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Buddhists living in fear in Buddha’s birth place

Buddhist Vatican plan carries the imprimatur of Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, the Maoist chief and former prime minister. He is the joint chairman along with his one-time royal enemy Paras Bir Bikram Shah, of the Chinese NGO, APEC, which has signalled the growing Chinese interest in Lumbini. And the campaign in China to bring all religious institutions under Beijing’s control also has become cause for worry to the Buddhists since the day is not far off to choose a successor to the present Dalai Lama.

Buddhists in Nepal have reasons to worry. Firstly because of the restrictions that are clamped on the Tibetan refugees in the country. Secondly because of   a controversial $ 3 billion project by Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation (APEC) to develop the birthplace of the Buddha, Lumbini, into a Buddhist Vatican. Lumbini is a UNESCO declared World Heritage Site. "

The Maoist back seat drivers of the present government in Kathmandu are responsible for the sense of fear pervading the nearly 5000 monasteries and nunneries big and small. A ‘systematic negative’ media campaign has been unleashed at the Tibetan Buddhist community. The allegation that the Buddhist centers are possessing weapons has unnerved monks and nuns alike.
‘Our monks and nuns live in perpetual fear’, says the Nepal Buddhist Federation, while asserting that all these allegations are not true.

Thiley Lama’s arrest and detention for eight hours on August 5 has had an unsettling effect on the Buddhist community since he happens to be a Nepali by birth and has taken over as the Dalai Lama’s envoy only recently. Such arrests and the so called preventive detentions are just routine whenever a Chinese delegation is visiting the country. This was the case under the monarchy and now under the Maoist rule as well. ‘Each time a Chinese delegation comes to Nepal, red-robed monks are picked up routinely by police in the name of preventive detention. Spies are posted before leading monasteries and places of public worship – the stupas – are under surveillance’, a media dispatch quotes a Buddhist monk as saying. Thiley Lama’s arrest was made on the eve of the visit by a Chinese delegation to inspect Lumbini in the Terai plains.

The Lumbini venture is $ 3 billion mega project. It will be executed by Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation (APEC), which claims the patronage of Chinese government. The plan envisages a Buddhist university, hotels, rail link, an international airport and other tourism-related infrastructure.

Not much is known about the Foundation, which is said to be a NGO.  In fact, key functionaries of the foreign and cultural ministries are in the dark. The Culture Secretary Modraj Dotel went public with his protest, saying that he had no clue about the Chinese organisation’s plans and would not allow it. ‘Nepal is the actual stakeholder. How can we own a deal struck in a third country without the formal consent of the actual stakeholder’, he asked. Moreover, any development in Lumbini has to be according to the master plan drawn up by Japanese architect Kenzo Tange in 1978. And it has to be approved by the UNESCO as well. He was shown the door by his Minister, who is a Maoist.

Expectedly, the new Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Yang Houlan, has come out in strong defence of APEC plan. If he is to be believed, the deal was stuck by Nepal’s tourism and civil aviation ministry. The tourism ministry is headed by Maoist leader Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma.  Other ministries were not in the loop, according to Yang Houlan.

It is difficult to digest that one or two ministries suo moto will go and strike a deal anywhere – MOU it is called in this case- with a foreign agency without involving the foreign ministry and the country’s diplomatic mission.  This has not happened in Nepal thus far. Also it never happened in Nepal that the envoy of a foreign country holds the brief and not the officials concerned locally.

Buddhist Vatican plan carries the imprimatur of Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, the Maoist chief and former prime minister. He is the joint chairman of APEC.  Giving him company in the venture is Paras Bir Bikram Shah, the former crown prince, who had hit the headlines some four years ago with his ‘massacre’ in the palace. How Prachanda who had fought for 10 years a bloody war against the monarchy, could share a common the same platform with his sworn enemy?  The Maoist chief owes an explanation to his comrades.  

According to the China Daily, Steven Clark Rockefeller Jr (a fifth-generation member of the Rockefeller family), Jack Rosen, chairman of the American Jewish Congress, and Leon H Charney, a real estate tycoon and former US presidential adviser are the joint chairmen of the Chinese NGO along with Prachanda and Paras – all who make strange bed fellows. If not other fellow co-chairs, at least Prachanda appears to be familiar with the mysterious Hong Kong Foundation.   It is said that the Foundation hosted his clandestine visit to Singapore last year and to Malaysia in the previous year. What he did in Malaysia is not known but in Singapore he held ‘consultations’ with the Chinese friends on the fluid situation in Nepal.

Significantly, this is not the first time for China to show interest in Lumbini. In 2010, a Chinese company, the Beijing Zhongtai Jinghu Investment Company, prepared a modest plan for Lumbini. This company is headed by former Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Li Debiao.  The Hong Kong NGO has hijacked Li’s plan signaling that the Chinese interest in Lumbini is growing by the day. It coincides with the campaign in China to bring all religious institutions under Beijing’s control. And this has become cause for worry to the Buddhists since the day is not far off to choose a successor to current Dalai Lama.

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