Monks brawl at peace protest

[seriousstan]

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Protesters calling for an end to recent violence in Sri Lanka found themselves brawling with hardline Buddhist monks Thursday, after a rally dubbed a "peace protest" turned unexpectedly violent.

Organizers said there were around 1,000 people in a park in the capital, Colombo, listening to a range of speakers when hardline saffron-robed monks opposed to concessions to Tamil Tiger rebels mounted the stage and erected banners.

Some more moderate Buddhist monks, protesting for peace, were already on the stage when punches were thrown. Soon, monks' robes and fists were flying, although no one was badly hurt, witnesses said.

"They were saying we should go to war," said pro-peace monk Madampawe Assagee. "We like to listen to other opinions so we let them do that but then they started fighting and we couldn't control some of our people. They tried to make it a big fight but we settled it in a few minutes."

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2006-08-17T181046Z_01_COL276316_RTRUKOC_0_US-SRILANKA-MONKS.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

[SteppingRazor]

1. Buddhist monks got in a fight and no one was badly hurt...

clearly, these weren't really Buddhist monks. If Hollywood has taught me anything, it's that Buddhist monks act all peaceful, but are death-dealing martial arts masters when pushed. I mean, come on!

:P

[gratuitous]

7. Well, sure

I remember Otto in "A Fish Called Wanda" practicing the same meditation techniques the monks used before going into battle. A bunch of real hotheads, those monks. Gotta watch 'em every second, and never turn your back on a group of monks if you don't want to get your ass majorly kicked.

Okay, we're deep into surreal land when we're talking and joking about brawling monks.

[Javaman]

20. Unless your name is grasshopper, I see monks engaging in a major

slap fight like a couple of ninnies. think george and jerry from seinfeld, "don't hit the face! don't hit the face!"

[sofa king]

26. I saw this dude get in a "fight" one time.

He claimed to know Shaolin gung fu and to have studied to be a monk, but I always thought he was fooling. Then one night there was an altercation, and this drunk guy started swinging at him, and swinging, and swinging. Whatever else he told me, he definitely knew something.

Shaolin was sliding around like an eel on greasy wax paper. He never hit back. But the drunk guy never landed a single punch, either. It sure looked like a fight, but only one guy was fighting. Finally, after a very embarassing minute or two, the drunk guy's asshole friends decided their boy wasn't going to get the best of things and intervened before the Shaolin guy decided to finish him off.

Curiously, when I described this incident to another martial artist and tried to pantomime what he was doing, that guy got kind of upset. He said that Shaolin guy had set up the drunk for a killing blow to the throat and could have thrown it any time, which is apparently bad etiquette when dealing with drunken idiots. Maybe they were both bullshitting; I don't really know. But it was pretty fun to watch, in a way I'm not very proud about.

I wonder if maybe those monks might have been doing something similar? Probably not. I don't think there's any rule that says every hardline Buddhist monk also has to be Jet Li.

[Porcupine]

35. Drunks DIE when you hit them. Or drop them too hard.

It's a lesson any decent martial arts teacher drills into the heads of her/his students. "Hitting concrete is very different from hitting the mat; people die." When people spontaneosly splat into concrete they tend to blame the nearest gung fu student. Even when the drunk was bigger, armed to the teeth and obviosly the aggressor.

I've had to take a knife away from a drunk and then spin him in circles till he was dizzy (true story) because if I dropped him for sure he was going to hit an exposed rebar or concrete.

Any good group of buddhists can have a perfectly good riot with only a few minor scrapes and bruises. The point is too express yourselves, not to HURT anybody.

[sofa king]

43. So I guess that was the bad thing.

Since the Shaolin dude could obviously avoid anything the drunk was going to try, it was unneccessary to have that counterpunch at the ready. Sort of like holding a loaded gun under the table while arguing with a significant other--there's no reason for you to have it at the ready, except for bad reasons.

Is that what you mean?

[Crayson]

44. But what about the technique of the "Drunken Monkey" ?

...

[sgxnk]

2. there is something pleasingly silly

about the term "hardline buddhist monk"

[CollegeDUer]

46. Best MSM line ever

and that's WITH the MSM continuing to push the Lamont "far left" BS.

[AlCzervik]

3. ok thats one headline i never thought i'd see.

