Dharma Dispatch, 12-17 March 2018: Sri Lankan Conflict, International Women’s Day, FGS Celebrations

Good morning! We start with some encouraging news amidst a sad backdrop of religious and ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. Buddhist monks and activists gathered in their hundreds on the streets of Colombo on Friday to protest violence between Buddhists and Muslims. The protesting monks were joined by activists that included academics, artists, and representatives of civil society […]

The Right Balance: Negotiating Buddhist Power in Sri Lanka

After a mob attacked a UN safe house for Rohingya refugees on 26 September near the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne came out with some of the strongest public words I’ve seen leveled by a Buddhist public servant against fellow, self-proclaimed Buddhists. “As a Buddhist I am ashamed at what happened,” […]

No Easy Answers: Bangladesh’s Buddhists and Rohingya Refugees

The tragedy of Myanmar’s displacement of Rohingya Muslims, aside from its complex ethnic, historical, and religious backdrop, is exacerbated by two essential political realities. The first is that Western media and governments erroneously saw what it wished to see in Aung San Suu Kyi throughout her difficult struggle against the Burmese junta. When she decided […]