China Gets Religious

[HuaiDan]

THE Western liberal media had a laugh in August when China’s State Administration of Religious Affairs announced Order No. 5, a law covering “the management measures for the reincarnation of living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism.†This “important move to institutionalize management on reincarnation†basically prohibits Buddhist monks from returning from the dead without government permission: no one outside China can influence the reincarnation process; only monasteries in China can apply for permission.

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Perhaps we find China’s reincarnation laws so outrageous not because they are alien to our sensibility, but because they spill the secret of what we have done for so long: respectfully tolerating what we don’t take quite seriously, and trying to contain its political consequences through the law.

 

How China Got Religion

 

 

Interesting article on social control through religious and cultural awareness. Particularly noteworthy is the author's stance on culture as being "he name for all those things we practice without really taking seriously", and how culture becomes endangered when it is taken too seriously.

 

Also check out how China is using capitalism to undermine what it perceives as a potential threat: holding cultural values above obedience to the state. By taking ownership of culture, they've made it anecdotal rather than something to take seriously.

[Jun]

And China has appointed their own next young Lama to head the Tibetan cult.

 

.....the traditional political structure of Tibet is theocracy, with the Dalai Lama at the center.

 

Glad to hear someone else say what I've been saying all along. Evidence that Tibetan "Buddhism" can IN NO WAY BE CONSIDERED BUDDHISM AT ALL.