[Buddha-l] Sharon Stone and Karma

[Curt Steinmetz]

Wong Weng Fai wrote:
>
>
> On Fri, 30 May 2008, Richard Hayes wrote:
>
>> Altogether now, repeat with me
>> what Chinese students say about Tibet.
>
> The vast majority of the Chinese Han diaspora, including the 
> Taiwanese, almost holds these opinions to various degrees. Just my 
> unscientific observation.
>

Actually I've heard that the Dalai Lama is rather popular in Taiwan. 
Chinese Buddhism is very heavily influenced by 
Esoteric/Mantrayana/Tantric Buddhism, so this seems reasonable. Doing a 
little googling shows at least two trips to Taiwan by His Holiness, one 
in 1997 and another in 2001. One article I saw even said that there are 
half a million "Tibetan Buddhists" in Taiwan!

I imagine that Taiwanese people are at least as nationalistic in general 
as mainland Chinese are - but they probably have a very different take 
on how nationalism relates to Tibet and Buddhism. After all, they 
certainly have a different take on how "nationalism" relates to the 
issue of Taiwan itself!

Curt Steinmetz