Russian Buddhists should not set hopes upon Putin

Is there any connection between Putin and Buddha? This can hardly be a common spiritual charisma. What’s then? The explanation is quite simple. Dalai Lama is personification of the God for Buddhists, his blessing is the God’s blessing for them. Dalai Lama is one of the main enemies for China and personification of separatist tendencies in Tibet. For the rest of the world, Dalai Lama is the head of a world religion and a Nobel Prize laureate, who is not welcomed in China and Russia.

Buddhists of Russia have been deprived of the right to communicate with the spiritual leader ten years ago already. The head of the Buddhist community in Kalmykia is indignant at the fact that people’s constitutional rights are violated. “We need spiritual leadership of Dalai Lama in our republics. And people are already ready for protest actions and hunger strikes to have this right. Indeed, this is a rather unpleasant way out for Buddhists, but we think if this is the only solution for us, we are to resort to this measure,” the head of the Kalmykia Buddhist community says.

A protest action in connection with the prohibition to enter Russia for Dalai Lama was already organized near the building of Russia’s Foreign Ministry. About ten people were detained for an unauthorized piquet, and this only drew more attention to problems of Russian Buddhists.

The Foreign Ministry says that a visa to a delegation headed by Dalai Lama was rejected because members of a so-called exiled Tibet government were in it. The Ministry says that opinion of China concerning this problem was also taken into consideration.

By the way, Russia and China are in friendly terms once again. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov left for China today. He said before the departure that China was Russia’s strategic partner. That is why Russia will not upset China with some Buddhist problems. By the way, President Putin has so many problems to solve now besides the Buddhist problem.

Dmitry Chirkin PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/08/20/45954.html

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