Buddhist festival returns to Burma’s Schwedegon Pagoda after years of being banned

Photo by Ralf-André Lettau

As the whole world watches to see how genuine new reforms in Burma actually are — last week, for example, we brought you the news that U Gambira, the embattled Burmese activist monk who helped to lead 2007's "Saffron Revolution," has been charged with "repeatedly breaking the Buddhist monks' code of conduct" by the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee only weeks after being released from prison — there is another sign that tide may actually be turning in some respects: the Associated Press reports that, after being banned under military rule for years and years, an annual Buddhist festival has finally returned to Schwedegon Pagoda this week. Read the whole story here.

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Siddhartha (1972) (English)

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