A
prominent Tibetan lama who has been ordered out of Russia says the country's
security agency had previously warned him to be less active in preaching Tibetan
Buddhism to Russians. Shiwalha Rinpoche, who has earned a strong following in
Russia over the past decade, was declared "undesirable" by the
Federal Security Service (FSB) in late September and ordered to leave with no
possibility of return. "During all these years there had never been any
complaint about my activities," he told reporters in Moscow a day before
his planned departure to India late on October 16. "But last year, FSB
officials came to one of my lectures. They listened and then suggested that I
give fewer sermons. This is the reason why I was less active this year." His
shock expulsion has raised hackles in Russia's Buddhist community and fuelled
suspicions of Chinese pressure - with complicity from the Russian authorities.
Shiwalha Rinpoche's
interest in Russia goes back to 2004, when he began paying regular visits to
the country's predominantly Buddhist republic of Tuva in southern Siberia. Four
years later, he settled permanently in Tuva at the invitation of local
authorities. The arrival
of such a high-ranking lama has jumpstarted the revival of the faith in
traditionally Buddhist sections of Siberia, where Buddhist monks were heavily
repressed under Soviet rule along with other religious leaders. He has
thousands of followers in Russia and more particularly in Tuva, where
he founded several organizations and last year opened the Buddhist republic's
first meditation centre. In 2012, the
local government and parliament awarded him for his contribution to the
resurgence of Buddhism in the region. "China's efforts to curb the spread
of Tibetan Buddhism in Russia are definitely one of the FSB's motives for this
decision," says Boris Falikov, a respected religious expert. "It fits
into Beijing's policy aimed at the international isolation of the Dalai Lama
and of other world-renowned Tibetan lamas."
There are between 700,000 and 1.5 million Buddhists in Russia, mainly
living in the Buryatia, Kalmykia, and Tuva republics near China and Mongolia.
From RFE.
2 comments:
Dear Banthe, that's a shame for Russia and China to.
President Putin always announces that every religion in Russia has her chance to practice as long as it goes along with the Russian rules.
That's why one should intervene to President Putin to make this case public and give it a chance of clarification.
I am convinced that, should it be a mistake of an overactive FSB officer, it would be get a possibility of return.
How stupid politicians can be! I cannot really comprehend the motives behind this expulsion and the danger this monk could pose. It seems they could not blame him for anything he said or did, why treating him like an enemy? What hope can there be, what place on earth is left for people to live in peace and armony?
Post a Comment