By Shyamal Sinha ,New Delhi

Olympic hopeful Kazuki Yazawa aims to bring back a medal in his third attempt at the games. Fromtheguardian.com

By Shyamal Sinha,Beijing

In a Mogao cave, a Buddha statue surrounded by disciples dating from the Tang dynasty (618–907). Photo by Gilles Sabrié. From washingtonpost.com

A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987, the Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes, located near the city of Dunhuang in China’s northwest Gansu Province, include some 492 Buddhist temples dating from the 4th to the 14th century, decorated with more than 45,000 square meters of exquisite frescoes and some 2,000 sculptures. The caves were visited by countless travelers, merchants, and Buddhist pilgrims during the period that Dunhuang served as a strategic oasis and major crossroads on the ancient Silk Road and are now more popular than ever.

The draw of the caves as a tourist attraction has soared in recent years as a result of their growing fame in China and overseas, facilitated by improved transportation links between Dunhuang and other parts of China. Chinese president Xi Jinping’s ambitious economic and trade development initiative known as “One Belt, One Road”—a plan to resurrect the Silk Road for the 21st century—has also served to renew interest in the Silk Road and historic sites along the ancient trade routes.

“In the past 100 years, most of the damage has been done by nature, but visits by more tourists will break the original balance inside the caves,” said Wang Xudong, president of Dunhuang Research Academy. “Constant entrance and exit changes the temperature and humidity inside the caves. Human bodies also carry micro­organisms, and if they start to grow inside the caves, it would be very scary.” (The Washington Post)

A technician restoring a wall paintings in cave 98. Photo by Gilles Sabrié. From nzherald.co.nz

By  Shyamal Sinha,New Delhi

Kaigen-ji, in Kyoto’s Fukuchiyama District, welcomed visiting players on Twitter,
offering washroom facilities, water fountains, and mobile phone chargers. FromKaigen-ji Twitter

And while flicking virtual balls at imaginary monsters may seem a slightly incongruous practice in the setting of a Buddhist temple, the resident monastics say they’re more than happy to accommodate the new visitors, noting that the temple is designed to be used as a refuge in times of difficulty and disaster, so they are willing to test their resources in this unconventional manner.
Elsewhere in Japan, not everyone has welcomed Pokémon Go as warmly as the monks of Kaigen-ji. The Japan launch of the mobile game last Friday, two weeks after it debuted in the United States, has prompted many to expressing reservations about the phenomenon’s potential consequences. Major shrine complexes—including Izumo Grand Shrine in Shimane Prefecture and Kotohira-gu in Kagawa Prefecture—have banned people from playing Pokémon Go within their compounds.
A 24-year-old man playing the game near a shrine in Japan’s Mie Prefecture, said he agreed with the concerns. “Ise Grand Shrine isn’t a playground in the first place,” he said. “It’s good that [the game] is banned inside the premises.” (The Japan Times)
Japan’s National Centre of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity has taken the precaution of issuing a nine-point safety guide, after weeks of reports of mishaps among gamers in other countries. “I want people to abide by the warnings so that people can play it on smartphones safely,” Japanese chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga urged last week. (BBC)

From ign.com

By Shyamal Sinha,New Delhi

Buddhist monks collecting images and videos of illegal logging to spread them through social media. Photo from Dw.com

Cambodia has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world, third to only Nigeria and Vietnam, according to a 2005 report conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Deforestation remains a major threat to Cambodia’s forests, but a group of Cambodian Buddhist monks from the Independent Monk Network for Social Justice is battling to save these forests by lobbying lawmakers to protect them and by publicly exposing illegal logging.

Venerable Buntenh, founder and leader of the network’s approximately 5,000 monks, teaches local people to use social media such as Facebook to raise awareness of illegal logging by uploading photos on Facebook, posting videos, and writing articles. The monks also teach locals how to halt deforestation. “No one has told me that I should go out there to protect the forest, but for me it was a logical thing to do. I am doing all I can to save it. I plant new trees, I help the people who live from the forest, I am reminding the government of the promises they’ve made,” said Ven. Buntenh. (Deutsche Welle)

The human rights organization Licadho from the University of Maryland in the US has pointed out that 14.4 per cent of Cambodia’s jungle disappeared between 2000 and 2013, 12.2 per cent of which were cut down in protected areas—an ongoing trend that has led to harmful effects for human beings, animals, and the climate.

