Dear Jon,

thanks for sharing the story. Can I say this Dhammapala isn't one of
three well-known ones, as you may read on Wikipedia?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhammapala

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Jon Fernquest wrote:

I have one paper in the works on the Burmese king Bayinnaung
(1550-1581), relics, and relations with Sri Lanka. There's definitely
a mystery in this case, as the Burmese chronicle claims he received
the relics from Dhammapala, two times circa 1554 and circa 1576, but
Dhammapala was converted to Catholicism in 1557. Bayinnaung enshrined
these relics as far away as the Tai statelet of Mong Mit on the border
with Yunnan (a famous source of precious stones during the Ming
dynasty). The descriptions of these enshrinements are rich in detail
and were definitely an important part of the conversion of the Tai
groups to Buddhism. Relics were also enshrined at places of victory in
battle and the tusk of Bayinnaung's war elephant that broke offin
battle was also enshrined. Some people from a contemporary perspective
want to draw lines around what they consider Buddhism and not Buddhism
(enshrining the tooth of a war elephant is definitely pushing it), but
I believe Buddhism has always existed as a unique hybrid in every
culture that has adopted it, the western socially conscious Buddhism
also being one example. Anyway, my goal is just to objectively
document history as recorded, not make normative arguments.