Digital Pali Reader development weblog. All Is Burning. A Buddhist forum. Access to Insight. Mindfulness In Plain English. A PDF preview from the 20th edition - Click Here Special Offer - 20% Off the latest edition / The 20th Anniversary Edition - eBook or paperback / See Below "Mindfulness in Plain English" has been on UrbanDharma.org a while now for free download, but the edition I posted years ago was the first edition and is now rather dated.
Over the last few months I have been in contact with the publisher at Wisdom Publications about M.I.P.E... Buddhist Monks Ceremonial Fans. Thai Buddhist Monks Ceremonial Fans At observances in which Buddhist monks are in attending, one of the more noteworthy paraphernalia is the detailed and decorative monk's fan.
It us used to cover the monk's face as he delivers addresses the devottes at the temple. Originally, monks' fans, called talapatr in Thai, were simpler affairs made from palm leaves, and had short handles. There are a number of theories as to their origin, one of the more practical—if not particularly delicate—being that they were for shielding the monk from the smell of putrefaction. The stench was due to the ancient custom of making monastic robes from the shroud in which a corpse has been wrapped—a symbolic act of forswearing of comfort; the monk would have to remove the cloth, using a small palm fan to cover his nose.