Ven. Buntenh also noted that one of Cambodia’s largest and oldest evergreen woodlands, Prey Lang, is under threat. Large parts of Prey Lang have already disappeared to make space for plantations, and land concessions and illegal loggers have removed large patches of trees in protected areas. “The people who cut down the forest think they are superior, but in reality they are stupid. Only the forest is superior,” he said. (Deutsche Welle)

According to Ven. Buntenh, 30 yers ago, jungles and centuries-old trees that provided shade and shelter to wild animals, the air was clean, and nature provided local residents with considerable resources to live on. The forest near Ven. Buntenh’s childhood village was once filled with wild pigs. “We were hunting them. During my youth, there was nothing as tasty as the meat of a wild pig,” Ven. Buntenh recalled, laughing. (Deutsche Welle)

Activists carry confiscated chainsaws as part of a protest in front of Forestry Administration office in Phnom Penh, on 6 July, 2015. Photo from Rfa.com

Today, the forests of Ven. Buntenh’s youth are long gone, and their loss grieves him. He urges local residents to put an end to illegal logging in Cambodia during the frequent occasions when they come to the forest and listen to the monks talk about the effects of deforestation. “We must speak out when someone is abusing our rights,” he told a crowd on 7 July. “The authorities think bad about us, but we are the ones that help you to save the forest. Do you know how Facebook works? You have to use it to tell what’s happening here.” (Deutsche Welle)

Yet the situation may not be completely hopeless: “In Cambodia, where over 90 per cent of the population is Buddhist, monks enjoy great respect. Their orange and red robes offer them protection that other activists lack. The authorities are also unlikely to easily use force against them, and the monks use this freedom to collect images and videos of, for example, illegal logging and brutal police violence. These are then spread through social media.” (Deutsche Welle)

However, Ven. Buntenh has accused prime minister Hun Sen, who has governed Cambodia since 1985, of delaying promises to halt deforestration. Over the past few years, several activists and journalists have been intimidated or even killed for reporting on illegal logging. Similar threats were made on Ven. Buntenh’s life some time ago. “I don’t think I’m a good monk, because I am mean to the police and to the military,” he said. “But I’m ready to give everything for my people and the forest. If I have to give my life for it today or tomorrow, then I’m willing to make that sacrifice.” (Deutsche Welle)  The Cambodian government has struggled to enforce environmental regulations in the face of corruption and illegal activities, it has shown interest in reducing deforestation and setting up protected areas. On paper, more than 20 percent of Cambodia is under some form of protection, including the spectacular ruins of Ankor, which cover over some 400 square kilometers and are one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia. However, even this World Heritage site is threatened by unrestrained tourism, experienced rapid hotel development in the early to mid 2000s.

By Craig Lewis

The excavated bronze fragments that may have formed part of the Kitayama Daito pagoda. From mainichi.jp

Archaeologists in Japan have identified three decorative bronze fragments unearthed in the grounds of Kyoto’s famous Kinkaku-ji Zen Buddhist temple as the remains of what might once have been the tallest Buddhist pagoda ever built in Japan.

Scholars believe the fragments, discovered during excavation work carried out between April and July 2015 to develop the parking area of Kinkaku-ji, may once have formed part of the tip of a pagoda called Kitayama Daito, said to have been constructed within the grounds of Kinkaku-ji at the order of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358–1408), the third shogun of the Ashikaga or Muromachi shogunate (1338–1573).

Kinkaku-ji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion), officially named Rokuon-ji (Deer Garden Temple), is a designated National Special Historic Site and a National Special Landscape in Japan, and is one of 17 protected locations that make up the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto UNESCO World Heritage Site.

According to the Kyoto City Archaeological Research Institute, the three fragments formed part of asōrin, the decorative vertical finial that stands at the top of a pagoda. The largest of the unearthed pieces is 37.4cm wide, 24.6cm long, and 1.5cm thick, weighing in at 8.2kg. Based on the size of the largest fragment, scholars estimate that the diameter of the kurin (nine tiered rings that make up the largest component of the sōrin) was about 2.4 meters. The fragments, which are partially covered in gold leaf, are thought to be from the decorated tip of the nine rings.

An artist’s impression of the seven-story pagoda built at
Shokoku-ji before the construction of Kitayama Daito.
From mainichi.jp

“The Kitayama Daito was believed to have been a huge pagoda equal to the seven-tiered pagoda at Shokoku-ji,” said Yoshiaki Maeda, deputy director of the Kyoto City Archaeological Research Institute. “It was twice as tall as the five-tiered pagoda at Tō-ji and there is the possibility it was the tallest Buddhist pagoda ever built in Japan.” (The Asahi Shimbun)

The shogun Yoshimitsu is thought to have begun work on Kitayama Daito in 1404 from his mountain home Kitayama-dono, which later became Kinkaku-ji, but he died four years later. The pagoda was believed to have been close to completion when it burned down after being struck by lightning in 1416. Before building Kitayama Daito, Yoshimitsu is said to have constructed an earlier seven-story pagoda in Kyoto in 1399, near another temple he commissioned, Shokoku-ji, some 110 meters tall. This pagoda also burned down after being struck by lightning in 1403, and Yoshimitsu subsequently decided to build Kitayama Daito at nearby Kitayama-dono.

The five-tiered pagoda at the Shingon temple Tō-ji, one of the most famous symbols of Kyoto, is the tallest existing wooden pagoda in Japan, standing 56m high. It dates from the Edo period (1603–1868), when it was rebuilt by order of the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu. The size of recovered fragments suggests that the decorative rings at the top of Kitayama Daito dwarfed the 1.6-meter rings of the Tō-ji pagoda.

