中国的“异类”佛教
——汉人皈依藏人信仰寻求精神指引
【来源】华盛顿邮报
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/18/AR2009021803201.html?sid=ST2009021803418⊂=AR
【翻译】清溪照影（仅供Anti-CNN.COM,未经许可，切勿转载。）
毛琳-范发自中国黄松峪水库——北京以北50英里的这个水库，还部分结着冰，一车一车的佛教信众来到这里。早上，他们往冰洞里放生了53,000条鱼。下午，在寒风凌虐之下的这个农家旅店的屋前，他们围着火堆不停地走来走去、诵经念咒以驱邪避凶，志愿者们不停地往火里添上食油、豆子、水果和香火。
这200位参加者都是汉人，而汉人占大陆人口的绝大多数；他们的老师，称为“师父”，是藏族僧人，易喜（音）就是其中的一位。易喜是来自西藏日喀则的高级喇嘛，就在上周，他站在两个巨大的郁金香花瓶中间主持了一次不寻常也非正式的仪式。
“这位主持法会的喇嘛佛学造诣精深，所以由他主持放生的话，功德就比普通人更大，”36岁的菜贩郑金宝说道，他和其他人一样，也是从别人那里听说在这个偏远地方举行的放生仪式的，“几年前，每次只有10个人参加，而现在，每次有100多人给鱼放生。”
有关数据难以获知，但据僧侣、信众以及专家说，越来越多的中国中产阶层民众感觉到整个社会精神空虚，又有互联网可提供大量信息，于是皈依佛门。党员干部和社会名流也接受了藏传佛教，但只能在家里供奉，在晚上面见喇嘛，在黄松峪水库参加给鱼放生和“火牲”这样的未经官方许可的活动也是要冒风险的。
中国共产党对宗教活动严加管控，取缔禁止法**，但还是在很大限度内允许遵纪守法的天主教和基督教徒在非正式的家庭教会里会面。而藏传佛教就归入另类了。
他们的精神领袖是达赖喇嘛，而北京指责他指使了去年3月造成严重伤亡的拉萨骚乱。虽然达赖获得了1989年度诺贝尔和平奖，但他在官方媒体报道里一贯被描绘成“一匹披着僧袍的狼”，是歹毒危险的分裂分子。去年12月，欧盟轮值主席（译注：法国总统萨科奇）计划当周会见达赖喇嘛，中国因而取消了关于经济危机的中欧峰会，令欧洲各国领导人大为震惊。
如今中国的大多数藏传佛教徒之所以可以在受管控之下坚守信仰，只是因为他们人数依旧相对很少，其活动也没有组织性。信众在私人家里聚会，念诵佛经，交流佛学；或者在有钱的施主家里会合，那里设有精心制作的神龛。许多人似乎并没有意识到有什么法条约束他们的信仰。
而那些到富裕的东部城市讲经化缘的喇嘛有时会受到安全人员的跟踪，或者被旅店拒绝入住。组织放生活动的信众有时受到警察的制止。有人因为在家里举行非法仪式被罚1,500美元。还有一些僧侣说，他们不得不在晚上面见那些身为党员干部的信徒。
“出于保护信徒，我就说他们是我刚认识的朋友，”来自四川的喇嘛多吉回忆说，去年他在沿海地区的江苏无锡一家旅店房间和信众聊天，当地宗教事务管理局的官员闯进来说，不允许在汉人中间传习藏传佛教。“我知道这很荒唐，就问他们哪条国法这么规定的，”多吉说，“他们无话可说，最后就走了。”
多吉不愿本文透露他的中文名字和所在寺院。他说，他在上海有600位信徒，上个月他去随访时，旅店不让入住，他只得脱下僧袍才住进去。多吉说，他在好几个城市里拥有总共10,000位信徒，其中6,000位是女士，大多集中在北京、无锡和山东省，最近3年来他们帮助他获得了88,000美元捐赠，以新建一座讲经堂。
藏传佛教和汉传佛教有非常密切的历史关联，但其传习方式却不同。藏传佛教提倡喇嘛对信徒单独传授，而汉传佛教寺庙里众僧一起研习。
和其他宗教一样，佛教在1966-1976年文化大革命的迫害中也受到了破坏。佛教在艰难地恢复之后，因受中国逐渐对外开放的影响，采取了更简便的形式。同时，相对隔绝的西藏地区一直传习的佛教形式正宗复杂得多。中国军队于1950年侵入西藏，1951年将其吞并。共产党在1959年藏人暴动之后准许一定程度的自治。达赖喇嘛1959年逃亡印度之后，中国设立了西藏自治区，管辖至今。一些汉区佛寺如今也邀请藏族高僧造访，以吸引信众。
“信众肯定是不断增加的，”卡敦-罗多说，他是华盛顿自由亚洲电台的广播主持人，是藏传佛教专家，曾在印度为僧10多年。
29岁的北京居民耿晓珍，最近辞去了在一家政府控制的网站的西藏新闻编辑职务。耿晓珍说她在工作中学习藏传佛教，然后又结识了一位青海高僧给她讲授。直到去年10月这位高僧去世之后，她就在网上学习藏传佛教。
“我的一位朋友的朋友两次去印度见达赖，”她说，“后来警察传唤了他。所以，我参加活动之前，老是要问是否安全。但我们有宗教信仰自由，我又没做什么违法的事。”
多吉在上海的一名女信徒，从一家建筑公司总裁职位上退休之后，把家里厨房边上摆钢琴的地方腾出来摆放藏传佛教的神龛。
“有没有法律禁止在家聚众求神拜佛？我从没听说，”陈燕说，她多年研习汉传佛教却无甚圆满，之后遇上一位藏人喇嘛，帮她治好了她的脑瘤。“我只是在家里念经。这没什么吧？”
陈燕的哥哥是共产党员，也是一家国有企业的退休干部，在陈燕介绍多吉之后，他哥哥对多吉严加留意，发现他还是可信的。
“捐赠的钱他从不中饱私囊，”陈先耀说，“他关心的是讲经堂的建设问题。他平等待人，无论信众捐赠多少。所以我们支持他。”
陈先耀说，其实他妹妹陈燕有一个达赖喇嘛的小幅画像，但他劝陈燕别带着。当被问道如何和党对达赖喇嘛的政策保持一致时，陈先耀说：“这是中央在政治上搞的宣传。我们普通中国人理会那种宣传干嘛？”
在本篇采访中，信众和喇嘛们，包括陈家兄妹和多吉，都拒绝谈论政治。
达赖喇嘛声称，他对中国政府的信心“渐无”，呼吁藏人共同努力，多和汉人接触，他认为这不失为解决西藏问题和有助于保存丰富文化遗产的一种方式。有许多迹象表明，这样的努力或许正在汉人中间产生作用。
“许多信众都在扪心自问，为什么研习传播佛教的信徒会煽动骚乱？”曾任网站编辑的耿晓珍针对去年三月的抗议说道，“我相信他是博学智慧的，我希望有幸在我有生之年能见到他。我不相信他会鼓动暴力。他不可能控制别人的思想。”
67岁的陆辛是位退休语文教师，1999年开始研习藏传佛教，她说她最近在四川阿坝（藏族羌族）自治州考察了一周。“和汉人不一样，那里的人非常单纯、和善、质朴。我一到那儿，就感觉是另一个世界一样，”陆辛说，“西藏是世界唯一的净土，我为西藏的文化感到担忧。比如说，如果我们过度开发青海湖的旅游业，那些垃圾和塑料袋会不会污染环境？那些淳朴的人会不会受到金钱的诱惑？如果我不学习藏传佛教，我对西藏还不会了解这么多。”（清溪照影翻译）
In China, A Different Brand of Buddhism
Ethnic Han Turning To Tibetan Doctrine For Guidance
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 19, 2009; Page A10
