{"id":11442,"date":"2023-12-07T09:58:58","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T02:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phapnhan.org\/en\/?p=11442"},"modified":"2024-12-28T11:18:17","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T04:18:17","slug":"myanmars-ibec-to-join-europes-largest-buddhist-park-project-in-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phapnhan.org\/en\/myanmars-ibec-to-join-europes-largest-buddhist-park-project-in-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"Myanmar\u2019s IBEC to join Europe\u2019s largest Buddhist Park project in Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dharma News<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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Myanmar\u2019s IBEC to join Europe\u2019s largest Buddhist Park project in Spain<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

IBEC Sayadaw and responsible personnel of the Lumbini Garden project meet.<\/span><\/strong>
\nThe International Buddhist Education Centre (IBEC) has announced its participation in the Lumbini Garden project in Spain, which is set to become the largest Buddhist Park in Europe.<\/span><\/strong>
\nThis significant initiative will involve contributions from several countries, including Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, China, Hong Kong, Nepal, Bhutan, and Chinese Taipei. The project will feature advanced Buddhist education programmes supported by IBSC (Thailand), SSBU, SIBA, and IBEC-Myanmar.<\/span><\/strong>
\nIBEC Sayadaw, serving as a project board member, will oversee the construction of the Myanmar Temple Embassy and a replica of the Shwedagon Pagoda.<\/span><\/strong>
\nInitially, the project faced challenges as the original site was deemed unsuitable due to Spanish environmental regulations. However, a new location has been secured, and the Spanish government has issued the necessary construction licence. A redesigned plan will be developed, and the project will move forward at the new site.<\/span><\/strong>
\nOn 30 November, IBEC Sayadaw held discussions with project officials in C\u00e1ceres, Spain, to finalize plans and ensure the smooth implementation of the project. \u2014 ASH\/TMT<\/span><\/strong>
\nhttps:\/\/www.gnlm.com.mm\/myanmars-ibec-to-join-europes-largest-buddhist-park-project-in-spain\/<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A small Spanish city\u2019s bid to build Europe\u2019s biggest Buddha<\/span><\/strong>
\n(RNS) \u2014 The 6,000-ton white jade Buddha statue will overlook a sprawling group of temples and monasteries just kilometers from the city center. But suspicions of the project abound.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\nThe old town of C\u00e1ceres, Extremadura, Spain, in 2019. (Photo by Alonso de Mendoza\/Wikipedia\/Creative Commons)<\/span><\/strong>
\nThe old town of C\u00e1ceres, Extremadura, Spain, in 2019. (Photo by Alonso de Mendoza\/Wikipedia\/Creative Commons)<\/span><\/strong>
\n(RNS) \u2014 Every November, the Spanish town of C\u00e1ceres holds the Medieval Market of the Three Cultures to commemorate its history of religious coexistence, Spanish Inquisition aside. Before the Christian kingdoms united, kicked out medieval Spain\u2019s Muslim rulers and expelled all the Jews in 1492, the Abrahamic religions are said to have lived in tolerant harmony. But the market\u2019s name might need an upgrade soon. It will be difficult to ignore the 47-meter Buddhist statue the town plans to erect in a few years.<\/span><\/strong>
\nThe project, started up by the Lumbini Garden Foundation, a Spanish association created in collaboration with the Nepalese city of Lumbini, envisions an up to 6,000-ton white jade Buddha statue overlooking a sprawling group of temples and monasteries just kilometers from the C\u00e1ceres city center. <\/span><\/strong>
\nC\u00e1ceres, with a population of 95,976 as of 2022, wants to become Buddhism\u2019s headquarters in Europe. The project directors describe building a bridge between West and East, facilitating a greater understanding of spirituality and Asian-centric values within Europe at a time when people are increasingly turning their backs to religion, as well as to the reality that Asia is speeding ahead.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\nRicardo Guerrero in Myanmar, in the summer of 2019, where he received temporary ordination as a Buddhist monk. (Submitted photo)<\/span><\/strong>
\nRicardo Guerrero in Myanmar, in the summer of 2019, where he received temporary ordination as a Buddhist monk. (Submitted photo)<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cThe West, whether Americans or Europeans, know almost nothing of Asia. We live in a globalized world in which, little by little, the economic and demographic weight is pivoting towards Asia, and we cannot continue the luxury of developing without their knowledge,\u201d Ricardo Guerrero, one of the patrons of Lumbini Garden Foundation, says. <\/span><\/strong>
