Buddhist Festival For Peace At Wat Suan Dok

[ChiangMaiMail]

Buddhist Festival for Peace at Wat Suan Dok

Sulak Siwarak and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Oddom Van Syvorn to attend

Nopniwat Krailerg

Wat Suan Dok and the Buddhasatan will host the Buddhist Festival of Peace and Social Transformation November 15 to 17 in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB), according to Wanraya Tiandee, coordinator for the organization.

Wanraya Tiandee announces the Buddhist Festival of Peace and Social Transformation which will take place between November 15 and 17.

The three-day event will begin at 6:30 p.m. on November 15 with the opening ceremony presided over by noted social critic, Ajarn Sulak Siwarak. Later that night, the group will participate in a traditional Lanna homecoming and welcoming ceremony, the Hong Kwan ceremony as well as performing traditional songs and drumming.

The group plan to make merit by giving medicine and medical supplies to 200 monks from different countries including Taiwan, the United States, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Japan and Tibet. The supplies will be donated to underprivileged people in the border area of Thailand and Burma. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Oddom Van Syvorn, the Cambodian peace activist, will chair the talk “Buddhist ways of living and a world of nonviolence” on the evening of the 16th.

The final day of the festival will feature participants singing the ancient Lanna peace hymn, the Uppatasanti, which dates back nearly 800 years to the time of King Tilokrat. The festival will conclude with a walking meditation ceremony around Tha Pae gate in the evening of the 17th.

The INEB is a network of engaged Buddhist monks, nuns, activists and social thinkers with an aim to integrate the Buddha’s message of compassion and wisdom to achieve a just and peaceful world. Under the patronage of the Dalai Lama and other Buddhist masters like Thich Nhat Hanh, the organization plans to use this event inspire others to promote peace.

-- Chiang Mai Mail 2009/11/10

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