[Buddha-l] RE: UNESCO Vesak

[Tyler Cann]

Hi Gary,
The Unesco Vesak celebrations should be quite good this year.  I may be able to go if my uni sponsors me, but I'm not holding my breath.  I know that it's being organized by VBU, who tends to have first class people running things.  The Chairman of the organizing committee is my friend and personal hero, Ven. Le Manh That (Thich Tri Sieu) (if you don't know who he is, PLEASE check out http://www.hdvnbtdt.org/article.php3?id_article=111.)  As you probably know, the conference has been held for the last several years in Bangkok and organized by Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya, my uni. I can tell you that I personally put more faith into Le Manh That and his people than my disorganized, frenzied institution, so I'm sure this year's conference will be great. Last year's highlights included keynote speeches by Thich Nhat Hanh and Ajahn Brahm.  My personal favorite, however, was the address by the interim Thai Prime Minister regarding good governance--
 delicious hypocrisy coming from a man who gained power through a military coup!

Where are you from?  I take it that most of the posters here are Americans.  For some reason, we never get many Americans at the UNESCO Vesak conference, and I can't imagine why--a grand olde time is had by all (except for me, of course, as I am usually stuck in some back room writing press releases and frantically editing speeches).  We get the best scholars in Asia-- all the Thais, Vietnamese, Burmese, Taiwanese, Laotians, Cambodians, Japanese (though the Chinese refuse to attend b/c we invite the Taiwanese).  We get a lot of great Brits, too (Gombrich and Gethin usually show up) but very few people from the States.  It's curious that we don't get a lot of Vajrayanists nor scholars from America, a Vajrayana-obsessed country.  I'm not implying anything here, just wondering.

Tyler




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