Buddhist Personality : Nguyen Tien Cong

Nguyen Tien Cong, a primary 3 school boy lives in a small village, Cau Dien in Tu Liem, Hanoi. Despite his young age, Cong has been a strict vegetarian since the age of 3.





















When he was still in kindergarten, the teacher used to serve the kids meals with meat but Cong, who was already a vegetarian then always found tricks to avoid eating the food served. He was adamant in not eating the food despite being caught several times and punished by his teachers.






















Initially his parents were worried that their boy did not want to eat meat. His mother used every means to coax him to eat meat but Cong still did not want to touch them. When asked by his parents why he did not want to eat meat, at age 3, the boy answered that eating meat is not a compassionate act but a murder. After learning the reason behind their son's stand to be a vegetarian, the family finally accepted and respected his decision. These days, his daily food contain only vegetable, tofu, salt, sesame, roasted peanuts, soy milk and fruits. Cong added that everytime he goes to the market, he would feel sick at the sight of meat.




















In a village Buddhist temple, Cong is often seen chanting and meditating with his grandmother. His parents are happy to see that their son has grown up to be a good boy, thanks to his early interest in Buddhism.

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Flood : 420 Temples Affected In Ayutthaya

Office of Buddhism in central Ayutthaya province revealed today that recent flooding situation has affected 420 out of 505 temples across the province.

The office initially estimated that about 915 million baht (29. 8 million US dollars) would be needed for reconstruction and repairs of those temples.

Landscape improvements and paintings may take two to three months to finish but repairing some buildings may take up to one year, according to the office's official.

Ayutthaya, the former capital city of Thailand, was inscribed as the world historic city in 1991 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The province which is also a home to several industrial estates has been severely ravaged by heavy floods since September. Thousands of factories including Honda and Toyota were submerged under floodwaters.

In October, UNESCO offered to allocate 25,000 US dollars of emergency assistant fund for restoring ancient sites in the province.

Although it continues to prevail in 24 provinces, the inundation in Ayutthaya has begun to subside.

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Bhutan Star

Bhutan Star is Bhutan's version of American Idol. It is a contest where contestants take to the stage to belt out the fading Bhutanese traditional songs. The immensely popular show was initiated by Nidup Dorji, a 37 year old writer, actor, composer and singer who wanted the youngsters to embrace their culture but with a modern twist.

He appropriated the format of "Idol," which he had seen on satellite TV. He then used Bhutan's pop genre known as rigsar to lure kids into watching the folk music called boedra and the more complex zhungdra, classical, high-pitched religious songs composed by Buddhist lamas and reminiscent of Chinese opera.























Conservative grandparents, Buddhist monks, rebellious teens and almost everyone else with a TV gather every Saturday and Sunday to watch contestants belt out classical Buddhist compositions. Jaded youngsters have started humming folk tunes in the street.

The contest, in its first edition was eventually won by Sonam Yangden from Trashigang who took home a Maruti Swift car and a year long music contract.

Each week, the contestants perform one rigsar song with a modern band on one side of the stage and one song of either boedra or zhungdra with a traditional band on the other playing the dramnyen lute, the yangchen dulcimer and the fiddle-like chiwang. There are two sets of judges as well

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Jambhala The Photographer

As a Han Chinese photographer, he preferred to be called Jambhala, a Tibetan name he received from his Tibetan Buddhism master and also God of Wealth.

Jambhala developed an interest in photographing because of his father in early 1980s and worked as a journalism photographer, advertisement photographer, and freelancer before his current job - a photography teacher at Shanghai Art and Design Academy.

Believing in Tibetan Buddhism for 15 years, he says the religion influenced him a lot and attracted him to the depth and profundity in culture as well as humanity.

"Travelling in Tibet and Qinghai impressed me deeply and challenged my definition and purpose of photography,” said Jambhala in a telephone interview.

Jambhala believes the essence to a successful photographer lies on their attitudes towards life and the world particularly in contemporary China, where he sees rapid economic growth entangled with increasing capriciousness in the public mindset.

In teaching photography, Jambhala emphasized on the accumulation of experiences and urged his students “to be able to endure the loneliness” before their talents can sparkle. Photography is in some way similar to Buddhism because both echo the belief that “constant effort yields sure success.”

While being satisfied with his life, Jambhala is also concerned about the loss of culture and a lack of sense of responsibility in Chinese photographers who struggle to gain sensational attention in the fiercely competitive market.

"Society is becoming diversified. More people now know photography and show the individual angles of their observation. In this environment, the basic principle is to respect the diversity."

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