Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Sri Lanka & Buddha Bar

The Buddha Bar issue is surfacing again. This time, Sri Lanka Prime Minister who is also the Religious Affairs Minister, D.M Jayaratne has instructed his country's embassies abroad to carry out observation on Buddha Bars in their respective countries to check if these bars show disrespect to Buddhism.

The office of the PM said that they had received information that Buddha Bar restaurants abroad ( England, US, France ) serve alcohol to customers in front of Buddha statue. If found to be true, the Sri Lankan government, through the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs will intervene in this issue. The Prime Minister will also issue complain to the World Buddhist Council.

( Can Sri Lanka able to pressure these bars to stop serving alcohol ? In Asia perhaps but definitely not in non-Asian countries especially when Buddha Bar restaurants are making money. Many Asian restaurants have Buddha statues in them either for blessing or simply just for decorations. I think the owner of the Buddha Bar must have got inspiration from these Asian restaurants. Nevertheless, the owner should have been more sensitive to the feelings of the Buddhist before naming his chain restaurant as Buddha Bar. Wonder what would happen if someone was to name his restaurants as " Mohammed Bar " or " Muslim Bar " while serving alcohol ???? )

In 2009, a Buddha Bar restaurant in Indonesia agreed to change it's name after protests from several local Buddhist groups. Thailand and Singapore have refused to issue licences to allow Buddha Bar restaurants to be opened in their countries.




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2 comments:

Faid said...

fyi, the buddha bar is still stands firmly here
http://www.buddha-bar.co.id/ (said they changed the name, but not really like that)
but there are no longer protests~life goes on I guess :p
may be because we buddhist protested in such -peace and harmony- until nobody really care. hehehe-

it's good that some countries banned the bar ~♥
however for countries that think they're "democratic or whatsoever", well, surely they would love to say "no problem" to make the bar legal :D

*sorry for my english* T__T

however, i just wonder if buddha is still alive. what will he do knowing buddha bars are spreading in other countries :D
and what should good buddhists do reacting to this kind of issue.
*confused*
but for myself, don't really care about this buddha bar coz whether it exists or not, means nothing XD

Fhez said...

Thanks for the info. For Buddhist or non Buddhist who get offended by this, their best option is to stay away from this bar.

Don't apologise for your English. I think your English is just fine ( mine is far from perfect too ).