A story from BusinessWeek looks at why a growing number of successful urban professionals are flocking to Buddhism:
Buddhism is booming — quite a paradox given the Communist Party’s official atheism and its troubled relationship with the Dalai Lama. The faith’s growing popularity reflects a yearning for meaning among China’s yuppies, who increasingly are attracted to Buddhism’s rejection of materialism and emphasis on the transitory nature of life. “They have a BMW and a house in the countryside,” says Lawrence Brahm, an American who runs three boutique hotels, including one in Tibet. “And they’re bored. They’re realizing there’s more to life than collecting toys.” Buddhism’s trendiness has spawned a surge in faith-related business: Flights to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, are booked solid, monasteries are building guesthouses, and Web sites offering free downloadable mantras are proliferating. [Full Text]
[Image: Buddhists crowd the Yonghe Temple to burn incense, via businessweek.com]
