Cambodia

Don't rub your eyes, you are still on the right blog. You may be wondering, "What on earth is Cambodia doing on a so-called Japan only blog?" Well, we went to Cambodia for a short break, so please indulge us and allow us to write about it. We will however, make some reference to Japan sometime later in this post, so read on...

Flying on Jetstar Asia to Siem Reap, we (Daniel, Joy & Jill) stayed 3 days then took a 6 hour bus ride to Phnom Penh where we stayed another 3 days. We visited the usual tourist spots such as the temples around Angkor Wat, the S-21 genocide museum and the killing fields. A lot of times, we simply chilled out at coffee joints to escape the searing Cambodia heat and to watch the locals pass by.

Angkor Wat was quite an experience for us. Through these well preserved temples, we managed to get a good understanding of the social fabric of Cambodia in the 11th century. For many temples, there is a fusion of Hindu & Buddhist influences. For example, one particular temple has 5 main halls: each dedicated respectively to Buddha, Brahman, Vishnu, Shiva, including one designated as a dancing hall (I suppose we all need outlets for amusement...)

The Buddhist king who built this temple wanted to preserve peace in a then-predominately Hindu society. This was in spite of the two religions have distinct teachings from each other. It is not uncommon then to see statues of Buddha sitting alongside a Hindu mystical creature (e.g. Garuda or Naga) in the temples around Angkor Wat.

In Japan, such pluralistic worldviews are widely accepted today. Operation Japan quotes the number of believers as:

* Shinto: 109 million
* Buddhist: 96 million
* Christian: 1.5 million
* Other: 10.5 million

This puts the official number of believers in the various religions to about 217 million, which far exceeds Japan's population of 128 million. Most Japanese follow a combination of religions. In a lifetime, they may have had a Shinto birth ceremony, a Christian wedding and a Buddhist funeral.

What should be a Christian's response to religious pluralism? Emotions often run high when we debate such sensitive issues. Do we risk being labeled a hate-mongering intolerant bigot and insist on Jesus being the only way to God? While we wholeheartedly value peace and harmony, we would only negate the main ideology of the Christian faith if we profess otherwise.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." - Jesus (John 14:6)