[Buddha-l] UN Day Of Wesak conference in HaNoi

[jkirk]

http://vesakday2008.com/
 
http://vesakday2008.com/tintuc/index.php?menu=dangky
It will be held at National Convention Center & Hanoi Cultural Center May
13-16/08.

Here's another link: http://www.buddhanet.net/event02.htm
http://vesakday2008.com/tintuc/index.php?menu=detail&mid=7&nid=162  this
link takes the dates to
May 18th. 

Some tours are listed on one of these sites--but the one I am trying to get
more info about is Thay taking a group to Hue after the conference to visit
his root monastery, Tu Hieu. Some folkson thislist might like to know about
it. 
 
If May weren't one of the best months of the year where I live, garden-wise
(I do the garden every year, it's a comforting healthy project) I'd
seriously think of going, despite the big bux. Thich Naht Hanh will be there
and after the conference ends he's taking a group to Hue to visit his root
monastery, Tu Hieu. I'd sure love to be with that group. I visited this
monastery in January, it's  situated in a beautiful park setting; talked
with one of the monks whose English was very good, who said he had joined
when he was just a kid and had been there 17 years. Not only that, Hue is a
lovely quiet town, not rampagingly trafficked up like HaNoi.  
 
Here is an interesting comment from someone at Mahachulalongkorn University
who has gone to previous ones which were held in Thailand. He is surprised
so few Americans attend.
Joanna

------------------
 
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!

 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.

 

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