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Amazonian

Bar owner sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for a psychedelic Buddha poster

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Phil Blackwood, center, of New Zealand, manager of a Yangon bar that used a poster of Buddha wearing headphones to promote an event, is sentenced to 2½ years in prison on March 17.

http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-myanmar-bar-buddha-prison-20150317-story.html

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Poor guy, i think its pretty harsh...2 1/2 years in prison .

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Edited by Amazonian

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as if buddha would give a fuck

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Power tripping control freaks!

So there police beat student protestors also,, shame.

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I notice the other Myanma owners weren't arrested, only the foreigner. Hopefully sense will prevail.

Incidentally, "Gastro"-bar?

2n19sub.gif

(...I'm joking :-)

$20 bottomless margeritas sound all-right though!

Edited by antonsyd
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That is so fucking dumb my brain now hurts just from reading about it... :scratchhead::BANGHEAD2:

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I'm generally pretty into what Gautama the buddha was all about.. But for the record most so called "Buddhism" practiced in the world is a load of utterly bastardized ideological codswallop thats been manipulated for centuries for political control just like every other major religion.

That said, if i were in myanmar at the moment i'd be damn careful of how i represented any religious figures.. The buddhists & muslims have been slaughtering eachother like psychotic retards in recent times.. Religiously & politically things are seriously fucked up there right now.

As messed up as these sentances are, you have to be pretty ignorant to be living there running a business & not be aware that people are extremely sensitive regarding religion in these times

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That said, if i were in myanmar at the moment i'd be damn careful of how i represented any religious figures.. The buddhists & muslims have been slaughtering eachother like psychotic retards in recent times.

it's interesting to hear these "hard line buddhists" justify the killing of muslims, i heard one liken them to rabid dogs who needed to be put down. certainly not in the spirit or letter of the buddhist cannon which i've read

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Pretty much agree with all the above. My dhamma teacher has a great article/talk floating around online about the destruction of the Buddhas in Bamiyan. He basically says its all about the content not the container. You can destroy or deface all the Buddha imagery in the world, (same with any culture/religion) and it will never make any difference because what matters is the message not the packaging it comes in. And besides, the Buddha would cringe if he saw the way his images are worshipped today in place of his teachings.

Edit - but yeah, as paradox said above....when in Rome do as the romans do. A little cultural sensitivity wouldn't hurt.

Edited by Cubism
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i think its pretty harsh...2 1/2 years in prison .

I dont think its harsh. For a couple reasons, in concert...

In southeast asia (not just Myanmar) its been illegal to deface images of the buddha for a LONG time. I'm sure you've all seen the cultural meme of a buddha head. The way that came about was theiving foreigners hundreds of years ago went to southeast asia to loot cultural treasures, well whole statues were too heavy to haul out of the jungle and too heavy to ship to england, et al. so these foreign pirates went around the jungles snapping heads off thousand year old buddha statues to take home and sell for $$$. When the people of southeast asia got independence they wanted to stop that shit, and they went one step further and made it illegal to clean your shoes on a buddha statue, etc. as it was a supreme insult to their threatened native culture. This guy didnt get an abnormal sentence, in thailand foreigners are routinely jailed under those laws. Soldiers from my country think its great fun to urinate on a buddha statue and spit beer on pictures of the king. Genuinely apologizing will typically get them out of jail (tho they might have to wait a few months for an audience with the king, lol.)

They act like the guy couldnt have known it was wrong. Well 1, everybody and the fleas on their dog knows that music and getting drunk isnt what the buddha supported, even lay practitioners cant do that when visiting temples. 2, he should have known at least the extreme basic 'its in the damn tour pamphlet' rules of the country. 3, the guy asked someone if it was ok. That means he knew it wasnt and just wanted to see how far he could legally offend people.

With how much the west has savaged those countries can you blame them for wanting a bit of respect?

as if buddha would give a fuck

:lol: [because the Buddha was celibate]

the Buddha would cringe if he saw the way his images are worshipped today in place of his teachings.

Its an interesting historical point that in the Buddhas life and for hundreds of years after his death no image of the buddha was made.

The most ancient strata of stone carvings would represent him as a tree (for enlightenment), or a set of footprints (for the jhanas), I think there are a few that use a flame (for the teaching he gave to fire worshipers). So its a bit ironic that people worship the image, particularly since he didnt look like that (the suttas make it very clear he was clean shaven- the baby dreadlocks were to impress vedic scholars who thought that was a sign of 'an auspicious man. Another sign is a foreskin that fully covers the head of the penis, be glad the statue has a robe) he also didnt have that bun on his head, its a vestigial turban from the imported greek sculptors that started the statue tradition).

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