The Thai society is a very busy one in terms of holidays and festivals that are being celebrated in their stipulated dates...

Buddhism is the major religion of Thailand It is estimated that about 95% of the total population of Thailand belongs to Buddhism...

Shortly after transplanting is completed, the annual monsoons arrive to inundate farmland Daily rainfall replenishes the fields and much of the family’s time becomes occupied with Rains Retreat observances...

A monk may leave the monkhood any time he wishes The Thai ordination is a public notice of a man’s intention to follow the Buddha’s teaching...

As in medieval Europe, most early Thai scholars were clerics whose major monastic activity was to teach the unlettered...

Buddhism gained wide acceptance because its emphasis on tolerance and individual initiative complemented the Thais’ cherished inner freedom...

A river island city-state founded in 1350 by King U-thong (later crowned King Ramathibodi), Ayutthaya remained the Thai capital for 417 years until its fall in 1767...

Have you ever wondered why the robes worn by the Buddhist monk’s were yellow or orange How did they choose and dye the materials they have...

Wat Dhammaram ‘The Thai Buddhist Temple’ is the legal English name as it appears in the Certificate of Incorporation granted by the Department of State of Illinois to the Thai Buddhist temple in Chicago...

Wat Buddhawararam of Denver is the only existing exception to the long process of development of Thai Buddhist temples in the United States...

The Temple of Chicago has much in common with the Temple of New York Located in a big crowded city with a large number of Thai people, it is frequented by devotees and visitors, busy with day-to-day ceremonies, and large numbers gather for religious and cultural celebrations...

Vajiradhannnapadip Temple situated in West Bronx, New York City, was filed as a Not-for-Profit Organization under the Religious Cor-poration Law of the State of New York on July 22, 2518/1975...

Wat Thai of Washington, DC...

The growing interest in Buddhism and the progress of Buddhist studies in the West have greatly influenced the Buddhist revival in Asian Buddhist countries...

John Walters, a British journalist converted to Buddhism, writes in his The Essence of Buddhism: “This, in the West, is a period of gigantic material and economic progress...

Academic and practical Buddhism making great strides abreast The scholastic character of the early period had much effect on the progress of Buddhism in the subsequent period up to the present...

A special mention should be made of developments in the United States during the last few decades The Americans seem to have been speeding up to take the lead in the activities of spreading the knowledge of Buddhism in the West, both public and academic...

It is estimated that there are now over 190,000 Buddhists in the United States Most of these, however, are Americans of Chinese and Japanese origin who belong to the Pure Land Sect and are organized under the name The Buddhist Churches of America...

In another part of England, a new Buddhist movement has also developed This is the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO), which was founded by an English Buddhist, Ven...

In the United States, an American went to work for the revival of Buddhism in a Buddhist country before Buddhism was introduced to America...

The Scholarly Beginnings of Western Buddhism HOW BUDDHISM CAME TO THE WEST It is said that at present Buddhism is firmly established in England, Germany, France, and the United States...

In Germany, an early stimulation to the study of Buddhism was the works of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (2331-2403/ 1788-1860), whose thoughts were influenced to a great extent by the teachings of the Buddha...

During the same period of time as political unrest was going on in South Vietnam, there was a great change in the Roman Catholic Church which helped the Catholics to adjust themselves to different conditions and situations more effectively...

To turn back to South Vietnam, Premier Ky was reported to have said that he believed the Buddhists were finished as a political force in South Vietnam...

On the whole, Japanese Buddhism still maintains its strength in the intelligentsia and the rural population...

Then came in 2506/1963 the persecution of Buddhism and the Buddhist crisis which turned the monks political and militant...

The monks wanted for the monkhood and Buddhism the power that they saw the Catholic Church and the Catholics have under Ngo Dinh Diem...

Cambodia has also shared the same Buddhist tradition with Thailand and Laos, since the beginning of her modern history...

One of the most important calculations of Indian history has been done on the basis of the lifetime of a certain Indian emperor called Ashoka, considered to be one of the greatest emperors of world history...

It is said that under the monarchy of the 19th century when Buddhist studies flourished, monks were strict in discipline...