[Buddha-l] Christendom vs Buddhism in Cambodia

[Richard Hayes]

On Jul 7, 2012, at 5:00 PM, Christopher Fynn <chris.fynn at gmail.com> wrote:

> One day I
> came home early to discover all my Buddhist images covered up

Sounds as though your house might have been invaded by Quakers. Images of any sort tend to make them quake. Hence the name.

On the other hand, perhaps the visitors were house painters making sure that nothing got splattered on your Buddhist images. The fact that they tied white scarves around their heads makes that explanation seem likely.

I was once invited to give a talk at a Buddhist center in Ottawa. I noticed all the images had been covered up. It was explained to me that at talks to which the general public were invited, the Buddhists in question covered up the images so as not to offend anyone. It occurred to me that it takes a very special kind of person to attend a talk at a known religious institution and then to get offended by the symbols of the religion at that institution. 

My own tendency is to assume that when people cover up religious icons, they are hiding the fact that they're cannibals. But that may just be my own imagination running amok.

Richard Hayes