In the West (particularly in America) Buddhism is seen as all peace and love. Sometimes it feels like those of us who practice the Way are placed on a pedestal where we can do no wrong. It's about time we took a big friggin' hammer to that pedestal. Just like not all who believe in a god are out to convert the rest of the world, not all Buddhists are happy-go-lucky peaceniks.

BurmaNet News: October 24, 2001
Buddhist monks and Muslims rioted last Saturday night
in Hinthada Township, in the Irrawaddy division, according to a Hinthada
resident. The riot began in a Muslim-owned tea-shop over a quarrel
between the proprietor and monks. Authorities had declared an urgent
curfew earlier that night, the source added.

Burma, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, all three have seen escalating violence between Buddhists and Muslims in recent years.

A little research into Japanese history will show that many temples and sects had their own armies that fought against each other and with/against the shogunate. The shogunate (Zen was the official religion) massacred Christians in order to push western influence out of their country.

The Chinese "Boxer Rebellion" featured many Buddhists trying to force Western influence (including Christianity) out of China. Some of the rebellion's leaders were from Wu Tang (yep the same Wu Tang romanticized in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"). Though more heavily influenced by Taoism than others, the temple was part of the legendary Shaolin order of Ch'an.

Even in Buddhism's early days there was sectarian violence between Mahayanists and Hinyanists.

Of course, as with any violence based in religion, certain teachings are perverted to make these acts justifiable. In the case of Buddhism it is the notion that Buddhists can defend themselves. I haven't found the specific reference yet, but I'm looking.

Sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but I think it's only fair to bring this up as Buddhism often gets a pass concerning atrocity around here. For the record I do think that these actions and their justifications are not in the spirit of what Gautama taught. The fact that these things have happened and are continuing to happen is not the issue in my mind. The important thing is how do we make it stop and help cultivate an environment where these types of things do not happen. This is something we must all consider regardless to our outlook on gods and religion.

This story is of two halves.

The first half, telling of how the clashes between buddists and muslims is growing, and the bas clash between buddists and christians. I can understand these clashes, becuase almost every culture that has islam and christianity trying to move in there is violence. You cannot hold them at fault for fighting to keep what is theirs.


Now the second half is a history lesson, in very breif and of a single section of buddism. The asian section of this religion's history. And prior to buddism even spreading to China, Japan, and the area, these people were use to fighting. For lands, honour, their gods. Japan would fight with China.. China would fight with Japan... The introduction of buddism simply did not change this. It just added other way of philosophy to their arsonal. But the base line is.. These people are adept at fighting. Not all will.. but you will find that asian people will fight for their way of life. Like many other people will.


Siddhartha is probaly rolling in his grave to see the values and ways of life he tought being the way that it is now. But this is a fact of life.

There is no need to "expose" buddism for what people will do reguardless of their faith.

SC you really are unbelievable. I hope you'd defend Christianity in the same manner.

[edit] had to quote this because you yourself said it, "There is no need to "expose" buddism for what people will do reguardless of their faith." Same can be said for many other religions, Christianity included.

IMO buddism is one of the most beautiful and peaceful religious faiths there is...

Come on SC at least spell it right. (just funning ya)

Yes people fight, that's how people are. But Buddhism does generally get a clean bill of health, when in truth we are no better than anyone else. It's not right to criticize a religion for acts of violence and just look the other way for another one. And that is the whole point.

My study of Buddhism was art oriented, but I did learn some of the history along the way. It does seem like a lot of us view it as ultra peaceful, I know I have done that before. But honestly, it is a little less tainted than some other religions as far as violence. I know that people cause violence regardless of religion, but Buddhism is rather beautiful. I think the same can be said of Christ and his teachings.

This is another case where you can't compare the members of a religion to the actual religion.

The way I remember it is that Buddhism teaches absolute non-violence. So if a Buddhist commits violent acts it is the equivelent of a Christian sin and is not accepted by the Buddhist religion.

Buddhism isn't violent...their members may or may not be.

(Brave New World is late.)

Pretty much. Can't really compair the violence people are showing on Buddhism. They are not fighting wars in the name of the Buddha. They are fighting to keep what's theirs.

As Cade said.. it's not comparible.

There will always be some violence done in the name of a religion...even if that religion is extremely peaceful.

Human history shows us that humans are a violent bunch,even though many do attempt to go against that part of their inner nature.

I can understand why the original post was made though,since much of the time there are talks about one or two religions being violent while leaving other religions out of the discussions.I haven't read every thread in this forum,so I haven't seen whether or not people have been discussing the failures of other religions.But,I do not think that there is any religion that hasn't had some sort of violent history at some point in time.

Buddhism has suffered the same flaws that every other belief has - the corrupting of the message to show violence, not peace, to others. One of the endearing storylines of chinese martial-arts flicks centre around the followers of one Buddhist Temple being attacked by a neighbouring Temple in the name of their Sifu (spiritual leader). The basic plot-line is Temple A's sifu believes his teaching of Buddhism is superior. Monks from Temple B disagree. Temple A wages war against Temple B for not heeding the Truth of their teachings.

And before people start saying "It's just a film", here's just a few links that show there is historical basis for those films:



I'm sure I could find more if I needed to.

In short, even the most peaceful beliefs can be corrupted by an individual who seeks power. The corruption of beliefs by power-hungry individuals is usually the cause of such violence amongst the followers of a religion.

Regards, PA

It's not the religion that's at fault, it's its practitioners. Mankind is warlike, and if he wasn't punching someone for being a Muslim/Christian/whatever he'd be doing it because his opponent was black/white or had a big nose. Men like to fight... sad but true. In every religion you'll find people who do not follow their religion's teachings but protest that they are true Christians/Muslims/etc.

PS - I forgot to mention that my husband's uncle is a Japanese Buddhist priest... he beats women, sleeps around and is selsom sober. He's a nasty piece of work.