Communist China's first international religious gathering
Posted on 2006-04-13 at 08:18
Buddhist monks and scholars from all over the world are in Hangzhou, China for a Buddhist conference and forum.
China has about 100 million Buddhists and China hopes that the World Buddhist Forum will begin the smooth relations between the religion population and the formally atheist communist party. Additionally, China hopes that the conference will help to repair its reputation in the world as a place of religious intolerance.
Undercutting those agendii, the Dalai Lama---the spiritual leader of the Buddhists---was not invited to attend. China regard him as a dissenting voice and a potentially disruptive attendee. Qi Xiaofei, vice-director of the state administration for religious affairs, explained, "The Dalai Lama is not only a religious figure, but is also a long-time stubborn secessionist who has tried to split his Chinese motherland and break the unity among different ethnic groups."
Currently worship is permitted only through state-run organizations. Loyalty to religious groups outside those state-controlled organizations is often punished. In the case of Buddhism, the state has appointed Gyaltsen Norbu as the Panchen Lama---the second most signifigant Buddhist title behind the Dalai Lama---even though the Dalai Lama has already appointed his own Panchen Lama. Gyaltsen Norbu is in attendence at the World Buddhist forum as the figurehead for Chinese official Buddhism. Some reports suggest that the other Buddhists in attendence are shunning the state-appointed Lama.
China's President Hu Jintao will be visiting Washington next week, and there exists some speculation that this conference is partly an attempt to ease relations for that trip.
It seems that religion has not lost its efficacy in the modern world when a government so powerful as China fears it so much as to squelch its practice and when a government so powerful as the United States fears it so much as to take up its causes against all reason.