Vile destructionists and the sacred tooth.

·期刊原文
Vile destructionists and the sacred tooth. (desecration of
revered Buddhist shrine used as propaganda tool by Myanmar
government: reprinted from New Light of Myanmar, Jan. 5, 1997)
Kaytu Nilar
World Press Review
Vol.44 No.3
March 1997
p.48
COPYRIGHT @ 1997 Stanley Foundation

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* Myanmar's ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC)
has recently cracked down hard on the democratic opposition movement
led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, one of the
heroines of our September cover story, "Taking on the Tyrants" When
a bomb exploded in December in Yangon at a Buddhist shrine housing a
particularly sacred relic, reports the independent "Nation" of
Bangkok, the culprits may have been guerrillas from an ethnic
minority group--but an outraged SLORC arrested members of Suu Kyi's
opposition National League for Democracy and of the Communist Party.
This article from SLORC's "New Light of Myanmar" is a classic
attempt by a repressive regime to contrast its own supposed
benevolence with the mad heresy of its political opponents.
Everyone who heard the news was shocked and heartbroken. The people
of Myanmar abhor the terrorism of internal and external
destructionists, who have not yet ended their brutal and atrocious
bestial acts. Engulfed with power mania, they attempted to destroy
the Lord Buddha's Tooth Relic [a fragment of the founder's
tooth--WPR]. There will be no place to go but hell for those evil
destructionists who dare to tear the hearts of the people paying
homage to the Lord Buddha's Tooth Relic.
The destructionists' political aim is to destroy the state, bring
down the State Law and Order Restoration Council, and wrest power
for their cohorts. To achieve this goal, they dare to destroy the
race, language, and religion; they dare to revile the Lord Buddha in
their utterances; they do not have the sense to understand and
realize the Lord Buddha's teachings. While they are engulfed with
power mania, the destructionists have committed all sorts of
brutalities.
That is why a bomb explosion plotted by the destructionists occurred
in the shadows south of two lion statues at Kaba Aye Pagoda in
Yangon on December 25. Two hours later, another explosion occurred
in a vase holding offerings of flowers while a large number of
pilgrims were paying reverence to the Sacred Tooth Relic in Maha
Pasana Cave. As a result of the explosion, five people were
killed--including two security guards and a Red Cross staffer--and
17 were injured.
With deep generosity, SLORC conveyed the Lord Buddha's Tooth Relic
from the People's Republic of China to Myanmar so as to enable
Buddhist devotees to revere it. Moreover, SLORC has arranged to
convey the Sacred Tooth Relic around the country for public
reverence. With the patronage of the government and with donations
contributed by the public, the Tooth Relic Pagodas have been built
in Myanmar to enshrine the Sacred Tooth Relic.
While the people in the country were praying and rejoicing at the
government's meritorious missionary tasks, those power-crazy,
irrational beings, the destructionists--overwhelmed with greed,
anger, and delusion like vile animals--planned to damage the Sacred
Tooth Relic. However, no damage was caused to the Lord Buddha's
Tooth Relic, and it is most exhilarating to see it as serene as
before. That five people were killed paying homage to the Sacred
Tooth Relic or closely safeguarding it has become a black mark in
the history of Buddhism.
In spite of these destructive acts, the pure generosity and
reverence of Buddhist devotees is firmly and extensively growing.
The destiny of the external imperialists and internal henchmen
lacking religious faith and values who attempted to damage the Lord
Buddha's Tooth Relic will be the worst of all in the present
existence and in life after death. Accursed by the people of Myanmar
in the present world, they will also suffer in hell in their next
existence.
Those who do not want a China-Myanmar friendship are awaiting an
opportunity to disrupt the friendly relations between the two
countries. There are internal and external elements who, out of
their strong desire to seize power, are prepared to turn the entire
nation into an inferno. Out of those acts of destruction, the
attempt to destroy the Sacred Tooth Relic by heretics or the
so-called human beings who have repeatedly committed offenses will
remain a black mark that can never be erased. The inhuman
destructionists who committed such sacrilegious acts have no future.