Buddhist Celebrities

Monday, February 15, 2010

Welcoming The Year Of The Tiger

9:36 AM No comments

Today, February 14, 2010 is the 1st day of the Lunar New Year. According to Chinese zodiac, this year is the year of the Tiger. Lunar New Year is celebrated by Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans all over the world. In China, this celebration is called Spring Festival, in Vietnam it is called Tet while the Koreans call this new year as Seollal, elsewhere in South East Asia, Europe and other parts of the world, it is often known as Chinese New Year.

For those who are celebrating this Lunar New Year, i wish you Happy New Year.
Enjoy, the following snapshots of Chinese New Year celebration held all over the world.

Performers in a temple fair in Temple Of Heaven in Beijing, China on the 1st day of Chinese New Year

Foreigner join in the celebration of Chinese New Year by lighting fireworks in Beijing, China

A lion dance being performed during Chinese New Year celebration in Beijing, China

Worshippers pray in a temple in Lanzhou, China on the 1st day of Chinese New Year

Visitors tour a temple fair decorated with lanterns in Beijing, China on the 1st day of Chinese New Year

Crowds gather in Hague, Netherlands to participate in a Chinese New Year parade

People braved cold to watch and participate in a Chinese New Year celebration in Stockholm, Sweden

Children perform in a Lunar New Year celebration in Pyongyang, North Korea

Locals enjoy watching and participating in a dragon dance performance held in conjunction of Chinese New Year in Sao Paolo, Brazil

A Chinese new year gala show held in conjunction of Chinese New Year in Kiev, Ukraine

Times Square in New York, USA sends out a giant Chinese New Year greeting

The whole of Singapore is lit up with lanterns and colorful lights to celebrate Chinese New Year & God of Longevity giving out gifts to zoo visitors in Singapore

The city of Hanoi in Vietnam lit up in colorful lights to usher the Vietnamese New Year ( Tet ) and worshippers praying in a temple in Hanoi, Vietnam on the 1st day of the new year

Vietnamese enjoy a new year street show and a display of fireworks on the eve of Lunar New Year in Hanoi

A temple ceremony to mark the Lunar New Year ( Tet ) in Hanoi, Vietnam

Chinese New Year celebrations held in the largest shopping mall, SM Mall of Asia in Manila, Philippines

Children perform in Chinese New Year show in Moscow, Russia

Worshippers all over Taiwan flocked to temples to pray on the 1st day of Chinese New Year

Lion dance performed to a street crowd for Chinese New Year celebration in Sydney, Australia

A Chinese new year performance held in Helsinki, Finland

Lively performances held to celebrate Chinese New Year in Madrid, Spain

Indonesian children waiting for their turn to perform dragon dance for the Chinese New Year celebration in Jakarta, Indonesia & a worker lights up giant joss sticks in a temple in Jakarta on the 1st day of Chinese New Year ( Imlek )

Worshippers pray in a temple in Medan, Indonesia on the 1st day of Chinese New Year

Colorful Chinese New Year celebration in Bangkok, Thailand & 2 tiger cubs were dressed in Chinese traditional costumes in a zoo in Chonburi to usher the Year Of The Tiger

Children receiving gifts in a Chinese New Year celebration in Sofia, Bulgaria

People watching a lion dance performance, held in conjuction of Chinese New Year in Southampton, England

Chinese New Year parade in Vancouver, Canada

A lion dance performance to greet the new year in Athens, Greece

Member of Chinese peacekeeper troop sending new year greetings from Port Au Prince, Haiti

Worshippers pray in a temple on the 1st day of Chinese New Year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Acrobats perform in a Chinese New Year show in Nairobi, Kenya

The annual Chinese New Year Gala Show ( held for the 4th year ) in Valletta, Malta

Lion dance and dragon dance being performed in Paris, France to celebrate Chinese New Year

A man prays in the Kuan Kung Temple in Panama City, Panama on the 1st day of Chinese New Year and a lion dance roamed the street of Panama City to usher the Year Of The Tiger

Pastor's Offensive Videos

6:09 PM category - news, category - video, country - singapore 3 comments

Last week a pastor from the Lighhouse Evangelism Church in Singapore, Rony Tan was summoned by the the nation's Internal Security Department (ISD) for making offensive remarks on Buddhism during his presentation in front of his congregation ( i heard it was huge, numbering about 12,000 ). The offensive videos were posted on the church website and subsequently found their way to Facebook and Youtube. Had these videos were not posted on the website then probably not many ( especially non Christians ) would have even known about them. Fortunately and yes very fortunately in this internet era nothing could be secretive anymore. If you say something offensive / wrong, then you would have to be responsible for it.

