China is facing humiliation after its senior Lama, Master Xuecheng, is accused of sexually harassing two nuns. Xuecheng, the face of China's Buddhism for a number of years, now stands disgraced.
Xuecheng has stepped down from his position in the Buddhist Association of China, as the abbot of the historic Longquan Temple in Beijing, and other positions.
Both the alleged victims in the matter, who happened to be graduates from China's elite Tsing Hua University, lent credence to their charges. A 95-page letter of damnation has been circulating on social media in China, despite desperate early attempts by the State to restrict their circulation.
In keeping with their default reaction, the Chinese media initially deleted all references to the matter, including from the official Xinhua news agency's website.
Before the allegations surfaced, Xuecheng's last major act was to send out invitations to high dignitaries across the world, asking them to attend the 5th World Buddhist Forum (WBF) in October 2018. Now, Beijing is believed to be desperately searching for a replacement, and an acceptable face, to front its agenda at the WBF.
Since 2006, China has hosted the WBF in a failing and desperate attempt to project its Buddhist credentials, and tried to whitewash suppression and coercion inside Tibetan areas of the country.
Recent developments in the well-protected world of Chinese Buddhism are learnt to have shaken the Chinese Communist Party to its core. The sexual harassment accusation against Xuecheng has come at a time when the Communist Party has been struggling to counter the increasing influence of religion in the officially atheist nation.
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