American Buddhist Net

BANGKOK - THOUSANDS of supporters of deposed Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra gathered near ministry buildings in Bankgkok on Saturday to rally against the government, sporting their signature red shirts.

Police said about 12,000 Red Shirts had arrived at a stage rigged up near a Bangkok bridge, while some 50,000 protesters had passed through military checkpoints set up at entry points to the capital throughout the day.

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VIENTIANE - Low water levels on the upper Mekong River have renewed criticism over hydropower dams China has erected on the waterway's upper reaches. Environmental groups and governments have pinned blame on China's inward-looking water management policies, although some experts say the real culprit is unusually severe drought conditions in southwestern China, northern Thailand and Laos.

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The mass protest intended to paralyse Bangkok and topple the Thai Government began at exactly 12.12 pm today with a huge round of applause followed by the sound of gongs and Buddhist chanting.

Anti-government protesters from the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship gathered in their thousands at strategic locations around the country ready to start streaming toward central Bangkok.

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BANGKOK: Thailand will imprison and hand out heavy fines to any migrant workers who attend mass anti-government rallies in Bangkok this weekend, the labour minister said Tuesday.

Migrants would be subject to a five-year jail term and fines of up to 100,000 baht (US$3,100) if found among protesters loyal to fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra who are due to gather in the capital on Sunday.

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At least 20,000 Buddhist monks nationwide will take part in the planned anti-government rally in Bangkok next Friday, red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) prominent member Arisman Pongruangrong said on Saturday.

"The monks from different temples such as Dhammakaya and Kaew Fah will join this mass rally to give moral support to the red shirts while reminding the government, police and army officials who serve the elite bureaucrats not to harm the protesters," Mr Arisman said.

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Thais are struggling to find ways to cope with social problems caused by rising crime rates, the economic slump and political unrest.

Increasingly, stressed-out people seek solace in the teachings of the Lord Buddha, and are visiting Buddhist meditation retreats to pursue their interest. Practising dhamma is no longer limited to the elderly, as many young people are now taking a greater interest in studying and practising Buddhist teachings.

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Bangkok - Millions of Thai Buddhists celebrated on 28 February, the day of Magha Puja, which celebrates the values of peace and purification of the spirit taught by Buddha to his first disciples. The festival took place just days after the conviction for corruption and abuse of power of former premier Thaksin, on 26 February that has renewed the risk of riots and tensions in the country. The former premier is accused of having pocketed more than 1.7 billion euros from public funds and bribery and is now in exile in the UAE.

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Thai government has rejected visa for Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama's sister Jetsun Pema who was scheduled to give a speech at a cultural event this weekend.

Thai Foreign Ministry said the rejection was decided out of fear that the Jetsun Pema, a younger sister of Dalai Lama, would use the visit to deliver a political message and that would certainly upset China.

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Millions of Thai Buddhists yesterday took part in candlelight circumambulation ceremonies at temples and grand Buddha images across the country to mark Makha Bucha Day.

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A Thai princess' intricate paintings of classic realism and surrealistic fantasy are on view at Paragon for the next month

The 79-year-old daughter of His Royal Highness Prince Chumbhot of Nagor Svarga and MR Pantip Paribatra has spent most of her life abroad and is little known in her homeland, but she is internationally celebrated and has often shown her work in Paris and Provence.

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Thailand is braced for violence after the country's supreme court seized almost £1 billion of exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's assets after finding him guilty of abusing his power.

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Security tightened at homes of Supreme Court judges, sensitive Bangkok sites

Thailand's Supreme Court has ruled that former PM Thaksin Shinawatra's family should be stripped of more than half a contested $2.3bn fortune.

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Behind every great fortune there is a crime. Honore de Balzac French novelist (1799-1850). From what I can tell from a little searching, it seems that the original quote, which comes from Le Père Goriot (1835), is actually: Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu'il a été proprement fait. Which translates as: "The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed." The more common English rendition has probably become more common because it is shorter and probably truer. ABN

The Thamkrabok Monastery in Saraburi, Thailand, runs a detox program where both Thais and foreigners alike experience a very natural Buddhist approach to drug rehabilitation. People can only take the program once and must make a sacred vow, or Sajja, not to use intoxicating substances. For the first 5 days addicts use an herbal medicine that facilitates a rapid detoxification. Addicts are expected to stay at least a week at the monastery after they make their vow, but are welcome to reside at the monastery longer until they feel mentally and physically cleansed.

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Sanitsuda Ekachai

It says a lot about our country when the day we chose to expel millions of destitute migrant workers to face violent oppression back in Burma is the same day as Macha Bucha Day. Macha Bucha is the day the Lord Buddha set forth the fundamental principles of his teachings: abstain from all evil, cultivate good, and cleanse our mind of impurities.

Being human, we stray. But on Macha Bucha Day, we should at least try to abstain from all forms of violence, give to the needy, and meditate on the laws of impermanence to let go of our egoistic attachment - if we still consider ourselves Buddhists, that is.

