[Buddha-l] Orissa

[Curt Steinmetz]

Wong Weng Fai wrote:
> On Mon, 20 Oct 2008, Curt Steinmetz wrote:
>
>   
>> Have you heard of The Joshua Project?
>> http://www.joshuaproject.net/unreached.php
>>     
>
> Looks like a Christian missionary's wet dream.
>   

That's very funny - and very true - and very scary!

Dr. Anuja Prashar has been studying the Joshua Project closely for a few 
years now. Here is an article she wrote immediately following the murder 
of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati: 
http://www.theindianstar.com/index.php?uan=7824

It's a very long article with several links in it - too long to post. 
Dr. Prashar was a presenter at the December 2007 "Hindu Dharma Summit" 
at the University of Southern Florida (where she spoke about the Joshua 
Project). She is also the editor of an 86 page white paper on 
"Conversion and Anti-Conversion in India Today":
http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/features/04-07/conversions.pdf

Warning: Buddhist content ahead ....

Orissa (aka "Kalinga") was the site of King Asoka's final battle prior 
to his conversion to Buddhism (or was it?). Here is a link with 
information on the links between Asoka and Orissa:
http://varnam.org/blog/archives/2006/07/asoka_and_orissa.php

Asoka, in turn, was one of the most important proponents of religious 
tolerance and diversity in the history of human religion. Here is a link 
to Asoka's famous "Rock Edicts":
http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html

The issue of missionary activity is of great interest to many Buddhists 
around the world. It is very "hot" issue in Korea right now, for 
example, as has recently been discussed on this list. Mongolia has been 
more or less overrun by Christian missionaries:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/18/MNEH12HF9U.DTL

The Dalai Lama has taken a position of opposing the use of "enticement" 
in conversions:
http://www.tibet.ca/en/newsroom/wtn/archive/old?y=2001&m=1&p=26_2

Curt