from the indian news website http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=145194
THE CHINESE government has decided to set up a high level institute in Lhasa. The cost of the institute of Tibetan Buddhism in southwestern autonomous region is estimated to be $11.7 million. The project located near Lhasa is being fully funded by the central government in Beijing.
The high level institute is being set up in Nyetang Town, Quxu County near the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in an area of 17.4 hectares. The first phase of construction is scheduled for completion in 2010. Its design includes a library and buildings for religious activities.
Besides religious theories, students at the academy will also be taught other disciplines such as politics and sociology.
According to official sources, nearly about $100 million has been spent by the central and local governments for the preservation and maintenance of monasteries and cultural relics in Tibet since 1980. The institute is the largest investment on this score by the central government in Tibet.
The proposed institute will train ’patriotic and devotional religious personnel’ with strong religious accomplishments and moral character. This is seen by government critics as an attempt to build an officially approved cadre of monks in order to dilute the influence of defiant monks in Tibet, some of whom have faith in the Dalai Lama.
It will conduct research on Tibetan Buddhism besides acting as a bridge for exchange of ideas on religious practices with the world outside.
Chinese government critics said that the move is an attempt by the Communist Party to reinforce its belief that Tibetan Buddhism with its many variations is independent of the Dalai Lama. The party regards the Dalai Lama as a politician, who is set to damage Tibetan culture.
“Dalai Lama and his clique and the anti-China forces in the West conspire to force the Tibetan ethnic group and its culture to stagnate and remain in a state similar to the Middle Ages,” the government said in a recent White Paper on Tibet.
The Communist Party has all along emphasised the need for religious personnel, including Tibetan monks and Christian priests to adopt the spirit of patriotism, which is regarded as a more important virtue than their spiritual accomplishments.
There are several research facilities on Tibetan Buddhism in different parts of China including Beijing, but this is the first project of its kind on the land of its origin.
The government White Paper also said: “The Tibetan people have developed their culture by means of interaction and fusion with other cultures, especially that of the Han people.”
Human Rights groups have for long accused Chinese leaders of changing the demographic and cultural landscape of Tibet by pushing in vast numbers of Han Chinese people from mainland China.
this article caught my eye because I recognised some things that we learned about buddhism- politics, sociology, dali llamas and stuff. Plus it seemed in the article that buddhism has become so popular that they are creating academies for it.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera is a middle eastern news station .
One of their articles on their website was talking about Sarah Palin accusing Barack Obama that he hangs out with terrorists, because to them it would be a laugh, that the american canidates (who they hate because they hate America)are fighting and being so mean to each other and not accomplishing anything. This is the article-
The war of words between rival White House camps has escalated with Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, accusing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists".
The comment by Palin, whose running mate, John McCain, is battling Obama in the November 4 presidential election, was dismissed by the Obama campaign as "gutter politics" and came shortly after the McCain campaign called the US senator from Illinois a liar.
With polls showing McCain trailing Obama in many battleground states, including several won by Republicans in the 2004 election, Palin said: "There is a time when it's necessary to take the gloves off and that time is right now."
Speaking on Saturday at a fundraising event in Englewood, Colorado, Palin told supporters Obama "is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."
In-depth coverage of the US presidential election
She was referring to William Ayers, a member of the radical 1960s group, the Weathermen, who supported Obama's first run for public office in 1995. Members of the group had been accused of placing bombs at the Pentagon and the Capitol.
The Obama campaign described Palin's guilt-by-association attack as "desperate and false".
"Governor Palin's comments, while offensive, are not surprising, given the McCain campaign's statement this morning that they would be launching Swift boat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation's economic ills," Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said.
The Illinois senator, meanwhile, said that McCain's healthcare plan was "radical."
"He taxes health care benefits for the first time in history; millions lose the health care they have; millions pay more for the health care they get; drug and insurance companies continue to make exorbitant profits; and middle-class families watch the system they rely on begin to unravel before their eyes," Obama said.
Addressing a rally of 18,000 people next to Virginia's naval shipbuilding yards, Obama noted that McCain proposed to give families a tax credit of $5,000 towards paying for rocketing health care costs.
"But like those ads for prescription drugs, you got to read the fine print to learn the rest of the story, to find out the side-effects," Obama, who is proposing subsidies and tax breaks to bring in near-universal health care, said.
McCain insists his health care plan would generate more competition and drive down costs, and that Obama's plan would deprive voters of their choice of doctor by creating a "vast new bureaucracy" run by the government.
One of their articles on their website was talking about Sarah Palin accusing Barack Obama that he hangs out with terrorists, because to them it would be a laugh, that the american canidates (who they hate because they hate America)are fighting and being so mean to each other and not accomplishing anything. This is the article-
The war of words between rival White House camps has escalated with Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, accusing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists".
The comment by Palin, whose running mate, John McCain, is battling Obama in the November 4 presidential election, was dismissed by the Obama campaign as "gutter politics" and came shortly after the McCain campaign called the US senator from Illinois a liar.
With polls showing McCain trailing Obama in many battleground states, including several won by Republicans in the 2004 election, Palin said: "There is a time when it's necessary to take the gloves off and that time is right now."
Speaking on Saturday at a fundraising event in Englewood, Colorado, Palin told supporters Obama "is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."
In-depth coverage of the US presidential election
She was referring to William Ayers, a member of the radical 1960s group, the Weathermen, who supported Obama's first run for public office in 1995. Members of the group had been accused of placing bombs at the Pentagon and the Capitol.
The Obama campaign described Palin's guilt-by-association attack as "desperate and false".
"Governor Palin's comments, while offensive, are not surprising, given the McCain campaign's statement this morning that they would be launching Swift boat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation's economic ills," Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said.
The Illinois senator, meanwhile, said that McCain's healthcare plan was "radical."
"He taxes health care benefits for the first time in history; millions lose the health care they have; millions pay more for the health care they get; drug and insurance companies continue to make exorbitant profits; and middle-class families watch the system they rely on begin to unravel before their eyes," Obama said.
Addressing a rally of 18,000 people next to Virginia's naval shipbuilding yards, Obama noted that McCain proposed to give families a tax credit of $5,000 towards paying for rocketing health care costs.
"But like those ads for prescription drugs, you got to read the fine print to learn the rest of the story, to find out the side-effects," Obama, who is proposing subsidies and tax breaks to bring in near-universal health care, said.
McCain insists his health care plan would generate more competition and drive down costs, and that Obama's plan would deprive voters of their choice of doctor by creating a "vast new bureaucracy" run by the government.
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