Situated amidst a rural hinterland comprising non-Buddhist populations, the Lumbini Sacred Garden master plan covers an area of about 4.5 km². It has a special “monastic zone” for the construction of 39 international monasteries of which 13 have been built (notable are the Thai, Japanese, Burmese, Sri Lankan, Chinese, Bhutanese, Korean, and European monasteries). […In] practical terms, it is perceived as “imported Buddhism” [and] the limited opportunities for interpretation of this co-created heritage reinforces a sense of alienation for the local community, and poses challenges for the sustainability of tourism and the vitality of Lumbini as a Heritage Site.

[This article discusses…] the perceptions of Tibetan identity within and outside of the Tibetan community, the influence of sponsorship programs in India that are based on identification, the importance of marriage, political engagement, and whether it is important to be Buddhist or not. Lastly, the role of the Dalai Lama in the eyes of the research subjects is also explored.

To gather information about the association of second-generation Tibetans with their parent’s home country, interviews with Tibetans in Switzerland and India provided valuable insights. The interviews were supplemented with data acquired from experts who were involved with the Tibetan diasporic community while the research was being conducted.

Vatika bottle sits in the bathroom,
contents solidified by London’s night.

All the rage.

The Zainichi tried to establish their own identity in Japan through their mortuary rituals, and thus to reorganize the Korean diaspora in Japan. Their ancestral rituals have been changed from a Confucian style to a Buddhist style.

… integration rather than segregation is the typical outcome. However, the tendency toward adaptation and integration can be impeded when economic frictions in the form of income inequality and housing cost are present.

Who decides where a river starts? …

She was nearing the river—in reaching the brink,
She heeded no danger, she paused not to think!
For she is a mother—her child, a slave—
And she’ll give him his freedom, or find him a grave!

Nepalese society is not friendly for the returnee women.

You were between two animals.
Between two attributions.
At the crotch of a river’s fork.
At a loss, at least…

What it feels like to have to make a decision.

Is it difficult to get away from it all once you’ve had a child?

With the restoration of my old ID number, the previous six years of my life, including the three years I spent in prison, became a numberless life. In truth, this was a blessing for me. I believe that the record of my punishment and imprisonment had been wiped from the police system. Networked computers had not yet been widely adopted.

The true story of how a Uyghur poet and film director narrowly managed to escape a genocide—and of the friends and family that he left behind.

All species have an environmental niche, and despite technological advances, humans are unlikely to be an exception. Here, we demonstrate that for millennia, human populations have resided in the same narrow part of the climatic envelope available on the globe, characterized by a major mode around 11°C–15°C mean annual temperature (MAT).

… in the absence of migration, [by 2070] one third of the global population is projected to experience a MAT >29°C currently found in only 0.8% of the Earth’s land surface, mostly concentrated in the Sahara.

Hours before the TV, my mouth
agape, repeating after every American cartoon…

PBS taught us English…

… if the people of Sunāparanta abuse and threaten me, then I shall think: These people of Sunāparanta are admirable, truly admirable, in that they did not give me a blow with the fist.

An astute monk shows how to practice patience as an immigrant.

and then there are times
that both sides seek to disown
to cut my cords
let me fall…

Sometimes the verbs
Aren’t important

Centuries, minutes later, one might ask
How the hilt of a sword wandered so far from the smithy.

i was made out of clay    out of time

As long as they get their money, they don’t care how many of us they kill off.

We were thirty-one souls, he said, in the gray-sick of sea…

Because he’s neutral. I mean if we threw Christ up there, he is controversial. Everybody has got a deal about him. But Buddha, nobody seems to be that perturbed about a Buddha.

Imagine my first moon
wasn’t a moon at all
but a crescent incision
in my mother…

Embossed tattoos like small notes on sheet music.
Dots and lines, strands and strings

Each year, Ma collects more and more superstitions

On my electric pottery wheel, a lump of freshly kneaded gray clay has already been set out for me, a gift that always makes me feel more than a little incompetent.

The wife of a Soto Zen priest writes about pottery, her Japanese community, American family, memories and loneliness in this gorgeously well-written diary of her year (mostly) apart from her beloved husband during his formal monastic training in Japan.

… someone is a sequence of choices, and the question is: Will my next choice be conscious, and will my ability to make it be unfettered?