Buddha Bar Brouhaha
Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry has alerted all missions in Europe to investigate the Buddha Bar chain of restaurants and bars. This is at a time when the Defence Secretary says there ongoing LTTE activity abroad. Sri Lanka is one of the last bastions of Theravada Buddhism, but this type of lame identity politics is unbecoming. Akon was recently prevented from entering Sri Lanka for five seconds in a music video showing models dancing in front of a Buddha statue. The international Buddha Bar chain basically makes a practice of this, so it’s gotten the attention of the government. It’s curious as to why this is a priority now.
Identity Politics
On one level, identity politics is a cheap way of scoring points. People can look like they’re defending Buddhism and the country without actually doing anything. Tamil Nadu politicians employ the same empty rhetoric for the Sri Lankan Eelam question and Arab politicians for the issue of Palestine. Neither actually does much about, or at least nothing commensurate with the amount of noise.
Sri Lanka is still a small player on the international stage and this may be one way to try and make ourselves heard. While this is only news of the weird in the west, however, it can make front pages here. That, I think, is the point. The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka has no legal sway over France, nor particular influence, so when he says he’ll take action, it’s an empty threat. He does, however, get headlines in Sri Lanka as a defender of the faith.
Aside from wasting man hours in every European mission, there is not particular cost to this endeavor. There is also no particular benefit, at least in terms of the goals they say about. Namely, defending Buddhism. What they don’t say, however, is that this is really about defending a particular identity.
Tilting At Windmills
In that sense, these seemingly Quixotic jousts make sense. In that story the man is tilting at windmills, but even that can have a symbolic value. Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by Hindus, Muslims and repeatedly colonized by Christians. It is also beset by Western culture, much of which it accepts blindly (tea, cricket, chili – brought from South America, and even modern Buddhism – assembled much by Colonel Alcott). There are certain things which we don’t accept, however, and that difference gives us some identity, much as the waves beating on our shores mark us as an island.
So this latest issue, while it is really just making waves, is part of the broader identity politics that is the teething of this still young island. The people of the Buddha Bar must by like WTF and the staff at the missions must be like OMG but average people can be like, ah, I’m Buddhist and these politicians are letting the world know. Or at least the politicians can tell them that in the press and campaign rallies. Whether they believe I do not know.
Positive PR
Personally, I think there are better ways to communicate and share our Buddhism with the world. And, indeed, defend it. Right now the main impression the world has of us is related to the war. The dissonance between that violence and the impression of Buddhism as a peaceful faith is probably one to address.
There is something of a military-Buddhist complex, however, and many monks have been among the most vociferous supporters of the war. The faith itself, however, is full of compassion and a great many Buddhist clergy and faithful have helped and mourned for the dead. If that was public through some kinda ceremony that might be good PR. I do remember that Sarvodaya did a mass meditation for peace a while back.
Furthermore, Buddhist meditation has documented neurological affects, basically chilling people out, something like the Buddha Bar CDs. There are conferences and papers on this subject, which Sri Lanka could contribute to more. For all the somewhat ritualistic common practice, Sri Lankan monasteries and retreats still support a great many dedicated meditators and priests and have the capacity for more.
There is a great interest in Buddhism in the west, but that is precisely because it’s perceived as being above the petty squabbles and offenses of other religions. In our fumbling way of projecting identity, however, we’re projecting the opposite. For a faith based on the non-existence of self, we might want to go easy on the identity politics.
“Sri Lanka is still a small player on the international stage ” Hey who cares about size?? We’ll show ‘em, we’ll show ‘em good.
folks i have only one question & i wanna ask it in Sinhalese: ????? ??? ??? ?????? other than going around checking buddha bars & wasting time, why can’t they think of a consistent plan to promote investments? what about using the diplomatic machinery to promote SL as an emerging modern and open-minded society, open for international business?
The slightest common sense would make one understand that the priority today is to open up, and not to close ourselves with this kind of silly carry on…
Buddhism is a religion like any other, and what’s the big deal? let Buddhists do whatever they like with it, and if Akon or whoever wants do dance around a Buddha statue, so what? it doesn’t do anything to Buddhist philosophy, Buddhist values and ideals….
This is all what foolish boys and girls do to gain political milage….but what they forget is that being a bit more tactful and futuristic would be immensely beneficial for them in the long run….
I think that as a country we need to stand up for what we think is right and what we think is wrong. True, Sri Lanka is a small country and could do with international investment, but should we not stand up for what we think is right? When the Kandyans gave Sri Lanka over to the British, they might have thought just as you do, anything from the west is great, and standing up for what we think is right and what we think is wrong, will damage our reputation. The voice from the “civilised” West must be obeyed.
At the end of the day, if we don’t respect ourselves and our values nobody will!
The best way to respect our values and get others to respect them is by demonstrating through practice our own sincere adherence to those values. Imposing said values on foreign countries and demanding they adhere to values we happily ignore at home isn’t the way to do it.
oops can’t see the Sinhala characters on my comment above.What i meant was ‘munta wena wada nadda?’
