China passes new law

[Youth N Asia 0]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20227400/site/...#storyContinued

 

 

By Matthew Philips

Newsweek

 

Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue - In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation." But beyond the irony lies China's true motive: to cut off the influence of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual and political leader, and to quell the region's Buddhist religious establishment more than 50 years after China invaded the small Himalayan country. By barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation, the law effectively gives Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose soul, by tradition, is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering.

 

At 72, the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since 1959, is beginning to plan his succession, saying that he refuses to be reborn in Tibet so long as it's under Chinese control. Assuming he's able to master the feat of controlling his rebirth, as Dalai Lamas supposedly have for the last 600 years, the situation is shaping up in which there could be two Dalai Lamas: one picked by the Chinese government, the other by Buddhist monks. "It will be a very hot issue," says Paul Harrison, a Buddhism scholar at Stanford. "The Dalai Lama has been the prime symbol of unity and national identity in Tibet, and so it's quite likely the battle for his incarnation will be a lot more important than the others."

 

So where in the world will the next Dalai Lama be born? Harrison and other Buddhism scholars agree that it will likely be from within the 130,000 Tibetan exiles spread throughout India, Europe and North America. With an estimated 8,000 Tibetans living in the United States, could the next Dalai Lama be American-born? "You'll have to ask him," says Harrison. If so, he'll likely be welcomed into a culture that has increasingly embraced reincarnation over the years. According to a 2005 Gallup poll, 20 percent of all U.S. adults believe in reincarnation. Recent surveys by the Barna Group, a Christian research nonprofit, have found that a quarter of U.S. Christians, including 10 percent of all born-again Christians, embrace it as their favored end-of-life view. A non-Tibetan Dalai Lama, experts say, is probably out of the question.

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discuss

[dubq 0]

Brutal commie bullshit..

[ZGangsta 0]

God I fucking hate the Chinese government.

 

As an aside though, maybe the Dalai Lama will be reborn as Keanu Reeves.

[Steviekick 0]

So how will they know the new Dalai Lama is legit?

[2GOLD 0]

 

China's laws make me believe more and more everyday that they are actually COBRA.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

How long before some Hollywood celebrity goes over and meets the new communist Dalai Lama?

[Jingus 0]

That wacky China. Makes me feel safe to know that a country that passes laws like this has the biggest army in the world, plus nukes.

[Gary Floyd 0]

That wacky China. Makes me feel safe to know that a country that passes laws like this has the biggest army in the world, plus nukes.

Crashing through the sky comes the fearful cry:

China! (China!) China! (China!)

Armies of the night, evil taking flight!

China! (China!) China! (China!)

 

[Ravenbomb 0]

... .........

[Maztinho 0]

That wacky China. Makes me feel safe to know that a country that passes laws like this has the biggest army in the world, plus nukes.

Crashing through the sky comes the fearful cry:

China! (China!) China! (China!)

Armies of the night, evil taking flight!

China! (China!) China! (China!)

 

China-lalalalalalala?

[Vampiro69 0]

But how would China know that the monks ended up being reincarnated after they died?

[Ace309 0]

Presumably, the law is a front for China appointing someone who they can more easily control, as they did with the Panchen Lama. Assuming for the sake of discussion that the Tibetan Buddhist view of reincarnation is correct, then having a Chinese government-approved Panchen Lama will control the "discovery" of the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama - ie, China will name a sham Dalai Lama for purposes of political expediency to try to break the Tibetan demands for genuine self-rule.

 

It'd be roughly equivalent to the UN naming a new Ayatollah in the hopes of stopping sectarian violence in Iraq.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

I think there's a good chance Tibet will explode into violence when the Dalai Lama passes away. The current Lama s trying to negotiate for a peaceful settlement with the Chinese government and is suppressing more radical elements in Tibet. However, with the current Lama taken out of the picture I think those elements could emerge and cause serious headaches for the Chinese government.

[JHawk 0]

[brad Pitt]When I met the Chinese Dalai Lama it was all chocolate rivers and gumdrop shrubberies, but now things have gone all icky with that fake Tibetan Dalai Lama running around.[/brad Pitt]

[EricMM 0]

The Dalai Lama is certainly trying to broker some sort of peace agreement because he knows that there are many in his population that are gung ho for battling China, to no good end. He can keep them in control, because frankly he is an amazing individual, but when he passes, and China says any Dalai Lama appointed without their consent is *already* breaking the law...

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I wonder if a new China-Tibet war wouldn't be in US interests. It might slow down their economy and cause civil unrest for a while, at the least.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

I'd forsee any future war between China and Tibet as more of a guerilla campaign that would make China's hold of the territory intolerable. It would be interesting to see how the Chinese populace would react to a territoral war, though, due to recent economic growth and the seeming isolation of people in China's urban areas from the problems of the country's rural and far away places.

[Jingus 0]

Except that any conventional war would be over in about a week. It would be like a United States vs. Rhode Island war.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

It would be like a United States vs. Rhode Island war.

 

I think I'd enlist for that one. I hate those damn Rhodies.