{"id":62212,"date":"2012-11-28T14:02:56","date_gmt":"2012-11-28T14:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=62212"},"modified":"2012-11-30T09:49:06","modified_gmt":"2012-11-30T09:49:06","slug":"sri-lanka-announced-plans-to-draw-up-new-guidelines-for-donating-food-to-the-monks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-announced-plans-to-draw-up-new-guidelines-for-donating-food-to-the-monks\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka Announced Plans To Draw Up New Guidelines For Donating Food To The Monks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Sri Lanka has announced plans to draw up new guidelines for donating food to the country&#8217;s Buddhist monks amid concerns about their weight and health.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The ministry said the faithful, who offer alms as a religious tradition, tended to give food that was too high in fat and sugar and monks were developing preventable health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.<\/p>\n<p>The ministry said the faithful, who offer alms as a religious tradition, tended to give food that was too high in fat and sugar and monks were developing preventable health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-announced-plans-to-draw-up-new-guidelines-for-donating-food-to-the-monks\/sri-lanka-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-62213\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-62213\" title=\"sri-lanka\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/sri-lanka.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"585\" height=\"329\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/sri-lanka.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/sri-lanka-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 585px) 100vw, 585px\" \/><\/a>&#8220;The Medical Research Institute has been asked to prepare menus that could be used for alms givings,&#8221; the ministry said in a statement, adding that the new guidelines would be issued next month.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The food that is offered is tasty and very rich and it causes immense health problems for monks,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n<p>There are over 40,000 monks in Sri Lanka, where Buddhism is the religion of the majority of the nation&#8217;s 20 million people. Offering food to monks is believed to bring good luck in this life as well as in the next.<\/p>\n<p>Buddhists who believe in reincarnation also offer food to monks in a bid to transfer good karma or fortune to departed loved ones.<\/p>\n<p>The offering of breakfast or lunch requires much preparation and temples are usually overbooked. Devotees must sometimes wait for a year to get a slot in the alms calendar of a temple.<\/p>\n<p>While monks in urban areas have no shortage of alms, several temples in remote areas have closed down due to a lack of support from impoverished villagers.<\/p>\n<p>The health ministry said it was also setting aside separate wards in every state hospital to treat Buddhist monks as well as other clergy.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.com.au\/travel\/news\/sri-lanka-worries-about-overweight-monks\/story-e6frfq80-1226525333229#ixzz2DWdHbd00\">www.news.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Related posts;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a title=\"Drunken Chief Buddhist Monk: Bitter Truth Revealed With Wild Boar\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/drunken-chief-buddhist-monk-bitter-truth-revealed-with-wild-boar\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Drunken Chief Buddhist Monk: Bitter Truth Revealed With Wild Boar<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":62213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2187,1,2375],"tags":[6733,6735,6734],"class_list":["post-62212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-most-popular","category-news","category-stories","tag-buddhist-monks-and-diet","tag-buddhist-monks-and-disease-and-diabetes","tag-what-buddhist-monks-eat"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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