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Table of Contents

1. RESOURCE> Visualization of Zotero Buddhist Studies Bibliography with VOSviewer: New Version released
2. Re: QUERY> Burma crisis, Buddhist crisis
3. LECTURE> "Recentering Buddhist Cosmology," University of Calgary, Numata Program
4. Re: QUERY> Burma crisis, Buddhist crisis
5. Re: QUERY> Burma crisis, Buddhist crisis

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RESOURCE> Visualization of Zotero Buddhist Studies Bibliography with VOSviewer: New Version released

by Charles Muller

Dear Colleagues,
A couple of months ago I introduced the software package VOSviewer, which generates visualization images of bibliographical and other kinds of data. At that time, VOSviewer had a serious bug such that it could not properly render diacritics and other non-roman scripts. The newly released version has corrected this:
http://www.vosviewer.com/download
When I get some spare moments, I'll generate some new visualizations for your perusal from our Zotero Buddhist Studies bibliography.
Regards,
Chuck

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Re: QUERY> Burma crisis, Buddhist crisis

by Ven. Pandita

Dear Magnus,
I am a Burmese Buddhist monk and Buddhologist, at present living abroad. I have a sort of answer to the second part of your question: "what debate there has been within Burmese Buddhism, if any?" about the Rohingya crisis.
Actually, very little. There are several reasons for this complacence (I shall use the term "Burmese" in the following to refer to non-Rohingya natives, including the Burmese majority, of Burma):
1) The Burmese do not really trust the international voice (especially the media) concerning this issue. Why? During the tenure of the previous government, there were several NGOs and INGOs working in the specific area. Many of those organizations chose to support Rohingyas but entirely neglected non-Rohingya natives in the same area, who might be lawful citizens of Burma but whose living conditions are not any better than those of the Rohingyas. That policy (whether right or wrong) has led the local natives to view the international community as biased in favor of the Rohingyas. This view, in turn, has led them to view the present crisis as a sort of international conspiracy, a ploy to blackmail Burma into accepting those stateless people (whom no other country would like to welcome) as citizens.
2) The Burmese do not actually trust the official propaganda either. Whatever information the government gets has come from the military, over which the elected civilian government has no real control. If the military has done terrible things to the Rohingyas, this is not news—because the army has done such terrible things to other ethnic tribes, as well as to the Burmese majority itself, again and again over many years. Yet, why have the Rohingyas alone enjoyed such extensive international attention and compassion? This rather puzzles the Burmese people.
3) The attitude of "non-responsibility." Thanks to the prevailing (2008) constitution, the military is not under the control of the elected civilian government. For the Burmese, the military is not the defender of the people. On the contrary, people believe they must survive or progress despite the military. Given such a circumstance, they cannot take responsibility for whatever mistakes the military has made.
This is even more the case for Buddhist monks. Since the day Burma gained independence from British rule, monks have voluntarily given up the right to vote. The reason? If they exercise the right to vote like lay persons, they must also take moral responsibility for the mistakes of a government they have voted for, and they do not want that responsibility. Therefore, in this case, even if the military was under the full control of the elected government, Buddhist monks would still refuse to take responsibility for whatever mistakes the military has made.
Just food for thought.
Ven. Pandita (Burma)
Postgraduate Institute of Pali and Buddhist Studies
University of Kelaniya
Sri Lanka

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LECTURE> "Recentering Buddhist Cosmology," University of Calgary, Numata Program

by Wendi Adamek

The Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies, University of Calgary is pleased to present
“Recentering Buddhist Cosmology: Concepts of Geographic Space in Ritual and Art”

By Dr. Eric Huntington
(Postdoctoral Fellow, Ho Center for Buddhist Studies, Stanford University)

One of the most common functions of religion is cosmology—explaining the origin, structure, and rules of the world in which we live. While scholars often study religious cosmology through literature, its true significance can only be understood by looking beyond texts to rituals, artwork, and architecture. In these forms, Buddhist traditions employ cosmological thinking in a wide variety of ways, from generating simple offerings to establishing the most esoteric meditations for enlightenment. The cosmic structure thus provides a framework for knowledge and practice far beyond merely modeling the world. This lecture both problematizes the use of textual sources for Indic cosmology and introduces several important examples of alternative cosmological thinking in ritual and artwork from India, Nepal, and Tibet.

About the Speaker:

Eric Huntington studies the relationships between visual art, ritual, and philosophy in the Buddhist traditions of Tibet, Nepal, and India. His current book examines depictions of the cosmos, revealing ways in which cosmological thinking has been an underappreciated foundation for many aspects of religious life. Huntington also works on other topics of religion and material culture, including the role of illustration in Buddhist manuscripts and the nature of embodiment in consecrated images. Prior to joining the Stanford community, he served as a Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University and received a PhD from the University of Chicago.

