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    Exiting The Stream Paid Member

    By Robert Scalia
    We’ve already climbed some sixty steps, and we’re still far from the top. I suddenly find myself wondering how many times my petite twenty-seven-year-old Chinese tour guide has scaled Muk Yu Hill. The statue at the top, Tian Tan—the Giant Buddha—looms overhead, its enigmatic features momentarily lost in a beam of sunlight. For the majority of visitors to Po Lin Monastery, situated on the Ngong Ping Plateau on Lantau Island, Tian Tan is more than a breathtaking landmark; it is perhaps the most tangible symbol of Hong Kong’s Buddhist community. But my youthful guide, Hau Sze Chan, might be a close second. Although she leads the Tian Tan tour, like many young Chinese she has mixed feelings about her country’s ancestral religion: “In Chinese society, older people believe in Buddhism,” she explains. “When they are younger they believe in Taoism. I studied philosophy. I don’t believe in anything.” More »
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    Cyber Buddhism in Bangkok Paid Member

    By Joshua Kurlantzick
    In the garden outside Wat Buaniwet, Thailand’s most important Buddhist temple, Abhinito, a young monk, sat with me under the shade of a large tropical plant. Together, we discussed Abhinito’s emigration from Indonesia to Thailand, the horrific Bangkok traffic, and other topics. But after thirty minutes, Abhinito appeared distracted. “I’m sorry,” he apologized, “but I have to go update my website.” More »
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    The Island Paid Member

    By Erik Hansen
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    Buddhism in Russia Paid Member

    By John Varoli
    “My grandfather was a Communist who was sent to the Siberian republic of Buryatia in the 1930s to bring Communism to the people and build collective farms, but he returned to Leningrad a few years later with great respect for the people and culture, and he brought with him an ethnic Buryat wife and a number of thangkas,” says Noskov, sitting in his apartment, a short walk from St. Petersburg’s only datsan, or Buddhist temple. More »
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    Fragile Bonds Paid Member

    By Vishvapani
    Satellite images of the Palk Strait, which separates the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu from the Jaffna peninsula in northern Sri Lanka, show a ghostly line linking the two. Below the water's surface is a ridge of limestone that once formed an isthmus joining the landmasses. It is an apt image for the complex yet buried connections between the two provinces. More »
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    Tribute in Light Paid Member

    By Frances Richard
    Nature will not have us fret and fume. She does not like our benevelonce or our learning much better than she likes our frauds and wars.             -Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Spiritual Laws" More »