Indi, agree with most general points, but given your point about noise to action ratio, I just can’t believe anyone is serious about going down this road, unless of course some idiot at the top is personally getting brownie points out of this little trip at the cost of the country’s image.
We unfortunately don’t have a monopoly on absurdity. Attacking Buddha Bars in Paris to defend Buddhism in Sri Lanka is no more absurd than David Miliband going to a London Ealarm conference to promote human rights in Sri Lanka.
Just after the Akon fiasco, I posted Buddha Emblem Zippo Lighter At ODEL, Is This What People Light Their Joints With In Sri Lanka?
I think they are still selling the lighter. Perhaps we should send him a list of Buddha stuff, like Buddha lounges in San Francisco, Buddha bars in Thailand, Buddha restaurant in Tokyo, and I could go on while he spends his term making a mockery of himself and the country.
[...] reports that the Sri Lankan government is investigating the Buddha Bar international chain of restaurants [...]
Indi, you said that this new pastime of our PM has “no cost” apart from wasting the time of European missions. If he carries out these idiotic ideas to even to certain extent, then there is a cost! as pointed out by Magerata. These kind of things make a mockery of Buddhism, the Island and all its citizens. We become the laughing stock. Buddhism, supposed to be an inward looking religion is expected to ignore the mundane outward looking matters like these. We as a country, destroying that image of Buddhism that westerners already have, is pathetic.
Buddhism, the theravada form at least, in practice has never ever been an inward looking religion. It is in practice nothing more than idolatry. The sparkling symbols of sri lankan Buddhism has for the longest time been a dead persons tooth and a dying tree. So much for anithya & anathma, now that is pathetic.
Well the sparkling symbol of Sri Lankan Christianity is a statue in Madhu… (and I thought Christianity preached against idolatory?)
The sparkling symbol of Sri Lankan Hinduism is a stone shaped like a penis in Nallur
And the sparkiling sumbol Sri Lankan Islam is a dead man’s grave down south…
So what?
My comment was supposed to be in response to ritigala’s post, but i’ll say a couple of more things. What have the other religions got to do with this? the point is that Buddhism in it’s practical form has never ever been an intellectually superior religion. So holding the current generation of Buddhists to non existing standards of intellectual depth is naive, the current generation is doing the same old silly things their ancestors were doing.
So Buddhists are just like Christians, Hindus, Muslims etc… so what’s your problem? Worshipping a magical fairy tale creature in the sky, or a stone penis, or a dead man’s grave is hardly any superior to venerating a tree. Next time Sri Lankan Christians are bowning, scraping and fawning over the cement statue of one or another Catholic saint, let’s see you there proclaiming your intellectual superiority…
Eh!
Nav, you’re missing Dodo’s point by a Hambantota mile. This isn’t a comparison between religions. Sri Lankan Roman Catholicism (which you mistake as representative of Christianity), Islam, or Hinduism, isn’t trying to portray itself as the defenders of its particular religion. However, Sri lankan Buddhism IS trying to police the world where Buddhism is concerned. So the point is, if one is going to set oneself up as the defenders of a religion, one should make sure that that defence isn’t itself contrary to the precepts of the religion in point, if one is to not corrupt the image of that religion, which is what one has originally attempted to defend.
Your dad is a Christian priest, so of course you are going to be testy about anything like this aren’t you :) The Catholic Church has been trying to police the world ever since it was established by imposing its morals on everyone else. It’s even trying to do it today and the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka is no different to that which sits at Vatican city – telling people in SL that using contraception is somehow being anti-Christian, campaigning to ban movies like The Da Vinci Code, excommunicating whole families because someone converted out of Christianity, speaking for the LTTE etc etc. This while Catholic priests are abusing little boys left and right. No moral outcry over that? It’s the same with every single other Christian Church (anglican, methodist, baptist), trying to impose its morals on everyone else while being corrupt to the core. Sri Lankan Christians are hardly the folks who should be pointing fingers at others; they are as morally bankrupt and hypocritical as other Sri Lankans.
Ever heard of the saying ‘koheda yanne? malle pol”
Oh dear, Nav. Forgot to take your pills today? If you were able to read and comprehend English, you’d have noted that no one is trying to defend any religion here except you. You also seem unaware of the distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestant Christianity. In addition, pointing to the faults of other religions isn’t a defence of your own. The point here isn’t that SL Buddhists are attempting to become the Taleban of Buddhism, you may be that if you wish; the point is that if you ARE attempting to defend your faith, you must ensure that you don’t destroy that faith in the attempt, or corrupt it — and that is exactly what is being done. The Roman Catholics protest of the Da Vinci Code — while dumb — isn’t contrary to RC beliefs. Should I use smaller words and shorter sentences, or were you able to grasp that?
Personally, I don’t really care that SL Buddhists are making Buddhism into a worldwide joke, nor would I care if SL Christians did the same. What I do care is that the PM is making an idiot of himself, and thereby making my country a laughing stock. Shoot yourself in the foot on your own time please.