For keeping up with China studies I depend pretty much solely on the excellent quarterly THE CHINA JOURNAL from Australian National University.

The current issue (July ‘05) has a fascinating article by Ben Hillman. a researcher at the Contemporary China Center. The article deals with the way the Chinese authorities are coming to terms with religious communities — in this case, with Tibetan-Buddhist monasteries in western China.

Hillman describes how the secular authorities have co-opted these monasteries to aid in keeping public order & raising revenue from tourism.

Fascinating, with lots of insights. The ChiComs, some of them at least, seem to have got wise to the social value of religion. One local official is quoted thus: “I see a direct link between religious activity and spiritual and material development… Take D village, for example: They have no religion there, and that is where we have the most social problems like drinking and gambling.”

Just so.

One shouldn’t make too much of this. The area being reported on is in China proper (though a Tibetan-majority area), where sovereignty is not an issue & so the ChiComs can be a bit more relaxed about ethnic issues. In the so-called “Tibet Autonomous Region,” which Tibetan patriots look to as the nucleus of a future independent Tibet, conditions are different. Still, it’s nice to know that, as the author describes, a bunch of Tibetan monks can beat up a group of CCP officials and get away with it.

I was also quite taken with Shugden, a deity who protects the Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhists. Shugden “is frequently depicted as a ferocious warrior wearing a necklace of human skulls and riding a snow lion through a sea of boiling blood…” Now THAT’s a deity! The Dalai Lama has banned the worship of Shugden in the interests of keeping his exile flock together, as

pro- and anti-Shugden factions were causing trouble. The ChiComs allow it, though, and are thus able to boast that they are better at upholding freedom of worship than the DL. Hmmmm.