Container Top
Homes   Jobs   Cars   Shopping
Search

Events Calendar

EVENT SEARCH:

In This Section


Most Read Stories


Blogs:


Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens

The Heldenfiles:
Sunday Notebook

Patrick McManamon:
Browns sick after sick loss in Detroit

Akron Zips:
No. 1 Akron to play Stanford next

Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster

Cleveland Browns:
Post-game defensive quotes

Kent State Sports:
Kent State defeats Rochester College, 63-44

Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers

Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad

Varsity Letters:
Four area football teams play tonight

All Da King's Men:
The Onion, By Any Other Name…

Blog of Mass Destruction:
Will Health Care Reform Pass?

Akron Law Café:
Health Care Financing Reform: (70) Savings in Medicare Advantage

See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic

Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED

Let's Talk Real Estate:
Faye Dunaway to be Evicted?

Ohio Travels with Betty:
Monique asks how to get tickets for the Polar Express.

Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall

HRLite House:
Personal Rant – You are All Wrong About Jobs, or the Lack of Jobs, Being the Reason People Do Not Live in NEO

Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go

Akron-area monks pray for peace in Myanmar

Monks unable to make calls into Myanmar

By Jim Carney Beacon Journal staff writer

COVENTRY TWP.: Three Buddhist monks sat before a shrine inside a home on Chaffin Road and prayed for peace and for the people of Myanmar.

The prayers from Ashin Wareinda, 41; Nandathara Mehm, 48; and Monseik Mon, 40, were offered Thursday as more violence was reported in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), where security forces fired into crowds of pro-democracy demonstrators, killing nine people.

''We protect you with our prayers,'' said Wareinda, who has lived in Akron for about nine years.

About 300 Mon people and 250 other Burmese people live in the Akron area, according to Goran Debelnogich, director of resettlement at the International Institute of Akron.

The three monks are part of a community of about 150 Mon Buddhists who gather to worship at the home in Coventry Township.

News of the demonstrations and shootings in their homeland was disturbing to them. Most members of their community still have parents and other family members in Myanmar. But since the civil disturbances broke out this week, the monks have been unable to make phone calls into the country.

On Monday, six Akron-area Buddhist monks, as well as nine monks from Fort Wayne, Ind., met in front of the United Nations building in New York City to pray and meditate for the people and monks in their homeland.

The Mon people, who emigrated to Akron to escape persecution, are from an area of Myanmar that was an independent country until about 250 years ago. Every year in February, the Akron Mon community and other groups around the world gather for Mon National Day.

 

This week's news reports indicated that the military government in Myanmar had raided Buddhist monasteries and arrested dozens of monks.

Wareinda said he understands the problems began when monks marched and prayed over economic conditions in the country, where prices of fuel had been increased.

''We don't want to see people grieving,'' Wareinda said. The prayers of the monks in Myanmar were not against the government but for the people, he said.

Though Wareinda does not believe that things will get better in his homeland, he hopes and prays for change. Someday, he said, he would like to return to a free Myanmar.

But for now, he and the other monks on Chaffin Road offer their prayers for peace along with fellow monks around the world.

''Don't worry and be at peace,'' he said.


Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.

 

COVENTRY TWP.: Three Buddhist monks sat before a shrine inside a home on Chaffin Road and prayed for peace and for the people of Myanmar.

Get the full article here.


Story tools

Email  Email   Print  Print   Save  Save   Reprint  Reprint   Popular  Most Popular   Reprint  Subscribe

Share this story

AddThis Social Bookmark Button
















Most Commented Stories