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BANGKOK, Thailand - Thailand has seized two tons of elephant tusks from Africa hidden in pallets labeled as mobile phone parts in the country's largest ivory seizure.

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A Bangkok sexual reassignment surgeon shares the graphic details behind these complex procedures.

Monika Weiss, 29, from San Francisco, California, sits in the Preecha Aesthetic Institute in Bangkok comparing two different kinds of vagina. "They can invert what's there, and put it inside. It's called a penile inversion. That is about US$8,000 dollars here in Thailand," she says. "They have another procedure, where they use a piece of your colon to create a vagina." That costs $20,000, Weiss says.

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TRAT, Thailand, Feb 23, 2010 (IPS) - When the conversation here shifts to domestic violence, even the way a woman got pregnant becomes an issue of concern, particularly if the price for bearing a child means getting infected with HIV.

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Coconut oil has been used to cure illness for over 4,000 years, and even today the very complex diseases, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes are actually or potentially treated through the use of this oil, according to an Ayurvedic scripts in Sanskrit.

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Last week Web page J-cast (Jan. 25) reported that a Japanese confection claiming to enhance breast size is stirring trouble overseas.

The F-cup cookie, whose package shows a curvy female torso in a pink, low-cut dress overlain by the bold text “F-cup,” has generated concern over advertising policies and highlighted differences in national pharmaceutical laws.

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Shelved for three years for fear of facing a ban, a Thai temple thriller featuring gun-toting monks is getting a release and has become a case study of the still-confusing rating system

Fake monks, real monks; it's hard to tell one from the other. Tonsured men wrapped in the saffron robes of Buddhist monks swagger like cocky gangsters around a temple, then point guns at other monks' heads, swear and scold blithely, and one of them even brings a woman into his room in broad daylight.

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Some governments are warning their nationals that it might be best to avoid Bangkok over the next couple of weeks.

Amidst rumours of a coup and two attempted bombings in the past two days, tension has been rising in the Thai capital.

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More than three years after director Phawat Panangkasiri called out "it's a wrap," and cast and crew of the movie toasted the completion of filming, crime drama "Nak Prok" ("The Shadow of the Naga") is finally coming to Thai cinemas in its original version. It's being released uncut with two ratings, Rate 18+ with pop ups and Rate 20 without, meaning that it contains strong language and violent scenes involving a monk with a gun that might offend those with strict Buddhist principles.

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...Sukarno and Osama are just two of a growing mass of undereducated and underemployed Malay Muslims embedded in a culture of drugs. Rather than practice a pious life in this region once dubbed as the "cradle of Islam" in Southeast Asia, many underprivileged young men are turning to substances such as 4 x 100, marijuana and methamphetamines to cope with daily life in this low-intensity war zone.

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Militants shot dead two soldiers and beheaded their corpses Tuesday in the latest gruesome attack in Thailand's restive south, police said.

The two soldiers were providing a security escort to teachers on Tuesday afternoon when armed militants ambushed their vehicle in the Ruso district of Narathiwat province.

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U Thuzana, abbot of Myaing Gyi Ngu monastery in Karen State and a co-founder of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), is being treated in a Bangkok hospital for an undisclosed lung problem.

The controversial abbot was admitted last Tuesday to the city's Bumrungrad private hospital.

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BANGKOK, Thailand — In the age of growing Chinese influence, there’s a simple measure of a country’s willingness to test China’s wrath. Will they stamp the Dalai Lama’s passport?

Add Thailand to the shrinking list of nations that won’t.

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A US Marine drinks the blood of a cobra during a jungle survival programme as part of the annual combined military exercise Cobra Gold 2010 at a Navy base in Thailand's Chonburi province on February 9. About 14,000 military personnel from six nations, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, US, Singapore and Japan, are involved in the largest US-led war games in the Pacific that ends on February 11.

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TAIPING, PERAK: A Thai monk walks 20 kilometres on barefoot a day to remind those who pursue a material life to protect and concern about mother nature.

Master Jinshen started his journey from Hat Yat and arrived at Simpang on Sunday (31 Jan). After staying in Simpang for a night, he started to walk again the next day. He was heading to Singapore, Indonesia and Australia.

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We all know Thailand loves Doraemon, but this story lifts the anime doll's celebrity status to new heights. According to recent Thai media reports, a woman in Ayudha spent 200,000 baht for an elaborate Thai Buddhist funeral for a Doraemon doll that concluded last week.

Yes, that's right, a stuffed doll. Blog Xomba posted an English version of the reports, noting that Plubplueng Ngamchareon, a 48-year-old Thai woman, received the famous blue Japanese anime character from a Buddhist monk when she was in the hospital being treated for cancer three years ago.

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The great Buddha statues of Sukhothai summon visitors from across the centuries

An uncommon devotion to their faith has taken many Thai Buddhists on pilgrimages to temples across the country and to Laos and Burma to learn more about the history of the religion and the art that celebrates it.

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