Jul 19, 2012
Boys cry with mom and joke with friends on first day of Buddhist monkhood
Back in May, several young boys prepared to celebrate Buddha’s birthday by living as monks for 3 weeks at Jogye Temple in Seoul. Not everyone was happy to be there…
It was kind of boring…
…what with all the rituals scheduled by the adults in charge…
But not to worry, the kids brought their own fun…
And in the end it wasn’t all that bad…
(via Beijing Shots, China Daily)
* * * * *
Those kids are just too adorable!
In the sixth one down, you can see his colorful socks sticking out from under his robes.
This would be considered child abuse in Germany. ;)
I consider it child abuse, and I live in the U.S.! What they put these kids through is just cruel. Some spend their childhoods in such “training”, not 3 weeks.
Well, at least they didn’t have their foreskins removed (obviously without them having a say in the matter) at the ripe old age of eight days, by people who have as much medical/surgical training as I have. ><
Hair grows back, you know.
I wasn’t refering to the hair shaving, but thanks for shifting the focus to Judaeism??????
Judaism? They could have been referring to the North American “medical” practice of circumcision.
Actually both. (I guess Americans took the ritual circumcision as a good example?)
I’m not against Judaism, as I’m Jewish myself, I’m just against the horrible practice of performing unnecessary surgery and removing a very important piece of skin from a very delicate area – without any anaesthesia and with a very high risk for MANY complications, including, but not limited to: Permanent deformation of the organ itself – if not accidental removal of it altogether, contracting herpes (because of the tradition of “metzitza” – sucking. Exactly what it says on the tin, btw. read all about it in wiki, or google it). And other sorts of infections and diseases. Removing too much skin and causing problems down the road, and the list goes on.
Also, it doesn’t look a lot worse than sitting in a classroom, or PE. Just because they (probably) don’t have access to Facebook or a Nintendo Wii 24/7 doesn’t make it “cruelty”.
How many times have small children cried all over the world because they didn’t want to be separated from their parents on the first day of kindergarten? How many of them were horribly abused there?
Many things are done to children without their consent for their own good, vaccines, haircuts, baths, enrollment in school, dental work. For every circumcision horror story, there are millions who have been spared disease and sickness because of it.
duska is just another american racist douchebag
How is this child abuse? I really don’t understand. It’s part of a cultural practice. Of course some kids are going to be scared or angry that they got a haircut. Not everyone likes it. I would appreciate it if you could give me valid proof that shows that these kids were abused. Please take a step back from your own cultural upbringing (which is really incredibly difficult, I admit) when viewing rituals and practices of other cultures.
#4: Mini Monk on Bored
@ Molly: Not all kids who get circumcised do so without anesthesia. In North America, if you have it done in a clinic or hospital, they use lidocaine. Its a sterile procedure, as would be any surgery. I don’t know how its done in orthodox Judaism but painting everyone with the same brush is inaccurate.
Shaving a kid’s head is child abuse? Talk about lowering the bar!