David on Formosa

The Dalai Lama arrived in Taiwan on a China Airlines flight from Delhi late last night. He was welcomed by Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu before taking a specially chartered high speed train to Kaohsiung. Given the short time frame between the Dalai Lama’s invitation and his arrival in Taiwan it is not surprising there have [...]

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is set to visit Taiwan next week to provide comfort to the victims of the Typhoon Morakot. He was invited by DPP city and county chiefs in Southern Taiwan. President Ma Ying-jeou subsequently gave his approval for the visit. In December last year Ma rejected the possibility of the Dalai [...]

Thousands of Thai people gathered at the Taoyuan Stadium today to celebrate Songkran, the Thai New Year. The festival is also known as the Water Festival and often includes riotous water fights. It was a beautiful sunny day for the event in Taoyuan, although the water throwing was rather tame in comparison to what goes [...]

Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan is a new book by Richard Madsen. Madsen was formerly ordained in the Maryknoll Order which brought him to Taiwan in the late 1960s. He later left the order for an academic career. He is currently Professor of Sociology at the University of California. Democracy’s Dharma [...]

A candlelight vigil for Tibet was held at Freedom Square (自由廣場) in Taipei tonight. The event was organised by the Taiwan Friends of Tibet and the Tibet Religious Foundation of HH the Dalai Lama (representative office of the Tibetan Government-in-exile in Taipei). I only found out about the event in the afternoon, but was able [...]

A march to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising was held in Taipei today. The march was organised by the Taiwan Friends of Tibet. Several hundred people including members of the local Tibetan community and supporters of Tibet gathered at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. From there they marched through the streets of Taipei [...]

The 2007 International Conference on Religious Culture and Gender Ethics (宗教文化與性別倫理國際學術會議) was held over the weekend at Hsuan Chuang University (玄裝大學) in Xinzhu.  I was one of the MCs at the conference. I made all the announcements in English, while Doris made the announcements in Mandarin.  On the first day of the conference the keynote [...]