[Buddha-l] RE: The mess at Bodh Gaya

[jkirk]

In fact, this very situation occurs regularly around the world at World
Heritage sites and other formerly beautiful places. All they need is notice
in some fancy travel magazine. 

I just returned last month from travel in Laos, had been so looking forward
to the quiet, peaceful little town of Luang Prabang. Just after we arrived
in the capital, Vienchaan, I heard that L.P. had been featured not only in
fancy travel mags but also in the NYT travel section. On arrival there, the
formerly quiet and peaceful old town was overrun with tourists and on its
way to become the plastic bag capital of the state, with plastic litter
everywhere. This town is a UNESCO world Heritage site, to no avail, it
seems. Commodification is rapidly taking over.  

The worst sight was when the monks came out early morning for alms round.
The temples were sending out novices to make the rounds. The main road in
the old town was crowded with not only the locals waiting to donate rice to
the monks, but also tourists, one of whom I saw suddenly jump up and shoot
off her flash right in the face of one of the novices. She was an Asian
tourist, by the way. Meanwhile, the street itself was crammed with tourists
also flashing off their cameras at the monastic procession.The scene sure
lacked its usual decorum. I'd noticed that the novice young fellows weren't
all that disciplined, in that some were sort of looking around as they
marched down the pavement. Boys will be boys? I doubt if they were awfully
upset by the tourist zoo, and wondered if that was why they were mainly sent
out to fetch alms. (When I watched an ordinary alms round from a hotel
restaurant window in Bangkok, back in the 80s, it was ordained monks on the
march, not just novices.) 

The plastic bag menace is worldwide, to the extent of a thousands of
miles-wide soup of plastic junk circulating in the Pacific Ocean.
Development takes place wrapped in plastic.

No cheers,
Joanna
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To those of you interested in the Bodhgaya story I have been following the
Bodhgaya story and others for some years at: 

www.bodhgayanews.net

The mess is not just over the temple management, but also the wholesale
destruction of Bodhgaya itself in the name of 'beautification' and
development.

I believe it can be seen as a paradigm for the issues which Buddhism faces
in an era of globalisation.

It demonstrates the ways in which global interests impact on local
conditions and creat conflicts between how local people, national interests
and international interests want to develop Buddhist sites.

regards

Peter Friedlander

 

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