ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
September 21, 2015
‘Rebel’ female Buddhist monks
challenge Thailand status quo
Continued from page 2
CAUSTIC CORRUPTION. Smoke billows from the site of an ex-
plosion that reduced a parking lot filled with new cars to charred remains
near a warehouse in northeastern China’s Tianjin municipality. Chinese
authorities say they’ve ended the search for the remaining missing in the
massive August 12 explosions at chemical warehouses, setting the final
death toll at 173 in China’s worst industrial disaster in years. (AP Photo/
Ng Han Guan, File)
Final death toll set at 173 in
China warehouse explosion
By Christopher Bodeen
The Associated Press
B
EIJING — Chinese authorities ended the search
for the remaining eight missing in a massive
chemical warehouse explosion, setting the final
death toll at 173 in China’s worst industrial disaster in
years.
The announcement on the Tianjin city government’s
microblog said there was no hope of finding the eight
people, and the court will now start issuing death
certificates.
“After thorough investigations by all parties, it is
certain that there is no possibility of survivors,” said the
statement.
The eight include five firefighters — underscoring the
explosion’s status as the worst ever disaster for Chinese
first responders — more than 100 of whom were killed,
including police officers. Among firefighters, a total of 104
were killed.
Investigations into the August 12 blasts at the Ruihai
International Logistics warehouses showed they were
located closer to homes than permitted and stored much
more hazardous material than authorized, including 700
tons of highly toxic sodium cyanide.
A series of massive explosions late at night shattered
windows and tore facades off buildings for miles around,
while launching debris including heavy steel storage
canisters into nearby communities with the force of an
artillery shell. Disgruntled homeowners have held
numerous angry protests demanding the government buy
back their apartments, saying they are unlivable.
The disaster has raised questions about corruption and
government efficiency, potentially tarnishing the commu-
nist government led by President Xi Jinping, who has
made those two issues a hallmark of his administration.
Authorities are investigating malfeasance in the
issuing of permits and regulation of the company, and
have detained 12 of its employees and executives. They
include the primary owner, who was on the board of a
state-owned company and kept his ownership of Ruihai
hidden as a silent partner.
Also detained as part of the investigation are 11
government officials, while the head of the government
body in charge of industrial safety, Yang Dongliang, has
been placed under investigation for corruption.
Yang had previously worked for 18 years in Tianjin in
state industry and local government, rising to executive
vice mayor.
Authorities say they have sealed all waterways leading
out of the blast zone to curb cyanide contamination as
teams in hazmat suits clean up hazardous debris.
According to the Tianjin Environmental Protection
Bureau, water samples inside the disaster zone have
shown levels of cyanide as high as 20 times above that
considered safe. No cyanide has been detected in nearby
seawater or areas outside the 1.8-mile radius quarantine
zone.
faith — these misdeeds and what is
termed “checkbook Buddhism” have
spurred calls in parliament for
curbing the almost total authority the
council wields over the clergy and the
corruption-stoking $4 billion in
annual donations to monasteries. A
proposed Patronage and Protection of
the Clergy Bill would impose stiff
penalties for those who break the
religion’s cardinal rules and set up a
panel to monitor donations. Corrup-
tion within Buddhism may also be
dealt with in Thailand’s next
constitution, now being drafted.
The role of women in Buddhism has
also aroused national-level debate.
The Sangha council has urged the
government to ban Sri Lankan clergy
from coming into the country follow-
ing what Dhammananda calls a
“rebel ordination” in Thailand of
eight bhikkhunis last November by
Sri Lankans. That drew broad
criticism of the council itself.
“The clergy can no longer insist on
operating in a closed, feudal system
that violates universal norms and
values,” said an editorial in the
English-language Bangkok Post.
Instead of trying to crush women’s
aspirations, it said the “clergy should
concentrate on cleaning up its own
house to restore declining public
faith.”
No scandal has emerged among
Thailand’s
female
clergy.
Dhammananda said she has seen no
misbehavior in her monastery
beyond a few nuns who had used their
mobile telephones to excess.
“I think that many nuns see
themselves as exemplary. They are,
and they’re carving a new role for
themselves that didn’t exist,” said
Juliane Schober, an expert on
Southeast Asian Buddhism at
Arizona State University. “That that
puts pressure on the Sangha doesn’t
surprise me.”
Women clergy interviewed at three
monasteries said it was essential to
maintain a high moral ground so as
not to give opponents an excuse to
stop their movement. Some cast them
as western-educated feminists out to
undermine traditional Buddhism.
