[Buddha-l] Religious violence, Buddhist violence

[JKirkpatrick]

Denizens, 

Informative piece (appended inline) which illustrates one aspect
of a non-monastic, pacifist tradition and does make one curious
about the relative few in number of their denomination in the
Occident today. This triggered speculation on asceticism as well
as "proselytizing by example", among other flights of fancy. 

Richard Basham

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8467833.stm

 JK:
Reminded me that the great American Quaker vernacular painter of
some 61 versions of his Peaceable Kingdom idea in pictures,
Edward Hicks, was also a coach painter and a sign painter. He
tried being a preacher but wasn't successful, as for one thing he
made too much money from business to satisfy the Quakers with
whom he consorted.  After he left off preaching, he returned to
painting and was able to support his wife and numerous children.

The Wikipedia article about him is in error in citing the Noah's
ark theme from the Bible as the inspiration for his paintings of
mixed animals in the peaceable kingdom. Instead, it was clearly
based on verses from Isaiah 11:6-8.

Buddhist content: While visiting temples in northern Thailand, at
Wat Phra That Haripunjaya in Lamphun town, quite by lucky
accident I found a Buddhist depiction of a peaceable kingdom in
the wall paintings of a small side temple located near the main
temple in the compound. It was part of the temple's mural
illustrations of the Phra Malai story.  A Thai archaeologist,
Professor Prateep Chumpol, explained that  "The age of the
building might not be similar to the painting. It should be older
since conservation and restoration in the old days were not so
good. It is possible that this painting might be on top of the
old damaged one. ...The painting [was probably] done around the
year 1957." The picture resembles many of Hicks's peaceable
kingdom pictures in representing humans of different ethnicities
(in Hicks these are Quaker merchants and Delaware Indians) in the
foreground, and animals of different species including leopards
and elephants (predators and prey) in the background, with a cow
to far right--all on the same side of a large river that winds
into the distance. (Hicks's arrangement is the reverse, with
animals and the baby Jesus in the foreground.) 

Difference of ethnicity can, under certain circumstances, signify
political contention and war, as difference in general can
rhetorically suggest contention. Included in the mix of peoples
is a blond male westerner in blue jeans, shaking hands with a
sarong-wearing southeast Asian person (unknown if man or woman).
An African shaking hands with a turbaned Sikh with sword dangling
at his side are also discernible.   Above all, the Buddha,
floating in the heavens on a lotus blossom, oversees his
peaceable kingdom where humans and animals are quiet and
non-destructive. So this is a modern vernacular painting in a
much older Buddhist chapel. I would love to know when this motif
entered Thai vernacular art. Sadly, I've not yet read Bonnie
Pacala Brereton, _Thai Tellings of Phra Malai: Texts and Rituals
Concerning a Popular Buddhist Saint_. Tempe, Arizona: Arizona S U
Program for Southeast Asian Studies, 1995.
This painted scene was to the altar's right (viewer's left), and
was the culmination of various pictures showing the torments of
the hells on various sinners, that started to the altar's left
and ran around the three walls.