Sri Lanka & Buddha Bar

The Buddha Bar issue is surfacing again. This time, Sri Lanka Prime Minister who is also the Religious Affairs Minister, D.M Jayaratne has instructed his country's embassies abroad to carry out observation on Buddha Bars in their respective countries to check if these bars show disrespect to Buddhism.

The office of the PM said that they had received information that Buddha Bar restaurants abroad ( England, US, France ) serve alcohol to customers in front of Buddha statue. If found to be true, the Sri Lankan government, through the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs will intervene in this issue. The Prime Minister will also issue complain to the World Buddhist Council.

( Can Sri Lanka able to pressure these bars to stop serving alcohol ? In Asia perhaps but definitely not in non-Asian countries especially when Buddha Bar restaurants are making money. Many Asian restaurants have Buddha statues in them either for blessing or simply just for decorations. I think the owner of the Buddha Bar must have got inspiration from these Asian restaurants. Nevertheless, the owner should have been more sensitive to the feelings of the Buddhist before naming his chain restaurant as Buddha Bar. Wonder what would happen if someone was to name his restaurants as " Mohammed Bar " or " Muslim Bar " while serving alcohol ???? )

In 2009, a Buddha Bar restaurant in Indonesia agreed to change it's name after protests from several local Buddhist groups. Thailand and Singapore have refused to issue licences to allow Buddha Bar restaurants to be opened in their countries.




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