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China Insists on Naming Living Buddhas
Magwang
Veteran
This is so wrong, I don't know where to start.
It's obvious these bureaucrats wouldn't know the difference between a Buddha - Maitreya is not due for a long time - and a Boddhisatva, such as the Dalai Lama.
* * * * * * * * *
BEIJING (AP) -- Ratcheting up its control over Tibetan Buddhism, China on Friday asserted the sole right to recognize living Buddhas, reincarnations of famous lamas that form the backbone of the religion's clergy.
All future incarnations of living Buddhas related to Tibetan Buddhism "must get government approval," the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the State Administration for Religious Affairs.
China's officially atheistic communist government has increasingly sought to direct Tibetan Buddhism, for centuries the basis of Tibet's civil, religious, cultural and political life. Reincarnate lamas, known as tulkus, often lead religious communities and oversee the training of monks, giving them enormous influence over religious life in Tibet.
China already insists that only the government can approve the appointments of the best-known reincarnates, including the Dalai and Panchen Lamas, the No. 1 and No. 2 figures in Tibetan Buddhism.
A copy of the new rules posted to the administration's Web site said the selection of reincarnates "must preserve national unity and solidarity of all ethnic groups."
"The process cannot be influenced by any group or individual from outside the country," it said in an apparent reference to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.
The Dalai Lama, 71, fled to India in 1959 amid an aborted uprising against Chinese rule and Beijing has said it will pick his successor when he dies.
China in 1992 rejected the exiled Dalai Lama's choice for the latest reincarnation of the Panchen, seizing the boy and appointing another boy in his stead.
Source: Associated Press
It's obvious these bureaucrats wouldn't know the difference between a Buddha - Maitreya is not due for a long time - and a Boddhisatva, such as the Dalai Lama.
* * * * * * * * *
BEIJING (AP) -- Ratcheting up its control over Tibetan Buddhism, China on Friday asserted the sole right to recognize living Buddhas, reincarnations of famous lamas that form the backbone of the religion's clergy.
All future incarnations of living Buddhas related to Tibetan Buddhism "must get government approval," the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the State Administration for Religious Affairs.
China's officially atheistic communist government has increasingly sought to direct Tibetan Buddhism, for centuries the basis of Tibet's civil, religious, cultural and political life. Reincarnate lamas, known as tulkus, often lead religious communities and oversee the training of monks, giving them enormous influence over religious life in Tibet.
China already insists that only the government can approve the appointments of the best-known reincarnates, including the Dalai and Panchen Lamas, the No. 1 and No. 2 figures in Tibetan Buddhism.
A copy of the new rules posted to the administration's Web site said the selection of reincarnates "must preserve national unity and solidarity of all ethnic groups."
"The process cannot be influenced by any group or individual from outside the country," it said in an apparent reference to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.
The Dalai Lama, 71, fled to India in 1959 amid an aborted uprising against Chinese rule and Beijing has said it will pick his successor when he dies.
China in 1992 rejected the exiled Dalai Lama's choice for the latest reincarnation of the Panchen, seizing the boy and appointing another boy in his stead.
Source: Associated Press
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Comments
We may be seeing the end of the great Tibetan bodhisatva experiment.
Alas for the First Noble Truth!
[Daniel Berrigan in conversdation with Thich Nhat Hanh from The Raft Is Not The Shore (Orbis, New York. 2001)]
The regulations coincide with reports from an ethnically Tibetan region of the southwestern province of Sichuan that dozens of people had been arrested for using a traditional festival to call for the return of their exiled spiritual leader.
Critics say China continues to repress Tibetans' religious aspirations, especially their veneration for the Dalai Lama, the Nobel Peace Prize winner whom China denounces as a "separatist".
But the Dalai Lama is already 72 and some have accused China of delaying holding talks with him, waiting for him to die when they would name a new Dalai Lama of their own, loyal to Beijing.
In 1995, the Dalai Lama and China's atheist Communist authorities chose rival reincarnations of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989. The Panchen Lama is the second-highest figure in Tibet's spiritual hierarchy.
The 6-year-old boy anointed by the Dalai Lama swiftly disappeared from public view, leading human rights groups to dub him the world's youngest political prisoner.
The new regulations, which come into force on September 1, are to "regulate the management of the reincarnation of living Buddhas", the State Administration for Religious Affairs said in a statement on its Web site (www.sara.gov.cn).
"Temples which apply for reincarnations of living Buddhas must be legally registered venues for Tibetan Buddhism activities and capable of fostering and offering proper means of support to the living Buddha," it said.
The regulations are to "guarantee citizens freedom of religion and respect Tibetans' tradition of living Buddha succession", it added.
In March, Tibet's Communist Party chief said the party was the remote, mountainous region's real "living Buddha" because, he said, it had brought an improvement in living conditions.
Tibetans still chafe under Beijing's yoke, though.
Radio Free Asia said scores of Tibetans had been arrested in the Sichuan town of Litang after demonstrating for greater religious freedom and the Dalai Lama's return.
The official Xinhua news agency said only one person had been detained, a villager called Runggye Adak, "for inciting separation of nationalities".
"More than 200 villagers, who were unaware of the facts, gathered outside a detention centre on Wednesday evening and called for the release of Runggye Adak," the report said, citing unnamed sources.
"All the villagers had left by Thursday after local government officials and police explained that Runggye Adak had breached the law," it said, adding that nobody had been injured.
In 2002, a Tibetan lama was sentenced to death for a series of explosions in Litang and Chengdu, the Sichuan provincial capital.
Source: Ben Blanchard, Reuters
Palzang
I agree with Palzang insofar as the whereabouts of Tibetans - or a vast number of them - is concerned.
I also think that Tibetans still in Tibet probably do not care a rat's ass...But they wouldn't dare say so in public, that's for sure. especially as so many atrocitieas are still going on in one way or another. Support for The Dalai lama, and even the Panchen Lama - would bring swift and deadly retribution upon them.
No, the thing that really distresses me is that nobody, but nobody will do or say a thing about it.
The Chinese are supposed to be the Humanitarian unbiased hosts of the Olympic games next year, yet they persist in tightening their stranglehold on anything to do with Buddhism and Tibet. And no head of State has the gumption, initiative or plain balls to say or do anything about it.
It's disgusting.
That's what makes me weep.
Palzang
Well no one except Patrick Star....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HIavxnUHls
It's not an attack on Chinese people, it is an attack on the authoritarian regime of China. Anyone who appreciates satire should like this.
Palzang