Though no one knows what transpired during his meeting with officials from the ISD but not long after that this pastor went personally to a Buddhist temple and a Taoist temple to apologise to the leaders of the temples. Some people says since he has already made public apologies , the public should put this case to rest but some are not so forgiving, they want him to be prosecuted according to the law. I do not know much about Singaporean laws, so i am not going to go further on this.

Now exactly what is so offensive about Rony Tan's "show" ? Watch the following self explantory videos and judge them yourself. Throughout his interviews, he was putting down and riduculing Buddhism , perhaps thinking by doing so he would be able to promote Christianity and his church and more Buddhist will flock to him to convert themselves One part of the video which i find extremely offensive is the part where he mimic the dying Buddha supposedly saying " I am still looking for The Way " and then Jesus appeared to answer to the Buddha " I am The Way ". During his interviewed with a former Buddhist nun , he likened the Buddhists belief of past lives as nothing more than David Copperfield's tricks and calling the concept of reincarnation in Buddhism as "rubbish". Yes he used the word "RUBBISH". Wow, i can't believe a senior Church member and supposedly a pious Christian could say something like that.

When these videos were exposed, they attracted a lot of criticisms from commentators in forums, on Youtube etc. The following are the summarized comments to be shared with all of you.

Comment 1 : Many suggest that he should be jailed for creating disharmony in multi religous Singapore

Comment 2 : Some of the comments which i think are from non-Chrisitans are rather harsh but there are a number of Christians who also disagree with what the pastor but choose to express themselves in milder manners.

Comment 3 : Suggesting that the whole interviews were scripted. ( I doubt those were impromptu interviews )

Comment 4 : Citing the lack of knowledge on Buddhism on the part of the pastor and his guests especially the former monk. ( I couldn't have agreed more. You don't have right to pass remarks on something which you are not well verse in )

Comment 5 : Condemnming the audience for laughing when the pastor and his guest were making fun of Buddhism.

Comment 6 : Merely apologies are not enough. You can't just go around saying something that offends people and then apologise and then assuming everything would be fine after that.

Comment 7 : What we see in those videos are not uncommon in church congregations. Infact there are many pastors like that Rony Tan all over the place.

Comment 8 : It doesn't mean passing those offensive remarks indoor in front of mostly Chritians ( probably all of them ) is OK as long as outsiders can't here them.

Comment 9 : This one is very interesting. One commentator challenge the pastor to invite a former Muslim and interviewed him like what he did with the former monk and nun. ( LOL I can't imagine what would happened if it was Islam that he was making fun with instead of Buddhism )

I guess Rony Tan knew very well that most Buddhists are very forgiving and hence it was alright to say something like that.

Lastly, regardless of excuses given, it is not right to put down and make fun of the others just to make you look good.

Awakening

1:31 AM 2 comments

This blog has been around since 2008 but only today i realise how boring my blog is. Personally i don't really enjoy ( sometimes get bored ) reading a blog with contains photos and nothing else and this is exactly how this blog is like, uninteresting and boring. Eventhough there were some occassionally write-ups accompanying the photos that i posted on this blog but there were just information phrased in formal manner. So to make this blog more interesting ( at least in my opinion ), i will add some personal touch to this blog every now and then eventhough i am not good in expressing myself in words.

I have a long list of celebrities waiting to be posted here but i feel that it is time for me to bring more diversity to this blog by not only posting on celebrities but other non-celebrities related posts as well.

In the past, there were some readers who commented about the accuracy of my posts. Some of them were criticism like but a number of them corrected my mistakes. Just for info, i take great effort to ensure that each of my post is accurate but still i could not guarantee 100% accuracy. With the help of some readers, i had deleted a few inaccurate posts from this blog. The strenght of a person's faith is subjective, one may claims to be a Buddhist but his actions are totally in contrast to Buddhist teachings. Moreover Buddhism is not about worshiping God but it's more like how to lead our lives to attain permanence. One can leads his life like a Buddhist without even becoming one.