BAUS is having an important New Year event (NEW YEAR, NEW MIND) at Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel, Upstate New York. This is the home of our beloved venerable Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk teacher Bhikkhu Bodhi. It will be held on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026.
CYM has completed the first semester of the course Ancient Path, Modern Mind: Chinese Buddhism in a Changing World with Ven. You Min.
The Temple is pleased to announce that the second semester will begin in 2026, with the opportunity to explore three core themes under the guidance of Ven. You Min:
Who can say? One billion or more Buddhists in China go uncounted in official figures because, officially, all Chinese in China are communist atheists with no interest in religion, just a love of business, STEM, and tech.
The exact same thing happens in the United States, and any American can see it at the largest Buddhist temple in the western hemisphere, "Going West" (Hsi Lai) Temple, in Los Angeles, California:
"China" is actually called the People's Republic of China (PRC). Officially, it is a communist state governed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Officially, the CCP is guided by socialism with Chinese characteristics, which it describes as Marxism adapted to Chinese circumstances [184].
The 14th Dalai Lama is considered a demon.
The Chinese constitution states that the PRC "is a socialist state governed by a people's democratic dictatorship that is led by the working class and based on an alliance of workers and peasants" and that "the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party" [185].
The PRC officially characterizes itself as a democracy—more specifically, a whole-process people's democracy—that is organized around the [Russian] Leninist principle of democratic centralism [186].
However, the [empire or] country is commonly described as an authoritarian one-party state and a dictatorship [187, 188] with some of the world's heaviest restrictions in many civil rights areas, most notably AGAINST:
freedom of the press,
freedom of assembly,
free formation of social organizations,
freedom of religion, and
freedom of the Internet [189].
"Freedom of religion"? Not for Tibetans, Uyghurs
China has consistently been ranked among the lowest as an "authoritarian regime" by the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index, ranking at 145th out of 167 countries in 2024 [190].
But other sources suggest that terming China as "authoritarian" does not sufficiently account for the multiple consultation mechanisms that exist in the Chinese governmental system [191].
Freedom of religion is guaranteed by China's constitution, although religious organizations [like peaceful Falun Gong] that lack official approval can be subject to state persecution [198].
The government of the country is officially atheist, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) requires its members to be [or at least say they are officially] atheist [479].
Religious affairs and issues in the country are overseen by the National Religious Affairs Administration, under the CCP's United Front Work Department [480].
Guanyin in neighboring Mongolia
The "Three Teachings" of [spiritual] Buddhism, [social] Confucianism, and [philosophical] Taoism have historically shaped Chinese culture [481, 482], enriching a spiritual and philosophical framework of traditional religion that harks back to the early Shang and Zhou Dynasty.
Chinese folk religion, which is framed by the Three Teachings and by other traditions [483], consists in allegiance to the shen[Japanese kami], who can be:
deities of the surrounding nature or
ancestral principles of human groups,
concepts of civility,
culture heroes and heroines, many of whom feature in Chinese mythology and history [484].
Among the most popular cults of folk religion are those of
In the early decades of the 21st century, the Chinese government has been engaged in a rehabilitation of folk cults—formally recognizing them as "folk beliefs" as distinguished from doctrinal religions [487] and often reconstructing them into forms of "highly curated" civil religion [488]—as well as in a national and international promotion of Buddhism [489].
China is home to many of the world's tallest religious statues, representing either enlightened Buddhist beings or deities of Chinese folk religion; the tallest of all is the Spring Temple Buddha in Henan. More
European Buddhist nun in Chinese: "Stop comparing, start living"
Carved Straight from the Bedrock: The Great Chaitya Cave of India
(Ancient Architects) Oct. 7, 2025: There are a number of famous examples of enigmatic rock-cut architecture in the world. India is one place in particular that is famous for its manmade (deva-made) caves.
There are the famous Buddhist Ellora Caves that date back to 600-1000 AD, which includes the breathtaking and seemingly impossible Kailasa Temple, the Ajanta caves, which are even older, but there are also the lesser-known Karla Caves.
They are not all as elaborate as the others, but it is a site that should certainly be on everyone's radar. The Karla Caves are located near Lonavala, Maharashtra, a complex of amazing ancient Buddhist Indian temples carved directly from bedrock, dating back from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD.
Maharashtra has many larger examples of artificial (human-made) cave networks, but Cave 8 at Karla, known as The Grand Chaitya Cave, is the largest and most completely preserved chaitya hall of the period with beautiful, ornate architecture, featuring many examples of fine sculpture. Watch this video to find out more about this human wonder of the world.