“They can be a force for change in
Buddhism,”
said
Phramaha
UNEXPECTED ACTIVISTS. Women Buddhist monks pray at the Songdhammakalyani Mon-
astery in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand. The top Buddhist authority in Thailand bars women from be-
coming monks. Thailand has some 100 bhikkhunis who were ordained in Sri Lanka, where women
are allowed to become monks. They and their monasteries are not legally recognized in Thailand,
and don’t enjoy state funding and other support the country’s 200,000 male monks are granted.
(AP Photo/Penny Yi Wang)
Boonchuay Doojai, a leading activist
monk at Chiang Mai Buddhist
College.
“If everything is in the hands of
men, it is as if Buddhism was just the
way of a father, not mother. But you
need both,” he said. “Mothers have
some unique feelings that men do not
share. They may have more loving
kindness.”
Proponents of ordination like
Boonchuay say bhikkhunis origi-
nated with Buddha himself; the first
was an aunt who raised him. Oppo-
nents argue that the lineage of the
Theravada bhikkhuni order, under
which women could be ordained, died
out long ago and cannot be restored.
The Mahayana branch of Buddhism
practiced
in
East
Asia
has
historically ordained women.
“We simply follow the rules. The
ordination of female monks was
allowed in the Lord Buddha’s time.
But as time passed, the lineage of
bhikkhuni
disappeared,”
Phra
Tepvisutthikawee of the Buddhism
Protection Center has said.
Despite conservative opposition,
bhikkhunis are gaining ground with
the general public in Thailand.
“It is a movement now. When I was
struggling by myself it was just this
crazy woman who wanted to be a
monk,” says Dhammananda, who
was ordained in 2003. “Now people
don’t feel strange when they see a
female monk in the streets. We don’t
have problems with people, with
society.”
Aside from spiritual pursuits, the
15
monastics
at
her
Songdhammakalyani
Monastery
visit prisoners, aid the poor and
infirm, and maintain other links with
the surrounding community near
Nakhon Pathom in central Thailand.
Regularly they make alms rounds, a
timeless tradition of food offerings by
the faithful who are then blessed by
the monks.
To the north, in the shadows of the
country’s
highest
mountain,
hundreds of civil servants, business-
men, villagers, and others regularly
flock to an idyllic monastery to hear
talks by Venerable Nandanyani, a
bhikkhuni and onetime mathemati-
cian. Families attend a weekend
religion “camp” on the monastery
grounds. A bhikkhuni leads a group
of men and women in the slow
motions of walking meditation.
Seated below a statue of the
Buddha, the abbess energetically
explains why ordination of women is
vital, punctuating her words with
thumbs-up gestures. It enables
individuals to probe Buddhism’s
depths and live the full monastic life,
she says, and also allows intimate
communication between female cler-
gy and laywomen unhindered by the
barriers of sex and traditional
propriety between women and
monks.
South Korean man gets 12 years for slashing U.S. ambassador
By Hyung-jin Kim
The Associated Press
S
EOUL, South Korea — A Seoul court has handed a
12-year prison sentence to a South Korean man
who slashed and seriously injured the U.S.
ambassador during a March forum.
Kim Ki-jong was convicted of attempted murder,
assaulting a foreign envoy, and obstruction, according to
court spokesman Joon Young Maeng.
Both Kim and the prosecution may appeal, Maeng said.
Prosecutors had previously asked for a 15-year prison
term.
Kim slashed Mark Lippert during a breakfast forum in
Seoul, leaving deep gashes on the envoy’s face and arm.
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Lippert was treated for five days at a Seoul hospital.
Kim has described himself as an anti-U.S. activist. He
told police that his assault was meant to protest annual
U.S.-South Korean military drills but that he did not
intend to kill the ambassador.
The drills, which are meant as a deterrent against
North Korean attack, are a major source of friction on the
Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang says they are practice for a
northward invasion to topple the dictatorship that has
ruled the country since its founding in 1948. U.S. and
South Korean officials say the drills are defensive in
nature.
Police said Kim attempted to kill Lippert because he
knifed him more than twice with a force that was enough
to penetrate the ambassador’s arm as he tried to block the
attack.
During earlier police questioning, Kim also said South
Korea is a semi-colony of the U.S. and that North Korea
has an independent, self-reliant government, according to
Seoul police. Shortly after his arrest, Kim shouted that
the U.S.-South Korea war games were an obstacle against
a Korean unification.
The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of
war since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an
armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 American
soldiers are deployed in South Korea to deter potential
aggression from North Korea.