China Digital Times

China news tagged with: Buddhism (30)

• Buddhism Thrives As China Relaxes Religious Policy

  

  From AFP:

  Temples thrive, monks travel far and wide in search of enlightenment, the faithful fill the halls of worship — after decades of atheist policies, Buddhism is making a huge comeback in China.

  Nowhere is this revival more apparent than at Wutaishan, the most important of China’s four holy mountains and home to a sprawling complex of temples, 300 kilometres (180 miles) southwest of Beijing.

  “I have come to study at Wutaishan because Zen Buddhism, Han Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, all the different schools from different places, are represented here and mixed together,” itinerant monk Master Shi told AFP.

  » Read more
  • July 7, 2009 1:30 AM

• Atheist China Allows Buddhist Relics Exhibition

  

  The Times of India reports that the Chinese government has returned two Buddhist relics to the Beijing Yunju Temple for display. The relics, believed to be from the body of the Sakyamuni, have been kept in an underground vault in the Capital Museum:

  Chinese authorities have taken several other measures of similar nature in recent months. In early June, it ordered restoration of a thousand-year-old site called the “Caves of a Thousand Buddhas”, near the city of Turpan in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. This is the biggest effort to renovate the site since 1949 when the atheist state of the People’s Republic of China was established

  Communist leaders have also promoted a World Buddhism Conference for two successive years with the dual purpose to attracting the attention of Buddhists across the world to China while trying to establish that Tibetan Buddhism can stand on its own without the need of the Dalai Lama. This is why it has been encouraging the Panchan Lama, who was handpicked by China, to play an important role in these conferences.

  “I hope the traditional culture can be passed on through viewing the Buddha relics. I hope people’s hearts can be purified,” the official media quoted Master Chuan Yin, a senior monk at the Beijing Yunju Temple as saying after performing the ceremony for receiving the relics from the government-run museum.

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  • June 25, 2009 1:08 PM

• More About the Chongqing Temple Predicament

  

  On her blog Inside-Out China, Xujun Eberlain provides more information about the commercial development that is threatening a 1,000-year-old temple in Chongqing:

  So, whatever the real reasons were behind the Hot Spring Temple’s protest, the case has already raised another important issue (in addition to the religious property rights I mentioned in the previous post): the legitimacy of the government’s role in controlling religious affairs. If this issue is not resolved, more conflicts will surely ensue. The unenlightened Yu aside, it is time for the Chinese government to adjust its religious policy.

  In the current situation, religious personnel are like a daughter-in-law with no husband but having multiple bossy (and sometimes even abusive) mothers-in-law: there’s the Committee for Ethnic and Religious Affairs from the government line (市政府民宗委); there’s the United Front Work Department from the Party line (市委统战部); there’s the Subcommittee for Ethnic and Religious Affairs from the Political Consultative Conference line (政协民宗委); there’s also the government-controlled “mass organization” – Buddhist Association (佛协). What a big mess. Do the solitude-seeking monks really need this many mothers-in-law? And, when there is a conflict like this one, none of them help.

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  • May 7, 2009 9:33 PM

• Thousand Year Old Temple to be Destroyed, Luxury ‘Bathhouse’ to Be Built (Updated)

  

  A centuries’ old Buddhist temple in Chongqing is about to become part of a luxury “bathhouse” complex. News of the temple’s fate is currently circulating around the Chinese blogosphere. The following is one netizen’s view, selectively translated by CDT:

  

  A brief introduction to the Beibei Wenquan Temple in Chongqing: the Wenquan temple and its first master were established in the first year of the Northern and Southern Dynasties (423 A.D.), and is linked to the Mahayana sect. It has gone through the tides of great changes through the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties. … Past notable figures include Hui Guan, Cheng Pin, Chang Tai, Da Fang, Xiang Yan, Long Shu, and so on. The Wenquan temple is a famous temple in the area, having thorough teachings and traditional instruction on Buddhist thought.

