New Mandala

For New Mandala readers who can’t get enough Thailand related commentary, a blog by Bangkok Pundit may be worth your time.  It focusses on Thaksin and the woes of the South.
I can’t vouch for the author (who I don’t know) and can’t even provide an aside about their credentials or experience.  On the “about” page, they merely [...]

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In Southeast Asia, Buddhist monks measure their seniority in the number of “Buddhist rains retreats” or “wet seasons” that they have experienced since taking vows.  For everybody else, the wet season is traditionally a time of hard work where rice cultivation takes priority.  It is a time when fields and forests also fill with delicious plants [...]

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A couple of new books of interest.

A New Look at Thai AIDS: Perspectives from the Margin by Graham Fordham.

Spreading the Dhamma: Writing, Orality, and Textual Transmission in Buddhist Northern Thailand by Daniel Veidlinger.
The introduction to Spreading the Dhamma can be downloaded here.

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Standing in queues at airports, there is usually very little to do but wait.  These days…the waiting can be interminable.
For some, the wait has been much longer than for others.  Most people don’t have to wait years to get to the front of the line.  Unfortunately, some do.
Yesterday, while passing through airports in both Thailand and the United [...]

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