Council clash: Monks vs Ministers
January 8, 2009
The Buddhist Council has found an unlikely adversary in its crusade to ban “Where Elephants Weep” from national television.
THE Council of Ministers has thrown its support behind the rock opera Where Elephants Weep after Buddhist clergy asked the government to ban the show from being televised nationally due to its allegedly dishonorable presentation of monks.
“Where Elephants Weep is a modern Khmer rock opera which generated great interest from the international community, so we continue to support and encourage its performance because it promotes our culture in the world,” said spokesman and secretary of state for the Council of Ministers Phay Siphan on Tuesday after a meeting intended to settle the dispute.
“Our government knows very well that Buddhism is our state religion, and it protects it and promotes it,” he said.
The whole affair is, as Mongkol says, ridiculous. “Where Elephants Weep” is an operatic interpretation of the classic Cambodian tale Tum Teav, which has been compulsory learning for high-school students since the 1950s. Elephants, in fact, is a lot cleaner than the original.
So why do the Supreme Sangha have their robes all in a wad?
Cambodia’s clergy has been in a bit of a rough spot recently, with a few high-profile slips from chaste. The airing on national television of Tum Teav, with its overt sexual story line, may have been a little too much truth for the supreme Buddhist council to handle. Yet far from restoring the Sangha’s purity, their attempts at censorship only make them look puritanical, which is a pretty poor way of restoring the monkhood’s good reputation.
January 9, 2009 at 11:59 am
One of the principles of Buddhism is to release sufferings of people. Within this principle, Buddha had mentioned the abolishment of all desires. Instead, percentages of people who practice Buddhism have misjudged and mislead. Some of these Buddhist monks have joined and support different political parties, and have began to criticize and to attack one another as foes. This is not Buddhism.
If these monks really care about the sufferings of the people, and want to play politics, here are some suggestions:
To protest against child labor is Buddhism.
To protest against child sex trade is Buddhism.
To protest against AIDS is Buddhism.
To protest against poverty is Buddhism.
To protest in support of women’s rights is Buddhism, and the list can go on and on.
Instead, these dumb monks protest against the performing arts. This is not wise, and makes themselves look selfish. What a shame?
I ‘m wondering what on earth are these monks doing now a days, besides chanting, getting fed, and concerning themselves with their intellective impression?
If Buddha was alive right now, I bet you, he would tell these monks to drop dead and to go to hell.
January 10, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Hear hear BO. One of the key problems is that the leader of the state religion is a 100% party political apparachnik with no significant knowledge or understanding of the religion he heads. As for the rank-and-file monks themselves, there are many fine individuals.