HUANGSONGYU RESERVOIR, China -- The Buddhists came by the busload to this partially frozen reservoir about 55 miles north of Beijing. In the morning, they released 53,000 fish into holes cut in the ice. In the afternoon, they walked clockwise around a bonfire in the courtyard of a windswept rural hotel, chanting incantations against evil as volunteers threw cooking oil, beans, fruit and cigarettes onto the flames.
The participants were 200 Han Chinese, the ethnic designation of most people on the mainland, but their teachers, or "masters," were Tibetan monks, including Yixi, a lama, or senior monk, from Shigatse, Tibet, who presided over the unusual and unofficial ceremony last week from between two enormous vases of tulips.
"The lama who hosted this has great achievements in Buddhism, so the power and merit of releasing fish with him is much greater than if ordinary people release fish," said Zheng Jinbao, a 36-year-old vegetable dealer who, like the others, had heard about the out-of-the-way animal-rescue ceremony by word of mouth. "Several years ago, only 10 people at a time attended fish releases, but now, more than 100 people come each time."
While statistics are hard to come by, monks, followers and experts say that growing numbers of middle-class Chinese are turning to Tibetan Buddhism, driven by the perception of a spiritual vacuum in society and aided by the voluminous information available on the Internet. Communist Party officials and celebrities alike have embraced Tibetan Buddhism, despite having to worship at home, meet their lamas at night and run the risk of attending officially unauthorized events, such as the fish release and "fire sacrifice" at Huangsongyu Reservoir.
China's Communist Party tightly regulates religious activity, especially the banned Falun Gong sect, but allows wide latitude for many law-abiding Catholics and Protestants who meet in unofficial house churches. Tibetan Buddhists however, are in a different category.
Their spiritual leader is the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing blames for stoking the deadly riots in Lhasa last March. Although he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, the Dalai Lama is routinely described in official state media reports as a wolf in monk's clothing, an evil and dangerous separatist. In December, China stunned European leaders by canceling a summit on the economic crisis because the E.U. president had planned to meet the Dalai Lama the same week.
For now, most Chinese who practice Tibetan Buddhism are able to worship under the radar because their numbers remain comparatively small and their movement is not organized. Followers meet in private homes to recite sutras and compare knowledge or gather in apartments where wealthy benefactors have set up elaborate shrines. Many appear to be unaware of regulations intended to restrict their worship.