Subscribe to Ancient Architects, like the video, and leave a comment. All images were Googled and are used for educational purposes only. #AncientIndia#AncientArchitects #India #Buddhism
Buddhism's Karla Caves, India
Magnificent rock-cut hollow hall with stupa
The Karla Caves (also Karli Caves, Karle Caves, Karla Cells) are a complex of ancient Buddhist Indian rock-cut caves at Karli near Lonavala, Maharashtra State.
The site is 10.9 kms from Lonavala. Others in the area include Bhaja Caves, Patan Buddhist Cave, Bedse Caves, and Nasik Caves.
The shrines were developed over the period from the 2nd century BCE to the 5th century CE. The oldest of the cave shrines is believed to date back to 160 BCE, having arisen near a major ancient trade route, running eastward from the Arabian Sea into the Deccan.
The group at Karla is one of the older and smaller of the many rock-cut Buddhist sites in Maharashtra, India.
It is one of the best-known because of the famous "Grand Chaitya" (Cave 8), the largest and most completely preserved chaitya hall of the period, containing unusual quantities of fine sculpture on a large scale [1].
Cross section of Grand Hall with stupa (Karla)
Many traders, Western Satraps of Saka [aka Shakyian, Scythian] origin and Satavahana rulers made grants for construction and support of these caves.
Karla's location in Maharashtra places it in a region that marks the division between North India and South India [2].
Buddhists, having become identified with commerce and manufacturing through their early association with traders, tended to locate their monastic establishments in natural geographic formations close to major trade routes so as to provide lodging houses for travelling traders [3].
Today, the cave complex is a protected monument under the Archaeological Survey of India [4]. More
*The larger Buddhist temple complex, which is said to be at least one square mile large, is Mes Aynak, Afghanistan (ancient Gandhara). Afghanistan has the world's largest Buddha statues (the largest, a reclining figure, still hidden for its protection) because that's where the Buddha is from (Saka/Shakya/Scythia, not Nepal and not India, which did not even exist as a country or empire until centuries later when Buddhist Emperor Ashoka united disparate kingdoms and various janapadasor clan territories). It may well hold an even larger temple. Mes Aynak remains unexcavated and undiscovered due to American imperialism in its prolonged war of plunder followed by Chinese business interests attempting to raze the ancient archeological site for its store of rare earth minerals, gold, and copper.
They Just Found a Hidden Vault Beneath Angkor Wat — And It Changes History Forever
Temple at the center of Angkor: Angkor Wat
(The Explorer) Oct. 24, 2025: How could one of the world’s most beautiful temples be hiding something so dark under it? Cambodia's Angkor Wat has been a sign of peace and perfection for hundreds of years, but new scans have just shown a secret vault that has been locked for 900 years. It isn't gold or wealth inside. It is something much scarier. Why stay put to see what it is? What's below Angkor Wat will make everyone question everything we thought we knew about history.
(The Eye of the Heart) July 22, 2025: How does God communicate with us? By silence or by ritual, by internal quiet or Lion’s Gate Portal and full moon breathwork? Here is a ritual (visualization) to activate our power on 8.8 (August 8th). Is it so much psychobabble from Holistic Transformational Coach Naomi Buff, or is there something to it?
The best place to be this morning is in the former Khmer Empire, modern Cambodia, in the center of one of the largest ancient cities in the world at the Buddhist-Hindu temple at the center of it, Angkor Wat. (Wat means monastery complex or vihara).
The second-best place to be is in the middle of New York City at the holy site of "Manhattanhenge" where signs of intelligent life must have built a megastructure aligned with the astronomical objects in the visible sky, possibly with extraterrestrial assistance.
Here Comes the Sun (The Beatles)
Some say massive structures like the "Empire State" Building were in fact pre-Mud Flood architectural feats being taken credit for by modern builders with widely circulated photos of men eating lunch in precarious worksites as if that were all the proof needed.
LONDON, England — As the sun rose Saturday on the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, a crowd erupted in cheers at Stonehenge where the ancient monument in southern England has clocked the summer solstice over thousands of years.
The orange ball crested the northeast horizon behind the Heel Stone, the entrance to the stone circle, and shone its beam of light into the center of one of the world’s most famous prehistoric monuments.
The solstice is one of the few occasions each year when visitors are allowed to walk among the stones, which are otherwise fenced off.
What did the ancients know and practice?
