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Thread: about the holidays

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Cd, Juarez ,Chi.
    Posts
    9

    about the holidays

    To all the martial artists
    Hope you have a year full of discoveries in this path of the warrior, that in these holidays you are all surrounded by love ones and full of inner peace and accomplishment.
    Hope next year will be one with hard practice, low stance work and true mastership of each ones individual style.
    And even though sometimes we don’t agree on all things, as in the case of Reemul and the Willow sword, we all have some common gold’s, well at least in Chinese martial arts.
    Peace, discipline and respect

    Luis Fernando Espinosa Ceja

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Hijacking this thread

    I'm making this 'about the Buddhist holidays'. We already have a Happy Holidays thread in Off Topic.

    The only other Buddhist celebration that we cover here that I can remember is the Laba Festivals.

    Songkran looks super fun.

    Songkran: Thailand celebrates Buddhist new year with water fights
    13 April 2019


    EPA
    Thais are celebrating this year's Songkran festival, also known as the Buddhist New Year.

    The festival, held between 13 and 15 April in Thailand, is also celebrated in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

    Songkran is often referred to as the biggest water fight in the world.

    Images from across Thailand show large crowds of people taking part in festivities.

    The holiday was traditionally marked by visiting family members and pouring water over Buddha statues.


    EPA
    In this image, people sprinkle scented water over a Buddha statue.

    Throwing water is meant to wash away bad luck from the previous year.


    REUTERS
    In this image (above) elephants and people can be seen spraying water.


    REUTERS
    Hundreds of thousands of tourists head to Thailand every year, mainly to Bangkok and larger cities to experience Songkran.


    AFP
    Many people can be seen in bright floral clothes as they take part in the celebrations. In this image (below) a young boy sits on a person's shoulders as he is sprayed with water.


    REUTERS
    On 15 April, the first day of Thai New Year, people gather at temples to offer food and new robes to the temple monks.
    I've performed the 'bathing the Buddha' ritual at a Jikoji Zen Center where an old friend was a priest, but it was very austere...nothing like this. Those crazy Thais...
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Fremont, CA, U.S.A.
    Posts
    47,947

    Makha Bucha Day mass shooting in Thailand

    With all else that's going on in the news, this horrible shooting may have been overlooked, but I felt it worthy of documenting here.

    FEBRUARY 9, 2020 / 7:50 AM / 2 DAYS AGO
    On Thai Buddhist holy day, gunman's carnage shatters temple peace
    Patpicha Tanakasempipat
    4 MIN READ

    WAT PA SATTHARUAM, Thailand (Reuters) - Thai nun Amornrat Putta-ariyawong was washing dishes in preparation to host Buddhist devotees on a holy day when a military Humvee pulled up just inside the temple gates and the driver started shooting into the road.


    A buddhist monk sprinkles holy water as people pray for victims who died in mass shooting, involving a Thai soldier on a shooting rampage, in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand February 9, 2020. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun

    “When the first round of shots was fired, everyone thought it was one of those firecrackers going off,” Amornrat, clad in white robes, recalled on Sunday.

    Instead, a Thai soldier fleeing his military base after killing a guard and his commanding officer was gunning people down in the early stages of an 18-hour shooting spree in which he would kill 29 people.

    “Anybody, any vehicle within his eyesight, he’d shoot them all,” Amornrat said.

    The soldier, identified as Jakrapanth Thomma, was finally shot dead early Sunday in the basement of the Terminal 21 shopping mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima.

    But the rampage began before he reached the mall, and it included a stop at Wat Pa Sattharuam, where the gunman started shooting from just inside the gates of the normally serene temple.

    PASSERS-BY TARGETED

    In all, nine people, including two police officers, died outside the tree-lined temple as the gunman shot at his pursuers and then targeted passers-by, according to residents who witnessed the shooting. Police have not yet confirmed exactly how many people died at each location.

    “When the first round of shots was fired, we were all still going about our usual business. The monks were sweeping and I was washing dishes and talking to a dog,” nun Amornrat said.

    Saturday was Makha Bucha day in Thailand, a holiday in the Theravada Buddhist tradition that honors the Buddha ordaining some of his first followers. Temples typically host candlelight ceremonies, but this year the carnage overshadowed the event.

    Saffron-robed monk Luang Phi Kla, said he was sweeping the road in front of the temple at around 4:30 pm on Saturday when the Humvee pulled up. When he heard gunshots, he turned around.

    Witnesses say the soldier – who military officials said had training in ambush techniques – positioned himself at an intersection just meters (yards)from the gate where he could see vehicles coming from two sides but could remain hidden.

    He began firing at police vehicles in a standoff that lasted about 30 minutes. At some point, however, the gunman also began targeting passers-by.

    “ONE BY ONE”

    Luang Phi Kla vividly remembers watching the soldier gun down a student on a motorbike.

    “The shooter still went over and shot the student in the head, even though he already fired many bullets,” he said.

    Another car, with five passengers, was already backing away when the shooter fired at the tires.

    “He then went back to his vehicle, picked a new gun, and went over to open the car doors and shot them one by one,” Luang Phi Kla said. Four of the five passengers died.

    The soldier then got back into the stolen Humvee and drove away, reaching the shopping mall where he made his last stand.

    By Sunday afternoon, yellow police tape cordoned off the street with dozens of circles marking where bullet casings were found.

    The temple’s stunned monks and nuns were left with the memory of authorities piling up bodies on the road outside their gates.

    “I never dreamed this would happen in a temple, in our country,” said the monk, Luang Phi Kla.

    “It’s like he didn’t see the value of other people’s lives, just shooting at them like they were vegetables or fish,” he said. “He didn’t even spare a child.”

    Writing by Kay Johnson; Editing by Ros Russell
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

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