Das Jati ( Jataka tale operas by Somtow Sucharitkul. Image courtesy of Buddhist Opera No one thought that Buddhist democracy was a thing until Bhutan showed that it could be. Buddhist opera? That, too, is a thing. And thanks to the enthusiasm and research of Margaret Gillon of California, there is now an incredible new resource available to all at the Buddhist Opera website. It all began innocently and fairly enough. Gillon is a fan of the renowned writer on Buddhism Stephen Batchelor, perhaps best known for his book The Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture (Parallax Press 1994). She learned that Batchelor is also an artist with a habit of making a collage of found objects each time he writes a book, each collage taking exactly the same length of time as writing the book. This fact fascinated Gillon. And then she learned that he had written an opera, called