\nHaving turned away from Catholicism as a teenager, Guerrero found the spiritual answers he was searching for in Buddhism, which did not demand faith but rather provided a landline from a rational perspective, he said. He set up the Hispanic Association of Buddhism in Spain in 2012 and became a Theravada monk in Myanmar in 2019. <\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cI don\u2019t have faith,\u201d Guerrero says, a sentiment shared by an increasing swath of Spain. Just 36% of the population identifies as Catholic, with only 18% practicing, according to the Center of Sociological Research, a public body. This shift makes it even more pertinent and necessary to promote the messages of Buddhism, Guerrero believes.<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cThere is a way of understanding life, a series of values that we have in many ways lost here,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/strong>
\nJos\u00e9 Manuel Vilanova, president of the Lumbini Garden Foundation, told Religion News Service that young people, in particular, are interested in Buddhism as a philosophy.<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cA philosophy that is not guided by a God, which is more in tune with a more natural attitude, in line with the laws of the universe,\u201d said Vilanova.<\/span><\/strong>
\nBuddhism, he said, still emphasizes the importance of values such as empathy, compassion and kindness, but \u201cwithout having to see it from a religious perspective, but rather from a humanistic perspective.\u201d<\/span><\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s very attractive for young people, especially when many are \u201clooking at pseudo-religions and other lifestyles for the answers that they don\u2019t get from traditional religion,\u201d Vilanova adds.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\nAn artistic rendering of the proposed Lumbini Garden Foundation development in C\u00e1ceres, Extremadura, Spain, in 2019. (Image \u00a9 Engineers\u2019 & Surveyors\u2019 Associates)<\/span><\/strong>
\nThe Buddha project\u2019s aims are lofty, especially for a small city, and there are those who question whether such grandiosity might doom it in the way of the biblical Tower of Babel.<\/span><\/strong>
\nAntonio Cancho Sierra of Gu\u00edas-Historiadores de Extremadura, a tour guide and historian of the region, says everyone he knows is \u201cat least suspicious\u201d about a project that several other cities, with more relevance at the national level, including Madrid and Barcelona, have flatly rejected. <\/span><\/strong>
\nThe financing appears opaque. Nobody knows exactly where the enormous amount of money required for the project will come from, says Cancho, and he is circumspect about the fact that it is provided by a foundation from Nepal, \u201ca country much poorer than Spain.\u201d <\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cAt the moment, the only thing that has been done has been to bring a statue of Buddha that has ended up forgotten in a corner of a public building,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/strong>
\nCritics point fingers at a culture and tourism subsidy of 281,229 euros, provided to the foundation in 2021, which has allegedly helped to pay for plane tickets to Nepal and for plane tickets to Nepal and other Buddhist-practicing countries for the project\u2019s promoters. <\/span><\/strong>
\nGuerrero estimates there have been around 15 trips abroad but insists the foundation received the money through proper channels because it is doing something for the city\u2019s immense benefit \u2014 and that many of those trips were paid for out of pocket by the foundation\u2019s members.<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cWe have opened Extremadura\u2019s doors to Asia,\u201d Guerrero adds, referring to the Spanish region where C\u00e1ceres is located. Taking advantage of what he terms their missions to Asia, the foundation has promoted the province, its businesses and even its football teams \u2014 in December 2022, the local team, Club Polideportivo Cacere\u00f1o, played two games against the Nepalese national team in Pokhara and Kathmandu in a campaign labeled \u201cfootball for peace,\u201d done in collaboration with the Lumbini Garden Foundation.<\/span><\/strong>
\nIf the council paid an agency to do this sort of international advertising, the cost would have been \u201cmultiplied by 10, at least,\u201d Guerrero insists, emphasizing that the money has also gone to a slew of cultural and educational activities.<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cIn the end, that money was spent in our own province,\u201d says Tom\u00e1s Vega, the key architect on the project.<\/span><\/strong>