[hughee99]

4. Next week they're going to rumble with the Amish. n/t

[MsKandice01]

5. Cleaning coffee off my keyboard...

Thank you SO MUCH for that. :rofl:

[JackintheGreen]

6. Better than those shiftless Mennonites

:P

[KurtNYC]

8. or the passive aggressive Quakers eom

[LeftyMom]

14. I heard they beat up some Mormon boys and stole thier bikes.

[eridani]

29. Reminds me of that old joke about the Amish drive-by shooting

BANG clop clop clop BANG clop clop clop BANG clop clop clop

[knight_of_the_star]

38. ROFLMFAO

That was priceless!!!!

[Richard Steele]

30. They'll be greeted as liberators, with flowers...

...and statues of the Buddha erected in public squares in Lancaster.

[genieroze]

32. Against the Mennonites?

[eleny]

39. I'm wiping some tears here

And I mean it. Busted out laughing and had to grab a tissue for my tears of laughter. Just perfect.

[Wiley50]

9. Neocon Monks, from what I read

so these guys were anti peace?

Think about it

[hedgehog]

10. But, but

Buddhists are always peaceful, not like members of other religions!

[Tellurian]

11. My mother always told me to BEWARE of those Pseudo-Monks..

:rofl:

[karlrschneider]

16. Were they macacas?

:eyes:

[Tellurian]

34. The way I remember it-

Descended from the Macacas and the Pacacas.

:spray:

[Maat]

12. Now, THIS thread is funny!

Also cleaning off keyboard ...

[LordLovesAWorkingMan]

13. Was it a Run Run Shaw production?

"Master! The Buddhist monks are coming!"

[karlrschneider]

15. You can't fight in here, this is the WAR ROOM!

...

[Lady Effingbroke]

17. I'm nominating this one just for the title!

Thanks for the comic relief!

[Kolesar]

18. There were a few International A*N*S*W*E*R speakers I wanted to stifle

[Wiley50]

19. Hey Hey We're The Monk..............

Sorry. I couldn't help myself.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

21. The battle of the

Adrians.

[jmm]

22. Wow. Not since I saw an Amish man using a cell phone

while at the beach with his family have I been this surprised.

[sam sarrha]

40. did he tie it to a pigeon and let it go...

[NJCher]

41. I'm not trying to one-up ya', but....

Amish man using a cell phone while at the beach with his family have I been this surprised.

The other day I was in Dunkin' Donuts and the counterperson was a Muslim woman who was wearing the traditional Muslim dress. She had her scarf tied around her head but also a baseball cap on top of the scarf and oh, did I mention the baseball cap was worn backwards?




Cher

[Miss Chybil]

23. The headline sounds like something from The Onion! nt

[Pacifist Patriot]

25. That's what I thought!

[Fozzledick]

24. Someone should send them half a cat

Then again, they're Theravadins so they might not get it.

[Joanne98]

27. Every religion has their fundies.

[eridani]

28. True, but the notion of fundie Buddhists is seriously creepy! n/t

[GoddessOfGuinness]

33. I read that in Tibet, monastaries would sometimes war with each other

all in the interest of practicing "properly".

The god biz, the spirituality biz...It's all about egos and power and everything unspiritual.

People are only human, and the potential for violence borne of arrogance exists in each of us. When we can fully realize this, instead of always pointing our finger at the other guy, there may be hope for peace.

[iverglas]

47. In Tibet, monks and monasteries

were absolutely no different from monks and monasteries in feudal Europe (Tibet having been entirely feudal pre-1959): locuses of political power and wealth, and instruments of the oppression of the people.

[rucky]

31. At least it didn't happen in Shaolin

those monks are killers.

[sleipnir]

37. Yeah, they'd have to bring ODB back to life to battle for them.

Wu-Tang!

[RevolutionStartsNow]

36. From fark.com: Can't wait for the "celibacy rally"

:rofl:

[aaronbees]

42. The world's so insane right now....

even the monks are fightin' mad. :P

[iverglas]

45. This story isn't really funny ...

The silly myth about the beatific Buddhists has had the lie put to it for decades in Sri Lanka. The Buddhist community and its political leaders have committed some quite noteworthy atrocities against the Hindu community. The ethnic divide is Sinhalese / Tamil. The Tamils have been oppressed by and under attack from the Sinhalese for decades. Y'all may have heard of this. Or not.

Just because Buddhists aren't out to get you, it doesn't mean they aren't out to get somebody.

And then of course there's pre-1959 Tibet -- slavery, indentured labour, anyone? Don't forget to ask that Dalai Lama guy for his opinion of abortion and homosexuality ...