Buddha

The brick Buddha of Baltimore sits still and serene in the face of mortals in transit.Every day, some 100,000 people pour into the city on the Jones Falls Expressway and 5,000 more come by light rail. More than a few, surely, have glimpsed the tan Buddha behind the former Cannon Shoe factory on Mount Royal Avenue since May.But until two months ago, only one -- a young Vietnamese woman named Amy "Cuc" Huynh -- took time to pay respects. Since her maiden pilgrimage, dozens have arrived each Sunday to picnic and pray at the feet of a project left behind by a Maryland Institute, College of Art graduate.

Donald McColl was ready to start his PowerPoint presentation on the questionable origin of some early Christian artworks, but the equipment was acting up. A student asked, "Does anyone have a paper clip?" It was a joke. No one has a paper clip in prison. This summer, a caravan of scholars and students has been traveling 65 miles from the rustic Chestertown campus of Washington College to the barbed-wire fortress of Jessup Correctional Institution to teach ethics to prisoners.

LANTAU ISLAND, Hong Kong -- This is about an exceptionally savvy monk, a really big buddha and some curious dealings.The Buddhist monk, the Rev. Sik Chi Wai, chief executive of the Po Lin Monastery here, has a moon-shaped face accentuated by black half-circles under his eyes. He's what the Chinese call a "political monk."His business card lists leadership posts with a dozen groups. His confident air bears more in common with, say, Ross Perot than the detachment advised by the 6th-century B.C. Indian prince known as Buddha.

Many of my favorite Baltimore bars have been tucked away in unassuming nooks and crannies. That's the case with Funky Buddha, an all-but-hidden watering hole in the basement beneath Kumari, an Indian and Nepalese restaurant in Mount Vernon. The Funky Buddha is a hit, not because of its intimate digs or eye-opening drink specials, but its human factor. The manager, Bonnie Roberts, brings a warm, comforting presence to the Funky Buddha. She's the real reason it's a hit. Roberts, who has worked at Eden's Lounge and Melba's Place, took over the Funky Buddha in March.

WHOEVER sent Larry Bigbie the green jade Buddha, please stand up. It worked. "There was no note. It just came in the mail," Bigbie said, reaching up to the top shelf of his locker last night. He pulled down the miniature statue, cradling the big-bellied talisman in the palm of his hand. "No offense to all the people who sent me stuff, but I had to take it all down. Except this one. I think I'll keep this one," he said. Homers for Buddha: Bigbie's search for a good-luck charm ended when Bigbie announced himself last night, finally, in grand fashion to Charm City.

NEW YORK - Talent overcame experience yesterday in the Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct. Buddha and Medaglia d'Oro, 3-year-olds making just their fourth starts, finished one-two in the critical lead-in to the Kentucky Derby. Neither will probably be favored in the first leg of the Triple Crown May 4 at Churchill Downs. That honor will likely fall to Harlan's Holiday, impressive winner yesterday in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. The Wood, Blue Grass and Arkansas Derby - the final three major tests for Kentucky Derby candidates - provided racing fans their best look yet at the horses likely to compete in America's most-watched race.

Yesterday was the first full moon of May, the day Buddhists around the world traditionally celebrate the birth, enlightenment and death of Siddhartha Gautama, known commonly as the Buddha.Documentable facts are few, but it is generally accepted that he was born in the sixth century B.C. in what is now Nepal but at the time was part of India. As the story goes, his father, a nobleman, wished to shelter his young son from all the pain that life offers most mortals, and thus kept the young prince inside the castle walls living in the lap of luxury for his formative years.

NEW YORK - For a further glimpse into this murky crystal ball of Kentucky Derby prognosticating, focus for a moment upon two horses: Medaglia d'Oro and Buddha. They have each raced only three times, yet Medaglia d'Oro is the morning-line favorite and Buddha the early third choice in the $750,000 Wood Memorial Stakes tomorrow at Aqueduct. Their high standing despite a conspicuous lack of seasoning exemplifies the bewildering search for stars in this year's Kentucky Derby firmament. "A lot of entries in these weekend races are just a reflection of how wide open this year is," said Bill Mott, trainer of Wood entrant Blue Burner, a veteran by comparison with five starts.

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia -- Storm clouds roll over the city and suddenly rip open to pour rain over this sprawling, dusty outpost. A crowd of Buddhists crane their necks heavenward and weep.It is more than relief from the blazing central Asian sky that prompts the tears. These people believe they are witnessing a miracle. Mongolians wipe the sweat off winning racehorses for good luck, and these believers rub and lather the rain into their hands and faces."A gift from the gods," someone says.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - John Ward Jr., who trained last year's Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos, says that a year like this, when no 3-year-old appears dominant, affords a late-developing horse the opportunity to win the Triple Crown. Bob Baffert, a two-time winning trainer of the Derby, believes he knows who that horse might be. Baffert will saddle a pair in the 128th Kentucky Derby today at Churchill Downs; neither horse is the one. "If I was going to trade for a horse, I'd trade for Frankel's," Baffert said, referring to Medaglia d'Oro, managed by three-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Bobby Frankel.