\nVega sympathizes with those who think that building a 47-meter statue of Buddha in their backyard might be a bit far-fetched. The mere cost of the material \u2014 a proposed 4,800 to 6,000 tons of white jade \u2014 is a \u201cbarbarity,\u201d Vega admits.<\/span><\/strong>
\nBut C\u00e1ceres will not have to foot the bill for its construction. <\/span><\/strong>
\nApart from the subsidy, the project relies completely on substantial foreign donations from Asian countries, according to Guerrero, including the donation of the Buddha\u2019s building blocks from Myanmar, a country that produces much of the world\u2019s jade supply. Specifically, the Myanmar Gems and Jewelry Entrepreneurs Association \u201cwill be the donor,\u201d according to a September 2023 dossier, \u201cThe Great Buddha Project,\u201d written by the foundation.<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cIn Europe and America there is nothing similar. It\u2019s hard to understand what it means. It\u2019s going to be an icon,\u201d Vega said.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\nC\u00e1ceres, red marker, in western Spain. (Image courtesy of Google Maps)<\/span><\/strong>
\nC\u00e1ceres, red marker, in western Spain. (Image courtesy of Google Maps)<\/span><\/strong>
\nC\u00e1ceres is a small city, and now it is \u201cen la boca,\u201d or in the mouths, of many Asian countries. Vega knows this firsthand, as the foundation has allowed him and others to make friendly inroads with Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand, the king of Bhutan and important monks \u201con the pope\u2019s level,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/strong>
\nMoney and rumors aside, the project still faces several obstacles. Environmental concerns about using protected public land nearly killed it a few months ago.<\/span><\/strong>
\nThe original parcel of land that was picked, and provisionally signed off on, was the Arrop\u00e9 mount that is part of a special zone for protected bird species, or ZEPA. To build the Buddha, a portion of the ZEPA would have to be eliminated. Although the local council ultimately greenlit the project, the debate over the environmental value of the land continued and, ultimately, stakeholders on both sides decided to find a noncontroversial home for the project.<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cWe believed that the project could fall apart,\u201d Vega admits.<\/span><\/strong>
\nBut the new year promises a fresh start, with a final home for the Buddha approved by the city council in late December, in Cerro de los Romanos, about 10 kilometers from the original plot.<\/span><\/strong>
\nEven Antonio Diaz, president of Adenex, an environmental organization in C\u00e1ceres, who fought against the Buddha\u2019s original placement, believes the plan for the new location is \u201cpositive\u201d for C\u00e1ceres.<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cPersonally, I believe that a project like this is positive for a city like C\u00e1ceres \u2014 small and with not a lot of resources \u2014 both because of its possible economic repercussions and especially because of what it could mean for the promotion of tolerance and contact between cultures,\u201d Diaz told RNS.<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u201cBut we must try to prevent this project from having repercussions on the natural environment or from conflicting with European directives and urban planning regulations,\u201d he stressed.<\/span><\/strong>
\nC\u00e1ceres\u200e is a UNESCO World Heritage City, and Guerrero, Vega and Vilanova all refer to the potent \u201cstorytelling\u201d element of bringing the Buddha to this part of Spain, where houses still have Islamic horseshoe arches and keen eyes can spot the hollow stone where Jewish mezuzas used to be attached. All made ample reference to building cultural bridges and continuing the city\u2019s legacy as a bastion of religious conviviality. <\/span><\/strong>
\nBut as Cancho noted, the truth is not always so picturesque. A large part of this tri-religious harmony is just a good story. \u201cThe myth of the three cultures is sustained from the political sphere for ideological reasons and, specifically in C\u00e1ceres, for tourist reasons, such as promoting that market,\u201d Cancho says, referring to the November medieval market.<\/span><\/strong>
\nBut before the tourists can start arriving, the ground still needs breaking.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This article was produced as part of the RNS\/Interfaith America Religion Journalism Fellowship.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A small Spanish city\u2019s bid to build Europe\u2019s biggest Buddha<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n