Religion: Buddhism

Question 1

Why was Buddhism a threat to the CCP?

Answer 1

Rival belief system.

Less organised that Christianity, easier to attack.

Question 2

How were Buddhist monks in China (outside Tibet) attacked in the 1950s?

Answer 2

• Monks denounced as “parasites”
• Ordered to work
• Some forcibly enlisted in military academies.
• Others denounced as counter-revolutionaries and killed at struggle meetings.
  During the “Resist America, Aid Korea” campaign:
• The Buddhist Association exhorted members to undergo ‘thought reform’ and to abandon their ‘feudal ideology’.
• Ancient temples were converted into barracks, prisons, schools and hospitals for wounded soldiers from Korea (Yonghegong Temple in -Beijing restored at great cost in case foreigners visited).
• Buddhist landholdings were redistributed (Agrarian Land Reform 1950).
• Organised a Chinese Buddhist Association in 1953 to speak up for buddhists (method of government control like the Patriotic Church Movement)

Question 3

How were the Buddhists in Tibet attacked during the Reunification Campaign 1950? How did they resist?

Answer 3

• Propaganda units such as Newspapers and Magazines that spread communist ideas.
• Dances and dramas told tales of peasants liberating themselves from the control of Buddhism.
• Promoted the migration of the dominant Han Chinese ethnic group (Building of the highway)
• Mandarin official language

Question 4

How were the Buddhists in Tibet attacked during the Great Leap Forward? Find some examples.

Answer 4

• GLF heralded a renewed attack on Buddhist monks.
• Regime focused on productivity therefore monks were converted into physical labourers and forced into communes.
• Lamas (Tibet’s religious leaders), were stripped of their traditional sources of income: providing shelter for travellers, medical care and organising ceremonies and festivals.
• Temple Land added to communes.
• Often forced to work the worst quality land - many starved.
• Many joined the PLA out of desperation.

Question 5

What did the Dalai Lama do in 1959?

Answer 5

• Was ordered to report to communist officials.

- Fearing he would be imprisoned, the Tibetan people helped smuggle him out to safety in India.

Question 6

How were Buddhists (inside and outside Tibet) attacked during the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 6

• Denounced as one of the ‘Four olds’ during CR.
• Monasteries were burned, religious relics destroyed and monks beaten or arrested and sent to the laogai for ‘labour reform’.

Question 7

How successful were the attacks on Buddhists?

Answer 7

• By the end of the CR, few temples or shrines remained.
• Lamas forced into labour.
  Religious schools were closed and were no longer able to spread Buddhist ideas.
• Entire generation of monks, nuns and Buddhist followers had been wiped out.
• Due to the Reunification Campaign 1950: The Tibetan people resisted with sabotage and guerilla warfare. The resistance was so committed that Tibet was targeted during the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1958 when an intense anti-Buddhist propaganda campaign was launched.
• Dalai Lama forced to merge Tibet into PRC