Buddhist circuit can draw tourists

Newindpress, June 1 2005

BHUBANESWAR, India -- With the focus shifting to non-traditional tourism in the State, the stakeholders are exploring prospects of Buddhist tourism circuits.

Sri Lanka Buddhist party to contest for presidency

Xinhua, May 31, 2005

Colombo, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lanka's all Buddhist monk party is to field its own candidate in the country's next presidential election, making it the second party to express presidential candidate.

?Lumbini to be developed as centre for world peace?

The Rising Nepal, May 24, 2005

LUMBINI, Nepal -- Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and Chairman of the Lumbini Development Trust Buddhi Raj Bajracharya has conceded the Lumbini Master Plan designed for the integrated development of Lumbini area has been unable to catch up momentum.

Duechhen Ngazom observed

By Rinzin Wangchuk, Kuensel Online, May 25, 2005

Timphu, Bhutan -- Thousands of devotees received blessings from the Neten Chudrug (16 Arhats, disciples of Lord Buddha) Thongdroel at a sacred ceremony conducted by His Holiness the Je Khenpo to celebrate Duechhen Ngazom (Lord Buddha?s Maha-parinirvana) on May 23.

Kudung Chorten of Geshey Geduen Rinchen consecrated

By Rinzin Wangchuk, Kuensel Online, May 25, 2005

Timphu, Bhutan -- The Kudung of the 69th Je Khenpo, His Holiness Geshey Geduen Rinchen, was installed in the Kudung Chorten which will now be kept as the Machhen (inner sanctum) of the Rangjung Lhakhang in the Utse of Tashichhodzong.

Invoking Buddha to save the big cats

by Dinesh C. Sharma, Bangkok Post, May 23, 2005

The poaching of tigers from supposedly protected areas in India has got so bad that the Dalai Lama has thrown his weight behind a campaign aimed at changing attitudes among Tibetan expats in that country and in Nepal

New Delhi, India -- Tigers in India are today found more in newspaper pages than in jungles. It is known that the population in wildlife parks and reserves is shrinking but few could have imagined that the situation was so grim that not a single tiger would be sighted even in showpiece tiger reserves such as Sariska.

Establishment of the Sri Lanka Sangha Sabha

Lanka Daily News, May 20, 2005

Colombo, Sri Lanka -- August 26, 2001 marked another milestone in Dhammadutta work in the South East Asian region. For the first time in modern history, Sri Lankan monks on Dhammadutta mission outside Sri Lanka have deemed it fit to organise themselves under one sangha umbrella group to work together for the betterment of the society with the guidance of the Buddha Sasana.

Sri Lankan city calm after unrest over Buddhist statue

AP, May 20, 2005

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Shops opened and buses plied their routes in Sri Lanka's volatile east Friday after three days of protests and explosions that killed at least one person.

Buddhist monk convicted of sex abuse dies

by SHIMALI SENANAYAKE, Associated Press, May 17, 2005

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- A monk drank poison and later died after becoming the first Buddhist clergyman to be convicted of the sexual abuse of a child in Sri Lanka, court officials and police said.

Buddhist monk ingests poison in Sri Lanka

By Shimali Senanayake, Associated Press Writer, May 16, 2005

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- A monk drank poison and was rushed to a hospital Monday moments after becoming the first Buddhist clergyman to be convicted of the sexual abuse of a child in Sri Lanka, court officials and police said.