  重庆北碚温泉寺简介：温泉寺于慈应禅师创建于南北朝景平元年（公元423年），属大乘佛教临济宗。历经唐、宋、元、明、清，沧桑兴废 … 历代高僧有慧灌、成聘、常泰、大方、香延、隆树等。温泉寺为川东名刹，教化四方之所，传承法脉之地。

  

  Recently however, the temple’s auspicious location has attracted some attention, and some desire to transform the temple into Chongqing’s largest relaxation and vice establishment, or a “bathhouse.” Several moneyed and coarse capitalists, in collusion with corrupt local officials, have staged the world’s biggest joke: it uses the Wenquan temple as its building material, a bathhouse as its front, and prostitution as its aim.

  而如今，有人看上了这一方风水宝地，欲在这里建重庆最大的休闲色情场所，“洗浴中心”。几个财大气粗的资本家，在勾结当地腐败官员后，上演了本世纪最大的笑话……用温泉做料，洗浴为名，情色交易为主。

  

  

  The temple received some pro bono counsel from those who tried to understand their situation. But in my decades of experiences in this society, they don’t have much hope; it’s inconceivable that they’d get very far. Perhaps after one phone call, the shadow of their simple lives could disappear without a trace.

  法律界人士在了解情况，准备无偿为寺院提供法律援助。但以我几十年的社会经验，对此并不抱有太大的希望，无法想象他们能走多远。或许只须一个电话，他们单薄的身影就会消失的无影无踪。

  

  

  The Religious Affairs Management has used “inspection” as an excuse, persisting in disrupting the temple’s normal order.

  宗教管理部门以“调研”为借口，坚持干扰佛寺正常宗教秩序。

  

  

  

  These are some precious [Song Dynasty] Buddhist cultural artifacts. Take one more look at them — they are hidden by the large road to the bathhouse, and no one knows what their fate will be.

  The final era of culture. Aside from the government’s influence, what else will we sacrifice on the road for our so-called economic development? After 100 years, how will later generations criticize our period of history?

  这些都是国宝级的佛教文物
  　　再看一眼他们吧
  　　因为它们正好挡在情色洗浴扩张的大路上，没人知道它们的命运…
  　　文化的断代，除了政治的因素之外，还要牺牲在所谓的经济建设的道路上吗？
  　　百年后，后人该怎么评说这段历史？

  

  

  

  Aside from seriously hurting the Buddhists’ feelings, the cover-up of the illegal behavior ironically coincides with the second session of the World Buddhist Forum in Wuxi. Thousands of monks from 56 countries will assemble to talk about “Harmonious Society, Unity of the Multitudes.” This is a serious provocation of the country’s religious policies and Buddhist interests!

  而如此严重的损害佛教徒宗教感情，侵吞佛教教产的违法行为却发生在第二届世界佛教论坛在中国无锡盛大举行的时候，来自56个国家的僧团及数千名佛教徒聚集无锡梵宫畅谈“和谐世界，众缘和合”之际。是对国家宗教政策和佛教利益的严重挑衅！

  

  The regional authority’s important “written comments,” that was authorization for the [bathhouse plan] implementation.

  区级领导的重要“批示”，并且开始执行。

  

  Do you dare to look upon the State Council’s religious policies?

  而这些国务院的宗教政策文件你们敢看吗？

  

  Update: We have changed the headline and introduction to this post, which previously implied that the entire temple would be demolished. We thank Xujun Eberlein for pointing this out, and for providing additional details about the fate of the Beibei Wenquan Temple.

  » Read more
  • April 24, 2009 2:59 PM

• China Turns to Buddhism to Calm Tibet, Taiwan Tensions

  

  Lucy Hornby of Reuters writes about China’s move to co-host the Second World Buddhist Forum:

  Communist China and Taiwan are for the first time jointly hosting a Buddhist forum at this lakeside city on Saturday, as Beijing turns to Buddhism as a balm for global economic turmoil and internal unrest.

  “Harmonious world”, the theme of the second World Buddhist Forum that begins in Wuxi, echoes the “harmonious society” slogans of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

  Gargantuan re-creations of Tibetan and South Asian prayer halls, built in a vast park housing a 1,000-year-old pagoda, show the resources China’s formally atheist state is prepared to invest to reclaim its Buddhist mantle.

