Wednesday 16 January 2013

Interview with 東蓮覺苑 (Tung Lin Kok Yuen) in Hong Kong

I provided an interview to the Hong Kong publication of the Tung Lin Kok Yuen foundation (東蓮覺苑).

http://newlotus.buddhistdoor.com/en/news/d/31356

The questions (and the illustrations) largely concern the situation of Theravāda Buddhism within Yunnan (云南) but the answers cover a great deal of ground, both about my own research into Pali, about the historical and current situation of the religion in Southeast Asia, and so on.  Politics are not omitted from the discussion.


It is credit to the editor that this was published (in a conservative, Buddhist newsletter) without censorship.  This is another interesting example of an openly-religious publication being more willing to print both criticism and controversy than "secular Buddhist" publications are, in my experience.