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.
