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BUDDHISM IN CHINA NOW

Indian President Patil to dedicate Buddhist shrine to India-China ties

DH News Service, May 25, 2010

New Delhi, India -- With the communist government in Beijing cautiously easing restrictions on religion and promoting Buddhism; India has built a Buddhist shrine at Luoyang in Henan province of China.President Pratibha Patil, who is leaving for a six-day visit to China on Wednesday, will dedicate the shrine as a gift from people of India to the people of the officially atheist nation.

The shrine has been built within the precincts of the historic White Horse Monastery, where the first two Indian Buddhist missionary to China lived and preached under imperial patronage.

New Delhi has spent around Rs 2 crore to build the Indian-style shrine over the past four-and-a-half years. Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said that Patil would visit the historic city of Luoyang in central China on Saturday.
“She would dedicate the shrine as a gift from the people of India to the people of China,” added Rao.

The White Horse Monastery was established in 68 AD under the patronage of Emperor Ming to accommodate Indian monks Dharmaratna and Kasyapa Matanga, who as the legend goes had travelled to China riding on white horses to introduce Buddhism. The monastery is believed to be the first Buddhist temple to be built in China.
During their tours to China former prime ministers P V Narasimha Rao and Atal Behari Vajpayee had visited the monastery, which has been an icon of the historic cultural links between the two countries.

According to an MoU that New Delhi and Beijing signed on April 11, 2005, India embarked on building a Buddhist temple on a plot of 6,000-square metre on the western side of the White Horse Monastery’s international garden.

The architecture of the shrine was inspired by Sanchi Stupa in Madhya Pradesh.

Chinese Buddhism refers collectively to the various schools of Buddhism that have flourished in China since ancient times. Buddhism has played an enormous role in shaping the mindset of the Chinese people, affecting their aesthetics, politics, literature, philosophy and medicine.

At the peak of the Tang Dynasty's vitality, Chinese Buddhism produced numerous spiritual masters

The 108-metre-high statue is the world's tallest of Guanyin Statue of Hainan was enshrined on April 24, 2005 with the participation of 108 eminent monks from various Buddhist groups in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and Mainland China, and tens of thousands of pilgrims. The delegation also included monks from the Theravada and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. China belongs to those countries that own most of the world's highest Buddhist statues.

In April 2006 China organized the World Buddhist Forum and in March 2007 the government banned mining on Buddhist sacred mountains. In May of the same year, in Changzhou, world's tallest pagoda was built and opened. In March 2008 the Taiwan-based Tzu Chi Foundation was approved to open a branch in mainland China.

Theravada Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism exist mainly among ethnic minorities in the southwest and the north.

Beijing eases Buddha bar

by Saibal Dasgupta, Times of India, May 22, 2010

Beijing, China -- Though the Communist Party is counting on the ‘safety valve’ of faith to reduce social tensions, it will not allow religion to weaken its command and control system.

The officially atheist People’s Republic of China — built on the communist belief that religion is a dangerous opium of the masses — is beginning to walk the Middle Path. Though there has been no official announcement , the Communist Party is clearly prepared to give the Buddha and Buddhism a bigger role than it has played since the mass destruction of monasteries during the Cultural Revolution in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

One of the first signs of the changing policy was witnessed by millions of Chinese on the small screen after this year’s deadly earthquake in Qinghai in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. The normally terse state-run news channels broadcast images of Buddhist monks chanting and praying for the victims and survivors. In another step, Indian President Pratibha Patil is scheduled to inaugurate a Buddhist temple modelled on Sanchi Stupa in Bhopal in Luoyang, Henan province, later this month.The authorities’ relaxed attitude towards Buddhism was also evident at the Chinese pavilion in the recently concluded World Expo in Shanghai. The Buddha’s image and aspects of the Buddhist legacy were on display for millions of visitors in the Tibet and Yunnan pavilions of the cultural fair. The provincial government of Zhejiang has also launched an ad campaign that uses the image of monks praying at a Buddha temple to lure tourists.

The government seems to be experimenting with a limited amount of religious liberty as part of its “safety valve” approach to manage public sentiment. Rising prosperity among a section of the Chinese people has also resulted in higher turnout at Buddhist shrines and the government cannot ignore the trend.

The big question, however, is whether these moves will actually result in greater religious freedom anytime soon. The Communist Party will not allow religion and Buddhism to weaken its command and control system. Chinese leaders have used this kind of “safety valve” approach on other issues — they have allowed the internet to grow while being quick to crackdown whenever someone used it to spread dissenting ideas.

Monks played a key role in the relief and rescue efforts immediately after the quake and these scenes were shown on official television. Soon, the presence of monks in affected areas began to lessen and there were reports of officials ordering them to go back to their monasteries . On the other hand, the official media published statements from two ‘living Buddhas’ — as some senior monks are called — praising the government’s rescue operations. It seems clear that the authorities found the quake a good opportunity to drum up support among Tibetans and counter the efforts of dissident leaders and monks among them.

It is likely that the Red nation will seek its own blend of Buddhism and socialism — just as it handled the ascendancy of capitalism three decades ago by giving it ‘Chinese characteristics’.