But lamas who travel to more prosperous eastern cities to teach and raise funds for monasteries back home sometimes find themselves trailed by security officials or turned away from hotels. Followers who have tried to organize fish releases are sometimes stopped by police. Others have been fined nearly $1,500 for holding illegal ceremonies in their homes. And some monks say they have to meet some of their students at night because they are Communist Party officials.
"Out of protection for my followers, I said they were only some new friends," recalled Dorje, a lama from Sichuan province who said he was chatting with followers in a hotel room in Wuxi, in coastal Jiangsu province, last year when officials from the local religious affairs bureau barged in and announced that it was not permitted to promote Tibetan Buddhism among Han Chinese. "I knew this was ridiculous, so I asked which central government regulation said so," Dorje said. "They could not answer, and they eventually left."
On a visit to some of his 600 followers in Shanghai last month, Dorje, who asked that his monastery's name and his Chinese name not be published, said he was turned away from four hotels until he finally changed out of his monk's robes. He has 10,000 followers in various cities, 6,000 of whom are women, he said. Most are concentrated in Beijing, Wuxi and Shandong province and have helped him raise $88,000 in the past three years toward the cost of a new sutra hall, he said.
While there are close ties historically between Tibetan Buddhism and different types of Chinese Buddhism, they are practiced differently. Tibetan Buddhism encourages lamas to counsel students individually, while the teaching in Chinese monasteries is usually reserved for monks, studying in groups.
Like other religions, Buddhism suffered during the persecution of the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. When it limped back, it took a simpler form that had been influenced by China's gradual opening to the West. Meanwhile, a purer and more complex form of Buddhism continued to be practiced in the isolated region of Tibet, which the Chinese army had invaded in 1950 and annexed in 1951. The Communists allowed a degree of autonomy until a Tibetan uprising in 1959. After the Dalai Lama fled to India that year, China formed the Tibet Autonomous Region, which it has governed since. Some Chinese Buddhist temples now invite senior Tibetan monks to visit in a bid to attract more followers.
"It's definitely on the increase," said Kalden Lodoe, a broadcaster with Radio Free Asia in Washington, an expert on Tibetan Buddhism and a former monk in India for more than 10 years.
Geng Xiaozhen, 29, a Beijing resident who recently quit her job as an editor for a government-controlled Web site specializing in news from Tibet, said she learned about Tibetan Buddhism through her job, then found a senior monk from Qinghai province to teach her until he died last October. Since then, she has studied Tibetan Buddhism on the Internet.
"A friend of a friend went to India twice and met the Dalai Lama," she said. "Then the police called him. So, before attending anything, I always ask if it's safe or not. But we have the right to our religious beliefs, and I'm not doing anything illegal."
In Shanghai, one of Dorje's followers is a retired president of a construction company who has turned an upright piano next to her kitchen into a Tibetan Buddhist shrine.
"Are there regulations preventing people from gathering to pray and preach at home? I've never heard of that," said Chen Yan, who studied Chinese Buddhism for years without much satisfaction before meeting another Tibetan lama she believes helped cure her of brain cancer. "I'm just reciting sutras at home. What's wrong with that?"
Chen's brother, a Communist Party member and retired official with a state-owned company, kept an eye on Dorje after his sister introduced them and found him trustworthy.
"He never uses the funds for his own purposes," Chen Xianyao said. "All he cares about is the construction of his sutra hall. He treats his followers equally no matter how much they contribute. Therefore, we support him."
In fact, his sister owns a small portrait of the Dalai Lama, Chen said, although he has warned her not to carry it. Asked how that squares with the party line on the Dalai Lama, Chen said: "That's a propaganda campaign launched by the central government in the political arena. Why should ordinary Chinese be bothered with this propaganda?"
In interviews, followers and lamas, including the Chens and Dorje, denied that they discuss politics.
But the Dalai Lama, who said last year that his faith in the Chinese government is "thinning," has called on Tibetans to make "concerted efforts" to reach out to the Chinese, seeing it as a way to address problems in Tibet and help preserve its rich cultural heritage. There are indications that such efforts may be having an effect among Han Chinese.
"Many followers ask themselves how a person who studies and promotes Buddhism can instigate a riot," said Geng, the former Web site editor, referring to the protests last March. "I believe he is erudite and wise, and I will be lucky if I can see him in my lifetime. I don't believe he would ever drum up violence. He can't control people's minds."
Lu Xin, 67, a retired Chinese teacher who began to study Tibetan Buddhism in 1999, said she had recently visited monks in Aba prefecture, in Sichuan province, for a week. "Unlike people in Han Chinese areas, people there are very pure, kind and plain. As soon as I arrived, I felt I was in another world," Lu said. "Tibet is the only pure land left in the world, and I worry about its culture. For example, if we over-develop Qinghai Lake tourism, will the garbage and plastic pollute the environment? Will plain people be seduced by money? If I didn't study Tibetan Buddhism, I would know little about Tibet."
Researcher Zhang Jie contributed to this report. | 
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