At last week’s Angulimala Workshop there was almost universal dismay when I announced that because the importers had gone out of business we had no Buddha Rupas for chaplains to take away and offer their Buddhist prisoners. The next day I decided something had to be done. So I sat down to some determined Googling and eventually turned up a site that displayed a picture of a Buddha Rupa that looked identical with the type that Security at the Prison Service gave their blessing to and which we have been giving out for a number of years now. I rang the lady and learnt that they were expecting a container delivery of these and other things from Thailand on Wednesday. On Friday we went to have a look and discovered a wonderful Aladdin’s Cave of fabulous Buddha Rupas of all shapes and sizes as well as other treasures mostly from Northern Thailand. And only an hour and a half from here! As you can see from the pictures Roots Emporium is only a little shop, but next to it there is a lean-to building and both were crammed, floor to ceiling with hardly space to move around and look at the fabulous things they contain. What was remarkable too was that it hardly felt as if you were in a commercial establishment. That meant a lot to me because I really don’t like seeing people making money out of Buddha Rupas and Dhamma books. Not only that but we were offered a very generous discount. And so we came away laden with small Buddha Rupas of the kind we were looking for and some much larger ones for Buddhist shrines and multifaith rooms in some of the prisons.