abbot

St Beuno, a seventh century abbot, was said to be so grateful to a curlew for rescuing his prayer book after it fell into the sea that he asked for all curlews to be protected.

And at the closing ceremony, Yeo-am, the temple’s abbot, offered some parting words of wisdom.

State media puts out a continuous stream of reports showing the diminutive dictator lavishing gifts on temples, and as a pallbearer at the funerals of senior abbots.

Enclosed in a shrine, the skeletal frame of a man is posed in meditation, legs crossed beneath bright abbot’s robes while his bony hands rest on top.

A Buddhist abbot who established a thriving religious community in southern Taiwan and built universities overseas.