Washington
17 April 2008
More than 200 participants from seven different religions joined a conference in Phnom Penh earlier this month, in an effort to better understand each other.
Leaders from the Anglican, Buddhist, Catholic, Hindu, Jewish, Lutheran and Muslim faiths gathered to discuss interfaith understanding and conflict resolution.
Cambodia is predominantly Buddhist, but it is home to people of many other faiths.
“We have to have tolerance among all religions and help build morality in society,” Min Khin, secretary of state for the Ministry of Religion, told VOA Khmer, quoting a speech by Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Though Cambodian Buddhists are generally tolerant of other faiths, Min Khin said, it remains unlawful for groups to use propaganda and improper coercion to convert others.
“It is prohibited to use money, food, and other materials to convince people to convert to another religion,” he said.
Christopher Lapel, a pastor for a Cambodian congregation of the Golden West Christian Church in Los Angeles, Calif., said participants of the April 3 conference adopted an action plan to promote interfaith understanding and conflict resolution.
“Cambodia gives freedom to its people to participate in other religions,” he said.
Keo Vimuth, an Abhidhamma teacher at Wat Damnak, in Siem Reap, said Christians visit people’s homes, knocking and saying, “The Lord has arrived.”
This was not always effective, he said.
“It’s not easy to convert Cambodian Buddhists who have had a deep belief in Buddha for many generations to another religion,” he said.
About 95 percent of Cambodians are Buddhist, 3 percent are Muslim, 1 percent are Christians, and another 1 percent comprise other faiths, he said.
“The rebirth of Khmer culture and society depends to a great extent on the renewal of Buddhist Sangha,” he said. “The Western concept of ‘church’ is meaningless in Cambodia.”
Meanwhile, new freedoms, the introduction of drugs and the sex industry, and much material assistance by the international donor community have brought great changes to Cambodia and, in the view of some, have seemed to help foster a growing climate of greed, corruption and moral and intellectual paralysis.
Leaders from the Anglican, Buddhist, Catholic, Hindu, Jewish, Lutheran and Muslim faiths gathered to discuss interfaith understanding and conflict resolution.
Cambodia is predominantly Buddhist, but it is home to people of many other faiths.
“We have to have tolerance among all religions and help build morality in society,” Min Khin, secretary of state for the Ministry of Religion, told VOA Khmer, quoting a speech by Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Though Cambodian Buddhists are generally tolerant of other faiths, Min Khin said, it remains unlawful for groups to use propaganda and improper coercion to convert others.
“It is prohibited to use money, food, and other materials to convince people to convert to another religion,” he said.
Christopher Lapel, a pastor for a Cambodian congregation of the Golden West Christian Church in Los Angeles, Calif., said participants of the April 3 conference adopted an action plan to promote interfaith understanding and conflict resolution.
“Cambodia gives freedom to its people to participate in other religions,” he said.
Keo Vimuth, an Abhidhamma teacher at Wat Damnak, in Siem Reap, said Christians visit people’s homes, knocking and saying, “The Lord has arrived.”
This was not always effective, he said.
“It’s not easy to convert Cambodian Buddhists who have had a deep belief in Buddha for many generations to another religion,” he said.
About 95 percent of Cambodians are Buddhist, 3 percent are Muslim, 1 percent are Christians, and another 1 percent comprise other faiths, he said.
“The rebirth of Khmer culture and society depends to a great extent on the renewal of Buddhist Sangha,” he said. “The Western concept of ‘church’ is meaningless in Cambodia.”
Meanwhile, new freedoms, the introduction of drugs and the sex industry, and much material assistance by the international donor community have brought great changes to Cambodia and, in the view of some, have seemed to help foster a growing climate of greed, corruption and moral and intellectual paralysis.
5 comments:
Buddhism is national religion, however, Cambodia do tolerate other religions and freedom of chosing a religion to suit individual belief shall rely on personal choice other than trying to convert one's.
All religions are having one common thing in them "God" and good deeds, however, when come to preaching each individual has different concept and interpretation.
Hope that people with different in relgious belief can live side by side and in harmony.
Bibles are full of contradictions.The Christian and Catholic alike preach compassion, but fail to abide such claim without conditions. Why China exercise strict control of Catholic and forbid the pop from visit her home? Read the history of these religions and you will understand. Most of the white race are unkind and ethos people, so do their religious believe. Peace to the world.
The more I study Buddhism and the teaching of Buddha, the more I question the Buddhistness of our people, even Buddhist monks. Our Buddhist monks, or many of them, seem to enjoy having big monkhouses, big, multi-stey temples, and luxurious possessions, while making little effort to study and disseminatate the teaching of Buddha. How many monks are helping the poor people living around their sumptuous monasteries? How many Buddhist monasteries have the Buddhist bible, tripitaka? How many monks have read or are reading it? How accessible to the public is it? How many Buddhist palms and prayers are available in Khmer? How many monks have spoken up against violence, corruption and immoral practices around the country? How many have refused to accept alms from corrupt officials? Buddhist monks and devotees are chanting psalms and prayers in Pali without perhaps no or little understanding of their meanings.
Buddhism, like democracy, may just be a veneer on top of practices whi are bascically Hindou. In Buddhism, there is no god and no rituals. This is Hinou.
Buddhist moral and ethical values have never been strong in our society, and because of this, they failed to restraint our fellow countrymen called Khmer Rouge and prevent or temper their ruthlessness.
Just as a matter of a short period of time those fellow countrymen of ours, and many fellow countrymen, abandoned all their Buddhistness and became nothing short of babarians.
Our Buddhist monks, or the most serious ones, should look into this failure of Buddhism in getting itself well entrenched in the hearts, not nouths, of our Cambodians. Simply claiming that "95 per cent" of the Cambodian people simply will not do.
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
Regretfully, our only hope for our future has been exploited by politic, Dr Lao. Where do go from here?
Mr. 1:32AM,
Back to the basics of Buddhism and check how far the current practices have deviated from the teaching of Buddha.
LAO Mong Hay, Hong Kong
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