From asahi.com

According to a document dated to the Muromachi period, the tallest known pagoda built in Japan was about 110 meters. Scholars say the newly discovered fragments suggest that Kitayama Daito was about the same size, however the remains of its foundations have yet to be located so the actual site of the pagoda is uncertain.

“Yoshimitsu, who boasted great authority and power, was taken with tall pagodas,” said Yoshiyuki Tomishima of Kyoto University Graduate School of Engineering, an associate professor of architectural history. “The recently discovered parts are thought to be from a large pagoda, but before we can say for sure that they are from Kitayama Daito we need to uncover information like where the tower was located.” (The Mainichi)

The bronze fragments have been placed on display in a special exhibition at Kyoto City Archaeological Museum until 27 November.

By Shyamal  Sinha, New Delhi

From ted.com

Ogyen Trinley “appears to have been accepted by a majority of Karma Kagyu monasteries and lamas, there remains a substantial minority of monasteries and lamas who have not accepted Ogyen Trinley as Karmapa. In particular, these include the Shamar Rinpoche, who historically has been the person most directly involved in the process of recognition.

Thousands marched  to the streets of Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, on 11 July to urge the Indian government to allow Ogyen Trinley Dorje, one of the two claimaints to the title of 17th Karmapa, to visit the landlocked Indian state. The key reason for the government’s refusal to allow Ogyen Trinley Dorje to visit Sikkim is the political sensitivity of Rumtek Monastery, the current seat of the Karma Kagyu leader, located 24 kilometers from Gangtok.

The institution of the Karmapa is the oldest tulku lineage in Tibetan Buddhism, dating back to Düsum Khyenpa (1110–93). Historically, the Karmapas were based at Tsurphu Monastery in Tibet, but the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, rebuilt Rumtek Monastery (Rumtek had already been established as a center of learning in the mid-1700s by the 12th Karmapa, Changchub Dorje, but had since fallen into disrepair) to be his new seat in 1966 after leaving Tsurphu Monastery and Tibet.

The majority of Tibetan Buddhists have recognized Ogyen Trinley Dorje as the reincarnation of Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, while an influential minority holds that Trinley Thaye Dorje is the 17th Karmapa. The dispute has prompted India to prohibit both masters from visiting Rumtek. Neither candidate lives or has been enthroned there, and the movements of Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who is based at Sidhburi in India after fleeing Tibet at the age of 14, remain closely watched by the Indian government.

According to the website of Rumtek Monastery: “The Karmapa remains in temporary residence at Gyuto Ramoche Tantric University near Dharamsala, receiving teachings and transmissions from eminent Kagyu masters while the Indian government considers his request for asylum. Followers from around the world now travel to India to receive his blessings. One of His Holiness’s regents, His Eminence the Twelfth Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche, is overseeing activities at Rumtek Dharma Chakra Centre until His Holiness Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje returns.”

The rally on 11 July was encouraged by reports that the Sikkim government had made progress in organizing a visit by Ogyen Trinley Dorje. The exile Tibetan news portal Phayul reported that a memo had been sent from the state governor on 6 July appointing Acharya Tshering Lama, chairman of Sikkim’s Ecclesiastical Affairs Department, to welcome the spiritual leader. The circular also recommended that Ogyen Trinley Dorje be accorded a cabinet rank reception with the Sikkim government.

However, according to a report on 10 July from Indian newspaper The Tribune, “there was no official confirmation regarding permission given by the Government of India allowing Karmapa to visit Rumtek Monastery.” On the same day, Phayul identified an unnamed source close to the Karmapa as claiming: “the initiative from the State of Sikkim is a welcoming sign. However, the Karmapa office here [in Dharamsala] has not yet received any confirmation letter from either the Central Tibetan Administration or New Delhi.” (Phayul) The source added that the process has only just begun and it would depend on how and when the appointed official approaches the Indian government to initiate it.

“We the people of Sikkim, in conformity and continuity to our common aspiration and prayers, therefore unanimously resolve that the Government of India must immediately grant permission and necessary clearance to Gyalwang Karmapa to visit and bless Sikkim,” the rally organizers said in a statement. Prominent slogans on banners held high during the march included: “It’s time that our dharma guru visit Sikkim now,” “Please allow Karmapa to visit and bless Sikkim,” and “Government of India, you have sovereign power to allow Karmapa to visit Sikkim.” (Phayul) Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s mother’s name is Loga; his father’s name is Karma Döndrub Tashi, a name given to him by the 16th Karmapa. Both of Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s parents’ names were similar to the names in the letter produced by Tai Situpa. According to Michele Martin, the letter was interpreted to mean he would be “born … in the area of Lhathok, which translates as ‘divine (lha) thunder (thog).’ The name of the remote nomadic community where Ogyen Trinley Dorje was born is Bagor, of which ba means ‘cow.’ The next line indicates his parents, where the masculine principle method refers to his father Döndrub, and the feminine principle wisdom refers to his mother Lolaga. The one used for the earth points to an animal that plows, and Ogyen Trinley Dorje was born in the year of the Wood Ox (1985). The far-reaching sound of the white one indicates the sound of the conch shell that is said to have miraculously resounded in the sky for hours after Ogyen Trinley’s birth.