The miracle of Newgrange, Ireland, eclipses Stonehenge (likeAdam's Calendar, Africa)...so that's why we've never heard of it. Newgrange (Irish Sí an Bhrú [1]) is a prehistoric monument in County Meath, Ireland, placed on a rise overlooking the River Boyne, five miles (8 km) west of the town of Drogheda [2]. It is an exceptionally grand passage tomb built during the Neolithic Period, around 3100 BC [3], making it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. Newgrange is the main monument in the Brú na Bóinne complex, a World Heritage Site that also includes the passage tombs of Knowth and Dowth, as well as other henges, burial mounds [which are a kind of stupa], and standing stones [3]. Newgrange consists of a large circular mound with an inner stone passageway and cruciform chamber More
The crowd gathered before dawn at the World Heritage Site to mark the start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, beating the heat during the U.K.'s first amber heat-health alert issued since September 2023.
Temperatures later topped 91.4 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius) in Surrey, 80 miles (128 kilometers) east of Stonehenge, the hottest temperature recorded in the U.K. so far this year.
About 25,000 sun devotees (sun cult worshippers) and other revelers -- including Druids, pagans, hippies, locals, and tourists -- showed up, according to English Heritage which operates the site.
More than 400,000 others around the world watched a livestream. “This morning was a joyous and peaceful occasion with the most beautiful sunrise," said Richard Dewdney, head of operations at Stonehenge. “It is fantastic to see Stonehenge continuing to enchant and connect people.”
Stonehenge was built [and constantly re-adjusted] in stages 5,000 years ago on the flat lands of Salisbury Plain approximately 75 miles (120 kilometers) southwest of London.
The Sky People built mound-pyramids to the sun
[A few decades ago modern cranes and equipment were used to set up a pile of fallen stones, aligning them to their current positions; those photos were then forgotten, though they still exist, and everyone assumes ancient Druids built what is seen today 5,000 years ago before modern explorers stumbled onto the site. The walk from the carpark to the erected stones used to be lined with sandwich boards explaining the artificial evolution of the site with many adjustments over time, not one permanent setup millennia earlier.]
Shwedagon Pagoda: 2,500 years of Burma’s Buddhist legacy | full documentary
(SLICE Full Doc) According to legend, Shwedagon Pagoda was built 2,500 years ago at the top of the Burmese capital Rangoon (Yangon), and its aura still protects the former capital city today. The stupa (reliquary burial mound), which contains eight strands of the Buddha's hair, is the most symbolic and sacred site in the country, 90% of the population of which is Theravada Buddhist.
Its architecture is made up of circles and squares (a mandala), which in Buddhist cosmology represents heavenly planes and earth respectively and is further evidence of how sacred it is. The pagoda's vibrant atmosphere is created by the 20,000 gold plates that cover the building and the precious stones that adorn it. Workers and volunteers spend every day at the site continually restoring it and keeping the stupa beautiful. They do this in expectation that their dedication will cultivate good karma (merit) for their future rebirths. #freedocumentary #shwedagonpagoda #myanmar #burma
(Liam Richards) BOROBUDUR TEMPLE. He went on an epic journey to film this, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the virtual adventure as we explore Borobudur Buddhist Temple like it's never been seen before.
How Cambodian Minnesotans built one of North America's largest Buddhist temples
(WCCO - CBS Minnesota) May 7, 2025: Cambodian refugees came to Minnesota in the early 1980s. Today, the town of Hampton, about 35 miles southeast of Minneapolis, is home to Watt Munisotaram — one of the largest Buddhist temples in North America. Watch the full special: cbsloc.al/432xqDL. Learn more: cbsloc.al/44WsmmL.
(WCCO - CBS Minnesota) Aug. 26, 2018: In this week's Finding Minnesota, we traveled to Hampton and found out why this Theravada Buddhist temple has become a destination for all kinds of Buddhists and non-Buddhist visitors. John Lauritsen reports (3:40). WCCO 4 News At 10 – Aug. 26, 2018
All materials on this site are submitted by editors and readers. All images, unless otherwise noted, were taken from the Internet and are assumed to be in the public domain.
In the event that there is still a problem, issue, or error with copyrighted material, the break of the copyright is unintentional and noncommercial, and the material will be removed immediately upon presented proof.
Contact us by submitting a comment marked "private."
Do not follow this journal if you are under vinaya or parental restrictions. Secure protection by Sucuri.
Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at creativecommons.org/about/licenses.
.JPG)
.png)