Friday Nov. 3, 3:00-4:30 pm, followed by reception

Department of Classics and Religion
Social Sciences 541, University of Calgary
2500 University Dr. NW
Calgary, AB T2N1N4 Canada

For more information call: 403-220-5886
https://www.ucalgary.ca/numatachair/

To receive event notices, send an email to numatach@ucalgary.ca

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Re: QUERY> Burma crisis, Buddhist crisis

by Peter Harvey

Readers may find these links of interest:
In a powerful statement, world Buddhist leaders have directly appealed the to the Myanmar Buddhist leaders to take a strong stand against hate speech and ethnic cleansing in the country. Signed by over 160 Buddhist teachers and community leaders, also call on the government and military of Myanmar, including State Counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi, to apply their full resources in support of peace and for the protection of vulnerable communities of all religions and ethnicities. According to the statement: "We are greatly disturbed by what many in the world see as slander and distortion of the Buddha’s teachings. In the Dhamma there is no justification for hatred and violence.” The full statement, together with signatories, can be found here:
https://www.lionsroar.com/open-letter-myanmars-buddhist-leaders-must-take-a-stand-against-...
Lions’ Roar magazine, Sept. 26 2107: Buddhist Churches of America shares statement on the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar
https://www.lionsroar.com/buddhist-churches-of-america-releases-message-on-the-rohingya-cr...
Lions’ Roar magazine, Oct 25 2107: Buddhist activists appeal to Myanmar’s leaders, bring aid to fleeing victims
https://www.lionsroar.com/buddhist-activists-appeal-to-myanmars-leaders-bring-aid-to-fleei...
Peter Harvey
University of Sunderland, UK

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Re: QUERY> Burma crisis, Buddhist crisis

by Magnus Fiskesjö

Hello and many thanks to Dr. Paul Fuller for suggestions, and to the Ven. Pandita, for very valuable nuance on the situation of monks in Burma. ... but, to me, what is still missing, it seems, is information on whether there is any debate within buddhism in Burma about what now seems to be a dominant genocide-supporting incitement rhetoric by Burmese Buddhists, actively supporting the dramatic escalation since August, in effect enabling the mass ethnic cleansing campaign by the Burmese army which is the most dramatic in all of this history of discrimination.
May I add that, while there is a long history of oppression of ethnic minorities in Burma, as Ven. Pandita mentions, the differences here are very stark:
1, no other ethnic groups have been systematically deprived of citizenship and related rights -- this is well explained in Cheesman's other writings, more pertinent here, http://www.newmandala.org/myanmars-national-races-trumped-citizenship/; and http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2017.1297476 ]; and,
2, no other ethnic groups, not even the Rohingya -- large numbers of whom have been driven out or put in concentration camps before -- have been mass expelled on the enormous scale of the current crisis, which stands out in world history as the worst such expulsion since Rwanda 1994. And, I still can find zero, on what the internal Buddhist debate in Burma on the Buddhist's hate-incitement speech is right now, if it exists at all.
It seems it may be fair to conclude, that while there was some debate in recent years in Burmese buddhist circles over whether to endorse killings and ethnic cleansing and so on, today in the new situation, with the mass expulsion of about six hundred thousand fellow countrymen achieved since late August, enabled by the successful extremist-ultranationalist Buddhist’s propaganda now dominating national discourse itself, and embraced and repeated by the armed forces (the main executer of the actual cleansing campaign, in cooperation with local vigilante death squads) as well as by the civilian government and its news and media operations, whatever debate existed has now been silenced, or forced underground, if it continues at all.
In this regard, what's happening looks a lot like the pattern of other historical cases of ethnic cleansing and genocides, like the Nazi, Soviets, etc.: Dissent in favor of human decency becomes impossible, because the price is too high, so potential decent voices go silent, and silence reigns as the propagandists and hardliners take charge. In addition, if one wants to sum up what we are learning, it is also that Buddhism, like Christianity, Islam or Hinduism, etc., is easily mobilized for the support of mass murder and ethnic cleansing.
Is that fair to say? It seems so.
As I said earlier, at the same time, we can indeed recognize glimmers of PAST internal Buddhist debate in the recent past, above all in the temporary silencing of the nationalist monk Wirathu by the "State Sangha Maha Nayaka," in March 2017, see: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/03/wirathu-silenced-myanmar-top-buddhist-body-170311141... and http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/opinion/today_editorial/30308936. The ban was apparently initiated after one regional government suggested it, so it may have been based on limited open dissent with the propagandists (http://elevenmyanmar.com/local/8252) and not on widespread a rebuttal?
Earlier, under the military regime, this self-described “Buddhist Bin Laden” had actually been sentenced to jail for his incitement and rhetoric, but he was let go early: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/may/12/only-takes-one-terrorist-buddhi...) And, earlier, there have been other signs of disagreement with the extremists. More is mentioned here, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/burma-myanmar/2016-07-29/myanmars-religious-problem And see: https://frontiermyanmar.net/en/abbot-u-uttara-all-suffering-in-myanmar-is-man-made But, such voices seem to be either in exile and/or have now gone silent, especially domestically, since the momentous events after August 25, 2017.
But is there only silence? That's what I was really wondering. Do some decent Buddhists still argue against the now-dominant support for ethnic cleansing? or has everyone been swept up in it (by the help of Facebook dominance, itself a highly interesting subject related to how similar waves of hatred are whipped up in other places around the world)? --Other recent smaller glimmers *indirectly* suggesting there are still people in Burma who do not bow to the genocide-style propaganda was when a beauty queen was demoted: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41480403
Magnus Fiskesjö
nf42@cornell.edu

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