  More background on the forum, from Xinhua:

  The Second World Buddhist Forum will open on Saturday in Wuxi City of east China’s Jiangsu Province.

  The forum, which is scheduled to be held from March 28 to April 1, is expected to bring together more than 1,200 participants from about 50 countries and regions.

  [...]The participants will take part in 17 sub-forums and will discuss topics including charity, environmental protection, culture, music and education.

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  • March 27, 2009 9:45 PM

• Photos: New Years Banner at a Buddhist Temple in Lishui, Nanjing

  

  Lishui is a national-level ecological reserve located in the west of the Yangtze Delta, 38 kilometers away from Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu Province.

  The following photos were taken by a netizen who recently visited a well-known Buddhist Temple, No Thought Temple 无想寺, which is situated in a remote area of Lishui. Two banners hung at the entrance of the reserve:

  “The No Thought Zen Temple’s Bell Ringing Ceremony to Send Off the Old Year and Welcome the New Year, Praying that All Leaders at Every Rank Have Good Luck for Promotion, Embraced and Supported by Every Household.”

  These photos are the latest hot item in Chinese cyberspace.

  

  » Read more
  • February 1, 2009 12:32 AM

• Town Asks Kung Fu Monks for Tourism Blessings

  

  The New York Times writes about the town of Guandu, in Yunnan, where the commissioner of ethnic and religious affairs became discouraged when renovated Buddhist temples failed to generate tourist income:

  Mr. Dou found a savior 1,200 miles away, in the Song Mountains of central China, where the warrior monks of Shaolin have mastered the art of monastery marketing. Since the early 1990s, the chief abbot, Shi Yongxin, has turned Shaolin into a lucrative draw for kung fu enthusiasts and has transformed his lithe disciples into global emissaries for the temple’s crowd-pleasing mix of Zen Buddhism and fly-kick combat.

  In November, the two parties struck a straightforward deal. In exchange for managing the Guandu temples for 30 years, the monks will keep all proceeds from the donation boxes and gift shops. In a news release announcing the arrangement, Shaolin said its primary goals were to carry out charitable activities, maintain the temples and “spread the faith.”

  Mr. Dou, who described himself as an atheist, sees things somewhat differently. “We’re going to use their fame to attract more business,” he said on Wednesday as he and a batch of newly arrived monks exchanged pleasantries.

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  • January 3, 2009 11:37 PM

• Buddha’s Caves

  

  As part of his continuing series on China’s cultural legacy, New York Times art critic Holland Cotter reports from Dunhuang on the state of the Mogaoku Buddhist cave paintings:

  Mogaoku is in trouble. Thrown open to visitors in recent decades, the site has been swamped by tourists in the past few years. The caves now suffer from high levels of carbon dioxide and humidity, which are severely undermining conservation efforts. The short-term solution has been to limit the number of caves that can be visited and to admit people only on timed tours, but the deterioration continues.

  [...] The question of access versus preservation is a poignant one and is by no means confined to Mogaoku. It applies to many fragile monuments. What are we willing to give up to keep what we have? If you’re a Buddhist — I am not — you know that the material world is a phantom or a dream, “a flash of lightning in a summer cloud, a flickering lamp,” as the Buddha puts it in the Diamond Sutra.

  As part of that world Mogaoku is a phantom too, but one that I had always wanted to see, one of my must-get-to-in-this-lifetime places. And finally I was here.

  » Read more
  • July 6, 2008 1:58 PM

• Resemblances Between the Buddhist and Roman Catholic Religions

  

  The Tibetan lama listened respectfully to the Jesuit priest and replied, “Your religion is the same as ours.” Lydia Maria Child writes in The Atlantic Monthly:

  Those who strive to establish a monopoly of labor are accustomed to sneer at the Chinese as “Pagans.” They urge that citizenship ought not to be granted to them, because their religion is different from ours. Yet those who talk in this way make no objection to receiving Irish emigrants and intrusting them with the elective franchise. But is the Buddhist religion, which prevails in China, much more foreign to our customs and our modes of thinking and believing than the Roman Catholic religion is? There are, in fact, many striking resemblances between the two, and in some particulars the parallel is so close that it is difficult to perceive any difference, except in names. I will verify this declaration by pointing out some of the most obvious points of similarity.

