Zrození tygra - Kambodžské buddhistické příběhy – Kuchlei Štěpán (2021)

The stories you will find in this book, tales of monks, pagodas, and everyday Buddhism in Cambodian cities and especially the countryside, are inspired by or based on legends, folk tales, anecdotes, and various snippets that the author encountered and collected during his stay in Cambodia. All the short stories, notes, anecdotes, and sketches touch upon the history of the Kingdom of Cambodia, the development of Buddhism, and everyday life, particularly its inseparable component, faith. Buddhism is ever-present in the lives of the Khmer people; it influences their language and thinking, the way they greet each other, and their behavior patterns. It affects education, values, morality, and the worldview of the Khmer, and all rituals, acts, and celebrations are somehow connected to religion. The stories describe the reflection of religion and philosophy in everyday life, explain the origins of certain traditions, the firm belief in spirits and dark forces that Buddhism protects the Khmers from, how to greet monks and why, the punishment that awaits those who do not do so, what awaits us after death, and how to avoid future suffering. Others are fables or jokes, fairy tales or folk narratives about monks and their students, about the practical life of monks in pagodas, about...