The Times of India reports that Buddhist monks in Cambodia have successfully convinced Cambodian authorities to ban “Where Elephants Weep,” a modernized version of a traditional Cambodian love story – told rock opera style.
“Some scenes in the story insult Buddhism,” opines a letter from the Supreme Sangha Council of Buddhist Monks to the Cambodian Ministry of Cults and Religion. The program, shown on television, relays the story of a Cambodian-American man who returns to his homeland after the fall of the Khmer Rouge and “falls into a doomed love affair with a pop singer.”
The offending scenes? One of many portrayed an actor who “left the monkhood and slept with a woman, but a moment later [he] put the robe back on to be a monk again.”
Continuing proof that no matter what the setting, sex, drugs and rock and roll (okay, minus the drugs) can still manage to outrage the devout among us. Frank Zappa would be proud.