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Tricycle Talk: Victress Hitchcock, Director of When the Iron Bird Flies
This year's Tricycle | Buddhafest Online Film Festival features two films by wonderwoman director Victress Hitchcock: Blessings: The Tsoknyi Nangchen Nuns of Tibet and When the Iron Bird Flies. The first opened the film festival by highlighting the practice of the Nangchen nuns within the largely male-dominated history of Buddhism in Tibet. With When the Iron Bird Flies, Hitchcock expands her lens, following the journey of Tibetan Buddhism from its past seclusion in the Land of Snows to its current (almost) mainstream status in the West, focusing especially on the effects of the Dalai Lama's escape from Tibet in 1959. More » -
Buddha Buzz: All the Usual Characters Plus a Pack of Monkeys
The great Buddhist leaders of the world have been busy lately. On Saturday, Aung San Suu Kyi made her way to Oslo, where she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to her in 1991. (At the time, her sons accepted it on her behalf, as she was under house arrest by the Burmese military junta.) Her triumphant five-country European tour, still ongoing, is the first time she has left Burma in almost a quarter of a century. You can watch her moving acceptance speech here. More » -
Buddha Buzz: Buddhist Humanity
In last week's Buddha Buzz about the South Korean monks who were caught on film drinking and gambling after another monk's memorial service, I wrote that the sordid affair was another case of "Buddhists behaving badly." In response, Tricycle commenter buddahbear01 wrote, "Buddhists behaving 'badly?' Perhaps they are human?" I think buddahbear01 has got a point here. We cannot forget that putting on Buddhist robes doesn't automatically elevate you to an ethical superhuman status—monks and nuns and religious leaders of all types, more often than not, are just like the rest of us in all of our flawed and imperfect glory. More » -
Buddha Buzz: Mobs, Politics, and...Lemurs
Buddhist monks were all over the international news this week, and most of it was not good. Last weekend thousands of Sri Lankans, led by Buddhist monks, stormed a mosque in Dambulla, Sri Lanka, destroying furniture and exposing themselves. The day before, the mosque had been firebombed by an unknown person. Sri Lankan officials have now promised to demolish and relocate the mosque, which the monks alleged had been built illegally on sacred Buddhist ground. Mosque board members responded that the mosque had been there for 50 years—30 years before the area was declared a Buddhist sacred zone. More » -
Buddha Buzz: Anxious Buddhists and Hard Partyin' Monks Mystery Solved
Today is an anxious day. Yes, I know it's 4/20, and enthusiastic potheads everywhere will be bong-hitting, joint-lighting, and baked-goods-eating their way to a non-anxious existence. But it's also Hitler's birthday, the anniversary of Columbine, and supposedly, the day that Kony 2012 supporters will take to the streets (remember the Kony video?). More » -
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Buddha Buzz: Excessive Consumerism, the Templeton Prize, and Everything In Between
Being the writer of Buddha Buzz blog posts certainly has its advantages. For one, I get to spend my time reading and writing about subjects that are important to me. But the main advantage by far is that during the time I spend scouring the Internet each week for Buddhist-related news, I'm often (or so I like to think) one of the first people to be alerted when something really, really awesome—and Buddhist—goes on sale. Like this $28.5 million yacht. More »
