Word: buddhisms
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...temple has collected 180,700 contributions from people who want to exchange part of their newfound wealth for spiritual sustenance. "Our society is in need of religion," says Cao Pingjiang, the director of the gold-Buddha project. "People are searching for something besides money to worship, and Buddhism has a long history in China...
...demise of Marxist ideology. In landmark comments earlier this month, China's top religious official, Ye Xiaowen, rejected decades of state ambivalence toward religion by telling the state's Xinhua News Agency that "religion is one of the important social forces from which China draws strength." Ye singled out Buddhism for its "unique role in promoting a harmonious society"-China's catchphrase for promoting social development along with economic expansion. The same week as Ye's comments, the World Buddhist Forum, the first-ever conference on religion in Communist China, convened in the eastern city of Hangzhou...
...government's own conservative estimate, China now has more than 200 million worshippers of all faiths, double the number just nine years ago. The inroads made by apocalyptic Christian cults in China's countryside have garnered more international attention, but the larger trend is the renaissance of Buddhism and folk religions, which blend Taoism, Confucianism, shamanism, ancestor reverence and local-deity worship into a potent mix of spirituality. More than half of the nation's believers follow these local faiths. "China's religious traditions are much longer than its Communist past," says Yang Li, an assistant professor of religion...
...decades, the People's Republic really only had one higher power: Mao Zedong. After the 1949 Communist revolution, Mao declared that religion was a "feudal superstition" with little place in a modern Marxist society. Although five official religions were allowed-Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism-they were tightly circumscribed and had to express fealty to the Communist state before any divine entity. During the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, believers of these watered-down religions were attacked. Red Guards razed thousands of temples, churches and mosques. Shanghai's Jing'an Temple was converted into a flour factory and portraits...
...Nevertheless, the vast majority of Chinese feel little restriction in voicing their growing faith. "My previous goal in life was to earn lots of money," says Zhou Jun, a Shanghai entrepreneur who runs a solar-heating company and converted to Tibetan Buddhism in 2004. "But now after studying Buddhism, I realize there is much more to life, and I want to share that lesson with everyone." Zhou now donates a chunk of his earnings to build new Tibetan Buddhist temples in western China, and has imparted the Buddha's teachings to his business partners. Tempering a capitalist impulse with...