Buddhism exhibition opens in Xi'an by the People's Government

[Namdrol]

Signs of China embracing Buddhism more and more, it begins from the angle of "art, culture, ethnic" and soon it will become mainstream spiritual and religious practice. Good news.


http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-06/01/content_15452737.htm

An exhibition of Tibetan Buddhist Art organized by the People's Government of the Huangnan Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Qinghai province, officially kicked off on Friday in the Shaanxi History Museum in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province.
 
In the seventh century AD, Buddhism went into Tibet and gradually formed Tibetan Buddhism by combining with the local religion Bon. Then Tibetan Buddhism art also came into being. After the 15th century Tibetan Buddhism art bloomed with the flourishing of Tibetan Buddhism. The art includes murals, Tangka, clay sculpture, wood carving, butter sculpture and stone sculpture.
 
At the exhibition, 130 works of art are on display and most of the art works were created by State-level masters of national intangible cultural heritage.
 
The exhibition will end on July 20 and is free to the public.

[Barzin]

It is very nice to see the growth in China, afterall China is claiming back what has been neglected.  Buddhism has always been a big part of China.  Since China is growing rapidly, dharma is much needed for the people.  The world today has been promoting material stuff and dharma is neglected.  Therefore by exhibiting, different efforts putting into promoting dharma and create awareness is a good way to spread dharma to others.  Even things sometimes might seem the other way round, for example the Shugden issue.

Even in a few recent movies I watched, the western has associate peace to Tibet, power and clairvoyant to a monk, and of course, Thangkas, mala, statues are part of the scene indicating spirituality in today's world.  I rejoice that dharma is growing and hope to see more of this.

[DharmaDefender]

Its not wrong of the Chinese to call Buddhism art, culture or ethnic. It IS their culture. It IS artistic. It IS an ethnic thing because the religion influences their way of living.

Anyway who cares what its labelled. The labels are meaningless when we die anyway. Label were the cause of our problems to begin with - "your a Dorje Shugden practitioner, and Im not." Im not fussed what the Chinese call it, as long as they become a more tolerant society in general. Open-mindedness is the key to development, not dismissing others because they dont conform to your view.

[dsiluvu]

This is all part of their rich culture and heritage! It is beautiful that they are getting more and more back to their roots or at least smart enough to learn that HEY the world loves this about China! So give it.

I rejoice because eventually this will develop in to getting back to their spiritual roots and honestly it is a GOOD PATH.

I mean take a look at this Chinese Temple in China http://dorjeshugden.com/wp/?p=8029

And let us not forget that Lama Tsongkhapa teachings were wide spread in China. Lama Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelugpa lineage has been part of Chinese history for centuries. A famous statue of him can be found in Yong He Gong temple in Beijing, which was built in 1694 and is a popular pilgrimage place for many today. And guess who is incharge of protecting Lama Tsongkhapa's teachings.... none other then our beloved Dorje Shugden

[Ensapa]

China is still healing from the moral decay that they have created for themselves over the years of communist rule and with little or no guidance, they have turned into people who feel empty after getting their material pursuits and they search and thirst for something more as some of them eventually realize life is not all about money and fun and that there is a reason to be alive.

Many recent events have demonstrated that many Chinese people in China are starting to throw their conscience away for their own benefit while the exact opposite is happening with the rest of the world, with incidents such as this: http://www.chinasmack.com/2012/stories/brazilian-beaten-up-for-stopping-thieves-as-chinese-stand-by.html are proof that China needs Buddhism more than ever.

Chinese Buddhism will still need time to recover as they have been severely affected by both the cultural revolution and also of degeneration that happened over the years. The "patriarchs" of Chinese Buddhism are what we call lineage holders as they hold an unbroken lineage from Nagajurna, up to the 6th Chinese patriarch Hui Neng before the lineage was abruptly ended and perhaps, this contributed to the decay as well.

Tibetan Buddhism still has a living lineage compared to China, and there are still people who get results from their Dharma practice with Tibetan Buddhism and they will serve China very well as most chinese these days would want to know more about something and they will investigate more as well. Dorje Shugden is also much needed to hasten the healing that will not start anytime soon.

[kris]

China has a long history with Buddhism.. For more than 2000 years since Buddhism has landed in China, many emperors and people took refuge in the 3 jewels. Both Mahayana and Vajrayana are widely adopted.

However, with Cultural Revolution in 1966, religion is "eliminated" and many places of worship were destroyed. After, the Fa Lun Gong incident led to even more discrimination of religion.

Unfortunately, with the rapid growth of economy (and materialism) in China but without much spirituality, there has been a lot of social issues.

As such, I am glad that the government is promoting Buddhism again to help curb such social issues.

[rossoneri]

It is wonderful to know that the Chinese valued back the religious side which they have been neglected for almost half a century. And i believed that during the revolution period many precious statues, temples, buddhist items and important teachings of Dharma texts had been destroyed. And i don't think the people of Republic of China will abandon their believes and practices overnight not the older ones especially. I find its rather similar to what's happening now with the ban of DS practice among the Tibetan people. They will be a group of people will not gave up their faith and devotion over some secular method and concept whereby it is not based on anything other than political propaganda.

[Tenzin K]

China is a country that rich of cultures, philosophy and art. For the Chinese to embrace Tibetan Buddhism is something to rejoice but no surprise because Buddhism is not something new instead it's has been there long long time ago. China is very particular on religious and the harmonious of their people. For the Chinese to accept it straight away at current era is not possible but for them to accept Tibetan Buddhist Art is definitely a great appreciation towards the culture. More Chinese will know and get familiar and this is being a good platform.

[diablo1974]

China is currently one of the fastest growing country in the Asia region. It has more than 5000 years of art and cultural history, this includes tibetan art and other minority groups.

There are many exhibitions held throughout China every year, this includes buddhist art and also wholesale religious items.  In terms of buddhist art, Thangka is one of the popular artform accepted by many chinese, however, sad to say, there are many chinese who sees the increasing demand in thangkas and started to collect and reproduce them in big quantity, it has become a lucrative business than its actually for one's spiritual practice.