ban on them.
- Toured Italy at invitation of the Italian Campaign to Ban land mines.
- November: Founding meeting of the Peace Council at Windsor castle, UK.
- The Peace Council includes several Nobel laureates and high representatives of all major world religions.
- Nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace for third year in a row. Nominated in 1996 by American friends service Committee (1967 Nobel Prize recipients).
- February: Led Ban Mines Week parade in Phnom Penh for a ban on land mines.
- April: Attended UN Review Conference on Conventional Weapons, Geneva, to plea for a total ban on land mines.
- May-June: Led the Fifth Dhammayietra for Peace and Reconciliation in Cambodia, focusing on deforestation and the link between the military, illegal logging and the on going civil war. Drew a link between healthy forests and the life of the Buddhist order. Members of Peace Council join the walk.
- July: Invited to represent Theravada Buddhist lineage at Gethsemane Encounter, a Christian-Buddhist Monastic Dialogue at Gethsemane, Abbey, USA.
- September: Met with opressed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and Buddhist Sangha in Burma.
- October: Delegates, State of the World Forum in San Francisco, California, USA November Met with Bishop Ruiz and members of Zapatistas in Chaipas, Mexico, as a member of the Peace Council.
- December: Met with members of Khmer Rouge to arrange a route for the 1997 Walk for Peace and Reconciliation in Cambodia.
- Patron of conference on Buddhism and Peace in Battambang, Cambodia, which was organized by Buddhism for Development group and was attended by representatives of different militant factions.
- Nominated by a former Nobel laureate (anonymous) for the Nobel Prize for Peace for a fourth time.
- March-April: Led the Sixth Dhammayietra through areas of Cambodia which were, until a few months before, under the total control of the Khmer Rouge. The people in the areas through which the walk passed witnessed the first freely organized event in their lives. Walk successfully concluded at the Angkor period ruins of Bantey Chammar.
- May: Invited by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to co-lead an ecumenical service for Tibet at the national Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
- June: As a Patron of the organization, he attended the International Network of Engaged Buddhists conference in Kanchanaburi province, Thailand, which brought together Buddhist social activists from throughout Asia and around the world.
- Visited Halockhani refugee camp on the Burma-Thai border at the invitation of the New Monk Relief Committee.
- August: After the coup d'etat in July he led the first mass event calling for an end to the use of violence in Cambodian power struggles.
- In Sri Lanka, where he received an award for peacemaking from the Sarvodaya organization.
Watchdog slams Cambodia's military funding plan
03/06/2010Agence France-Presse
PHNOM PENH – A corruption watchdog on Saturday condemned a Cambodian government plan to use private businesses to sponsor the country's military units.
London-based Global Witness said the plan announced by Cambodian premier Hun Sen last week, in which 42 private businesses will partner with individual military units, "threatens to undermine the legitimacy of international aid".
"This fire-sale of military units represents an appalling breach of governance standards and threatens to undermine the country's future stability," said Global Witness campaigns director Gavin Hayman.
The group called on international donors to denounce the scheme, saying it would undermine aid from the US, EU, Japan, China and others.
"Donors should send a firm and decisive message that Cambodia's military exists to protect the people, not the financial assets of a privileged few," Hayman said.
International donors pledged nearly $1 billion in development aid to Cambodia for 2009, and the US spent more than $1 million on Cambodian military financing and training last year.
The strongly-worded statement by Global Witness, which also accused Cambodia's military of being "a vast organized crime network", called the government plan "tantamount to sanctioning a mercenary force".
"It is unacceptable for private companies to be financing a military renowned for its corruption and involvement in illegal activities and human rights abuses," said the statement.
Cambodian cabinet spokesman Phay Siphan denied Global Witness accusations that there was graft among the country's armed forces.
"The watchdog doesn't know the culture of sharing among Cambodians... The donation is an issue of humanitarianism, there is no mixing between the private sector and the military," Phay Siphan told AFP.
The Cambodian government has banned past reports by Global Witness, which accused donors of ignoring graft among elites, who have allegedly been involved in illegal logging as well as shady oil and mining deals.
London-based Global Witness said the plan announced by Cambodian premier Hun Sen last week, in which 42 private businesses will partner with individual military units, "threatens to undermine the legitimacy of international aid".
"This fire-sale of military units represents an appalling breach of governance standards and threatens to undermine the country's future stability," said Global Witness campaigns director Gavin Hayman.
The group called on international donors to denounce the scheme, saying it would undermine aid from the US, EU, Japan, China and others.
"Donors should send a firm and decisive message that Cambodia's military exists to protect the people, not the financial assets of a privileged few," Hayman said.
International donors pledged nearly $1 billion in development aid to Cambodia for 2009, and the US spent more than $1 million on Cambodian military financing and training last year.
The strongly-worded statement by Global Witness, which also accused Cambodia's military of being "a vast organized crime network", called the government plan "tantamount to sanctioning a mercenary force".
"It is unacceptable for private companies to be financing a military renowned for its corruption and involvement in illegal activities and human rights abuses," said the statement.
Cambodian cabinet spokesman Phay Siphan denied Global Witness accusations that there was graft among the country's armed forces.
"The watchdog doesn't know the culture of sharing among Cambodians... The donation is an issue of humanitarianism, there is no mixing between the private sector and the military," Phay Siphan told AFP.
The Cambodian government has banned past reports by Global Witness, which accused donors of ignoring graft among elites, who have allegedly been involved in illegal logging as well as shady oil and mining deals.
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