  Buddha Sakia — which means the Holy Sakia, or Saint Sakia — is reverenced by his numerous followers as Christians reverence Jesus Christ. The date of his birth is veiled in obscurity, and varies much in different countries. According to Mongol records it was two thousand one hundred and thirty-four years before the Christian era; but, according to Chinese records, it was one thousand twenty-nine years. Sir William Jones and other learned Oriental scholars, who have examined the subject, think they find sufficient evidence that lie came into this world about a thousand years before Christ.

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  • May 26, 2008 9:10 PM

• Mountain Residents Bulldozed Out of Government’s World Heritage Vision

  

  The Guardian reports that Chinese authorities are trying to get sacred Wutai Mountain (五台山） named as a world heritage site, and in the process they are destroying the historic homes of the region’s residents. And the residents aren’t happy about it:

  Wang Yulan was particularly bitter as she crouched in a living room on Taiping Street. She said there would be no Buddhist heritage left but for her community.

  “When the Japanese came to Wutai mountain, all the local villagers united to protect the temple and drove out the Japanese devils,” she said. “Then, during the cultural revolution when the Red Guards came, it was us who protected the temples again when people brought things out and destroyed them in the streets. We renovated the places.

  “Now they’re getting rid of our work and our home – it’s like cutting our lifeline,” she said, drawing a hand across her throat in emphasis.

  The report includes an eight-minute video.

  » Read more
  • March 12, 2008 10:55 PM

• China’s Spiritual Awakening – Dexter Roberts

  

  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]

  » Read more
  • January 12, 2008 7:11 PM

• The Dazhai Spirit Gets Religion – Joel Martinsen

  

  From The Danwei blog:

  A large Buddhist temple has been built in the village of Dazhai, Shanxi Province. The village, a renowned patriotic tourist destination, at first glance does not look like the most likely place for a temple. But this is just the latest incarnation of the famous “Dazhai Spirit.”

  Dazhai first came to national prominence as a result of Mao’s proclamation: “Learn from Dazhai in Agriculture.” Under the leadership of Chen Yonggui, the people of Dazhai cleared land for agriculture and built impressive terraces on the hillsides, inspiring the flood of visiting cadres with their spirit of self-reliance. [Full Text]

  

  » Read more
  • October 9, 2007 8:33 AM

• China Tells Living Buddhas To Obtain Permission Before They Reincarnate – Jane Macartney

  

  According to this report, Beijing’s new rules effectively exclude the Dali Lama from any role in recognising a living Buddha of Tibet:

  Tibet’s living Buddhas have been banned from reincarnation without permission from China’s atheist leaders. The ban is included in new rules intended to assert Beijing’s authority over Tibet’s restive and deeply Buddhist people.

  “The so-called reincarnated living Buddha without government approval is illegal and invalid,” according to the order, which comes into effect on September 1.

  The 14-part regulation issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs is aimed at limiting the influence of Tibet’s exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, and at preventing the re-incarnation of the 72-year-old monk without approval from Beijing. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • August 4, 2007 5:50 AM

• Racing Ahead, China Resurrects Its Past – Kent Ewing

  

  From Asia Times:

  As China races into its capitalist future, it is also rediscovering its philosophical and religious past.

  But can the country move backward as it goes forward? Chinese leaders think so, and they are enthusiastically supporting a revival of the ancient philosophical traditions of Confucianism and Taoism. Late last month, for example, the government sponsored a six-day forum dedicated to the interpretation and promotion of Tao Te Ching (or Dai De Jing, “The Book of the Way and Its Virtue”), the foundational text of Taoism, both as a school of thought and a religion, written 2,500 years ago by Lao Zi.

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  • May 8, 2007 9:53 PM

• Video: Thousand Hands Guanyin Performance – Brycejoystick

  

  From Brycejoystick on Youtube.com: Thousand Hands Guanyin Performance by a Chinese Deaf Group:

  » Read more
  • December 7, 2006 3:59 PM

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