WHOEVER sent Larry Bigbie the green jade Buddha, please stand up. It worked. "There was no note. It just came in the mail," Bigbie said, reaching up to the top shelf of his locker last night. He pulled down the miniature statue, cradling the big-bellied talisman in the palm of his hand. "No offense to all the people who sent me stuff, but I had to take it all down. Except this one. I think I'll keep this one," he said. Homers for Buddha: Bigbie's search for a good-luck charm ended when Bigbie announced himself last night, finally, in grand fashion to Charm City.

Armed forces chief is latest to resign in Colombian shake-up BOGOTA, Colombia - The commander of Colombia's armed forces said yesterday that he is resigning, joining three Cabinet ministers who have stepped down in a shake-up marring President Alvaro Uribe's administration. Gen. Jorge Enrique Mora, 58, a hard-nosed soldier with 42 years of army experience and an intense, vocal hatred of Marxist rebels, said in a nationally televised news conference that five years as the military's top commander was enough.

A Memorable Place Getting to know all about Bangkok By Peg Silloway SPECIAL TO THE SUN He loomed over me with a fiendish grin and wild eyes above vicious tusks. Immense blue hands grasped an intricately carved staff. I was face to face -- well, face to knee -- with an armored, helmeted and gilded demon. Squinting against the intense Bangkok sun, I braced myself and leaned back to take in the full impact. Until this business trip, what I knew of Thailand came from The King and I. But in Bangkok I saw a city of beauty, noise, smiles, congestion, courtesy, pollution, tradition and surging growth.

Even before the house lights come up in the theater, while the final credits for The Matrix Reloaded are still rolling, the arguments begin. Is the character named Neo the Messiah? Will Zion be destroyed? Is the last face seen on the screen supposed to be Judas? The discussions, some of them heated, continue as viewers file from the multiplex and spill out under the marquee. As Matrix mania continues to sweep the country, Americans are debating whether the much anticipated sequel is just another science-fiction action movie, or a spiritually significant film rife with profound religious symbolism.

Baltimore's Walters Art Museum, already a significant repository of Asian artworks, announced a gift yesterday of more than 150 works that moves it to the forefront of American museums with such collections. The gift, which includes such items as an accordion-pleated manuscript depicting elephants real and divine, a 6-foot-high Burmese lacquer image of the Buddha and a 19th-century carved wooden pulpit from Thailand, came from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which holds the many works collected by the late heiress and philanthropist.

Phil T. Rich, Global Village Idiot, Chef of the Activist Kitchen, or Brother Void -- would the real Andrew Boyd please stand up? Andrew Boyd, a 39-year-old author / political activist / performance artist / street theater producer from New York, brings new meaning to multiple personality. As Phil T. Rich, for instance, he co-chaired the satiric "Billionaires for Bush (or Gore)" campaign in 2000, which offered such slogans as "Corporations are people too" and "Bribery will get you everything."

Today, a little more than a month after the accidental shooting death of 13-year-old Tanun "Byrd" Wichainaraphong, Byrd and his family no doubt remain in the thoughts and prayers of many Howard County residents. Byrd's mother and brothers were among the participants from Ellicott City in the Million Mom March promoting gun safety on Mother's Day. For the Wichainaraphong family, like so many families who have lost loved ones to gun violence and accidental shootings, the march presented an opportunity to channel personal loss into public action.

After showing the world Marlon Brando in the nude, what else was left?But Bernardo Bertolucci, whose radically imagined "Last Tango in Paris" established him as one of the world's great directors back in 1972, has found plenty.He's shown a leftist cavalcade of Italian politics in "1900," claimed by some to be a classic and by others to be a tapestry of propaganda. He's taken us inside the fall of the Mandarin empire in "The Last Emperor," which watched as China convulsed from one kind of dictatorship to another, turning on the personality of the inadequate little man who was born a god and ended up a serf.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - John Ward Jr., who trained last year's Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos, says that a year like this, when no 3-year-old appears dominant, affords a late-developing horse the opportunity to win the Triple Crown. Bob Baffert, a two-time winning trainer of the Derby, believes he knows who that horse might be. Baffert will saddle a pair in the 128th Kentucky Derby today at Churchill Downs; neither horse is the one. "If I was going to trade for a horse, I'd trade for Frankel's," Baffert said, referring to Medaglia d'Oro, managed by three-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Bobby Frankel.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Two Maryland-breds, the horse Cigar and the trainer Grover G. "Bud" Delp, have been elected to thoroughbred racing's Hall of Fame. In an announcement yesterday at Churchill Downs, an official of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame named Cigar (contemporary male), Delp (trainer), Serena's Song (contemporary female), Noor (horse of yesteryear) and Jack Westrope (jockey) for induction Aug. 5 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. "What can I say? It doesn't get any better than this," Delp said by phone from Maryland.