Buddhism

In one of his most talked-about lectures, Buddhist monk Ashin Nyanissara tells the legend of a king who ruled more than 2,500 years ago. The king believed that spitting on a hermit brought him good fortune. At first, it worked like a charm, but before long his realm was annihilated under a rain of fire, spears and knives.

Never call the practice of classical Shaolin kung fu a "performance," says American photographer Justin Guariglia, whose new book, "Shaolin: Temple of Zen," takes the reader into the cloistered world of the monks who uphold the tradition in China's 1,500-year-old Shaolin Temple. The correct term, says Guariglia, is "demonstration."

On a cloudless day near the top of the world, Swiss tourist Claude Balsiger had just finished a late-morning cup of tea and stepped out onto the streets of Tibet's capital. Buddhist monks had been marching against Chinese rule all week, but today seemed calmer. Suddenly, Tibetan youths started hurling paving stones at police, who tried to protect themselves with their riot shields.

As the world's most famous Buddhist, the Dalai Lama is a monk juggling two jobs. One is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, and the other is the political head of his government in exile. He was chosen to serve these dual callings through an arcane process based on signs that he was reincarnated from a long line of Dalai Lamas who were considered embodiments of the Buddha of Compassion, the holder of the White Lotus.

After a two-year legal battle with the city of Garden Grove, a Vietnamese Buddhist congregation has won a settlement paving the way for a 10,000-square-foot temple to be built on the site of a former medical building -- a spot the city had claimed was inappropriate for a church.

The story of how a man named Johnny Rhondo, the self-titled grand master of the Church of the Revelation, came to hold the charter to Long Beach's oldest Cambodian Buddhist temple is a curious one. The Buddhist wat on East 20th Street is the beloved, if dilapidated, nucleus for the nation's largest Cambodian community, co-founded by the late actor Haing S. Ngor and served by monks known to hew closely to ancient tradition.

Buddhist villagers in southern Thailand, outraged over the inadequate security in the area, confronted the army chief with the charred body of a woman killed by Muslim insurgents. The demonstration was the latest sign of fraying tempers among Buddhists in the deep south, the only place dominated by Muslims in overwhelmingly Buddhist Thailand. A Muslim insurgency in the south has claimed more than 2,000 lives in the last three years.

Nearly 3,000 people, mostly Buddhists from around the world, gathered in Yorba Linda on Saturday to take part in a fiery 1,300-year-old purification ritual that organizers say has never been open to the public. The Shinnyo-en Order of Japan held the annual Saito Homa Fire Ritual Service at its temple in the 18000 block of Bastanchury Road instead of the usual site in Tokyo. "The rite's evolution toward becoming open ... has been a journey," the Rev.

In a historic action, top leaders of five great religions met this month in Indonesia -- home to 200 million Muslims -- to condemn violence inflicted in the name of religion. The leaders representing Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim traditions came from five countries and included former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid and Los Angeles Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.