Who's the "big"man?

[Lusty]

Do the Thai's regard the Dali Lama as the official head of the Buddist religion on earth?

Thanx

[Ckrisg]

Don't think so Lusty most Thai's I have spoken to don't know who the f...ck he is :grin:

[elef]

No, as thais have his holiness the supreme patriarch as head of the thai buddhism.

[Old Hippie]

Thais are Teravada Buddist, the Tibetans/Nepalese are some other sect...

[bust]

Found this on a fantail wrapper

 

There's a Tibetan saying "Every valley has its own dialect; every lama has his own Dharma". This is especially the case when it comes to deciding how a deity from outside the Buddhist fold (e.g. Ganesha) is to be incorporated into the system. There's a lot of seeming inconsistency! To take oversimplified hypothetical examples: one lama, reading some books from India, has discovered a history of anti-Buddhist feeling among the followers of a certain Hindu deity at a certain time, and so uses that deity as an example of negative forces to be overcome. Another lama, in a cave in the Himalayas might have a vision of the same deity granting him support or some type of worldly power, and so incorporate him as a protector.

Another, even more flagrant, example is that of Shiva himself. In the Nyingmapa Mahayoga tantras, an important theme is the conquering of rudra, another epithet of Shiva, who symbolizes a lot of negative forces. In many modern Tibetan gombas, however, inckuding those of the Nyingmapa, Shiva

is granted offerings as a wordly protector.

In the regions of Buddhist-Hindu interface, such as the Himalayas in general and Darjeeling in particular, this kind of stuff is always going on. It's probably hopeless to try and figure out a single consistent system.

[elef]

In theory you're right OH and wikipedia supports you

 

Today, Buddhism is divided primarily into three traditions:

 

Theravada - practiced mainly in certain parts of South Asia (mostly Sri Lanka) and Southeast Asia

Mahayana - practiced predominantly in East Asia

Vajrayana - which is often classified with Mahayana, is practiced in Tibet and Mongolia, and surrounding regions.

 

But if you read about thai buddhism:

 

Buddhism in Thailand is largely of the Theravada school. As much as 94% of Thailand's population is Buddhist of the Theravada school, though Buddhism in this country has become integrated with folk beliefs such as ancestor worship as well as Chinese religions from the large Thai-Chinese population.

 

So there's not a big difference between tibetan or thai buddhism IRL IMO of course.

[samak]

your google knowledge is remarkable gentlemen!

[samak]

your google knowledge is remarkable gentlemen!

[Bangkoktraveler]

Some Thais do recognize the Dali Lama as a special person. Here in the US, The Dali Lama did visit our city a year or two ago. The monks at the temple we go to took some of their statues to the place where he was going to talk. The temple does have a large Buddha and they did ask me if they could put the statue on the back of my truck so I could drive around the city showing it off.

 

The Dali Lama was here for several days and each day all the monks at our temple attended.

 

As for my wife, who is Thai, she was able to procure free tickets.

 

Back at the temple, some Thais later questioned the monks on some of the things the Dali Lama spoke about. From what I gathered, no big deal.

 

 

 

[Ckrisg]

I think that Thais would pay respect to any Monk regardless of the sect he represents, but I still maintain that the majority of Thais do not know who the Dali Lama is and do not see him as a leader.