BANGKOK, Aug 24 (AFP) - Dozens of Buddhist leaders, including Cambodia's supreme patriarch, are to gather in the Thai capital from Monday to review the religion's approach to tackling the HIV/AIDS crisis ravaging parts of Asia.
A five-day seminar sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund and governments of five Asian countries will gather 60 monks, nuns and government officials to hash out ways to stem the HIV tide and reduce the suffering brought on by the disease.
"The five countries involved are all at different stages of accepting that clergy and religious leaders have a very important role to play", UNICEF's regional advisor on HIV/AIDS Robert Bennoun told AFP, referring to participants from Cambodia, China, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
"Those at the beginning of the road can learn from those a lot further down the road."
The Buddhist ideals of moderation, self-discipline and compassion are central to effective HIV prevention and care in the Mekong River sub-region, an area ravaged by AIDS over the past decade, UNICEF said in a statement.
"Religious leaders have a great deal to contribute to a national AIDS effort," Bennoun said in the statement.
"A number of Buddhist clergy, temples and nunneries are responding to the impact of HIV/AIDS in their own ways. What we haven't got is the institutional arrangements to take that forward," Bennoun said.
Cambodia, a country decimated by the AIDS epidemic, has taken the regional lead in embracing Buddhist approaches as part of its national AIDS policy -- and should be emulated by its regional neighbours, Bennoun said.
"Cambodia is the first country in the world to enact legislation to support the role of Buddhist clergy and institutions in responding to the prevention of and care in the epidemic," he said.
The country's leading Buddhist figure, Supreme Patriarch Somdech Tep Vong, will preside over the Bangkok seminar.
"It is part of the traditional role for monks and nuns to provide a refuge for the people. By taking the Buddha as our example, we who follow the Buddha's path, monks, nuns and lay people, can help bring an end to the suffering caused by HIV and AIDS", the patriarch said in the statement.
"The Buddha taught that the prime cause for suffering is ignorance and that by overcoming ignorance, we can overcome suffering."
The extent of the HIV crisis is well-documented in Thailand -- a country where the UN has estimated that one million Thais have been infected with HIV-AIDS -- with several Buddhist programmes here set up to fight the spread of HIV.
In Myanmar, progress on incorporating the religious communities' efforts at battling HIV have been "slow in coming, but the doors are opening," Bennoun said.
He also spoke of how the reluctance among the communist leaderships in China and Vietnam has given way in recent years to a realisation that Buddhism and its clergy are helping pave the way to responsible approaches to dealing with HIV/AIDS.
No specific regional initiatives will be on offer during the conference, which is seen instead as an opportunity for monks and lay participants including ministerial department chiefs to put their heads together about an appropriate Buddhist response.
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