Okay, “Enlightenment or bust” might be a bit dramatic, but… "Dang Zang" is an empty name. The blog has to do with the dharma; material related to Buddhist teachings (Tibetan style in particular, Kagyu in even more particular), meditation, gurus and lamas be they genuine or flaky, books and events.
I do have a more personal blog, Pica Pica, and a site for my work. Oh yes, it's by Alex Wilding
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Thursday March 5th, 2009. Posted by Alex:
This March 10 is the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule – the Chinese had invaded in the early 1950s, of course.
Repression has been particularly savage all year, hence the general cancellation of the more joyful celebrations usually associated with the new year; that in turn, has brought more repression, with one monk setting fire to himself just last week in protest. He was shot before the flames were put out, and is presumed dead, but as far as I know nobody knows what happened to the body – “taken to an undisclosed location”, as they say.
So this year I plan to join the coach going to Canberra for the speeches-and-prayers do, provided I can manage to get up at shortly after 4:00 a.m.!
I will report back!
Wednesday March 4th, 2009. Posted by Alex:
After some more “deep cleaning” I found my attempts yesterday evening to blow the bone trumpet (mouthpiece below) were seriously fuzzified by the anaesthetic. Bell, book, candle and drum were ok, so training continues.
Monday February 23rd, 2009. Posted by Alex:
After lunch at Sri Lankan restaurant Janani in Homebush (mmmm… and not a whiff of coriander, aka poison parsley, as far as I tasted) yesterday, we bought some Nag Champa in the Sri Lankan grocery store next door (treasure trove for all that ground this and parboiled that and yellow and red coloured this that and the other). Here is the box I got not long ago from our local Leung Wai Kee Buddhist Craft and Joss Stick Shop, shown with the new one underneath.
Top: Bottom:
Which is the fake that’s pretending to be the other one? If you look closely (you might have to click the pictures to get a large enough version to read properly) you’ll see even the warning messages have the same wrong grammar – and even wrong spellings!
All I can say for definite is that the upper one, with the hologram, has the familiar, heady, heavy perfume I expect from that kind of incense. The other one has similarities, but with overtones of the savage tobacco my old Uncle Len – may he rest in peace – used to put into his aluminium-stemmed pipe and smoke on a Sunday afternoon in the living room of that house not far from the Hagley Road.
Friday February 20th, 2009. Posted by Alex:
Last night SBS broadcast Murder in the Snow. Of course, when we see those figures falling into the snow, knowing that we are seeing, for instance, 17-year old nun Kelsang Namtso being shot dead, we react in the obvious way – outrage at the behaviour of the Chinese soldiers is not far away.
But there was something that struck me as worse. When we give guns to kids and young men, and tell them to go and “keep order” in an occupied territory, there will be atrocities. Think of the Americans at Mai Lai in Vietnam, in Iraq or at the Sand Creek massacre; the British in Northern Ireland (or, if you don’t find that convincing, go back to the days of the Black and Tans) or at the Amritsar massacre; the Japanese at the Nanking massacre; Rwanda; and on; and on.
What frightened me more was the mountaineers. There were about 100 of them in the party. Of those, two (yes, the number after one) of them, having witnessed the murder of defenceless, innocent civilians with their backs to the soldiers, saw it in the first place as their human duty to tell the story to the world. These were the Romanian cameraman Sergiu Matei and American mountain guide Luis Benitez. A couple of the others were more or less cornered into saying something later, which is some credit to them, but essentially the other 98 were more worried about their tourist visas and climbing permits than about state-sanctioned murder.
It is these “98ers” who stand by and let it all go wrong – but which of us can be sure that we are not amongst the 98? I’ve only just seen The Reader – was it not the 98ers who stood by and let Germany turn into Nazi Germany in the 1930s? Is it not 98ers everywhere who let bullying turn into bastardry and bastardry grow into atrocity?
The events of Murder in the Snow took place in 2006; it was the events of 2008 that I referred to a week ago, but in that connection I came across another graphic:
 (Courtesy Lhuboom/RFA)
You can get what may have better resolution from Phayul if you want to put a copy elsewhere.
Monday February 16th, 2009. Posted by Alex:
In case you don’t notice it in the listings. SBS, Thursday 19th Feb., 8:30 pm. Preview clip at the SBS website.. How Chinese border guards treat Tibetans when they don’t realize that someone is watching. Harrowing, but should be seen.
Friday February 13th, 2009. Posted by Alex:
The Tibetan New year is sometimes the same as the Chinese, but sometimes a month apart. This year, the Chinese day was the 26th January, and the Tibetan will be around 25 February. Usually, of course, it’s a time of merriment, visiting, chang-drinking, fire-crackers and so on, but this year the exile community is generally not celebrating; according to the Central Administration, the official celebrations will only comprise the customary religious programmes to mark the Tibetan New Year, “taking into consideration the continuing repression in Tibet and the ruthless crackdown last year which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Tibetans and thousands imprisoned.” See, for example articles archived at the Canada Tibet Committee or at Phayul.
PS: Here’s another relevant link, at the International Campaign for Tibet.
Thanks to Lu for spotting this one!
Tuesday May 13th, 2008. Posted by Alex:
 Us with Khandro Thrinlay Chodon (see Khachodling) and Tenzin Palmo (see Dongyu Gatsal Ling) at fundraising dinner.
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