A Buddhist peace rally was held on 7th Dec. The long line of Buddhists monks , nuns and participants stretched 200 meters away from the restricted Constituent Assembly starting from Mandela, Maitighar.
The Buddhist peace rally was organized, claiming that since Buddha was born in Nepal and 18 million Buddhists are connected to Buddhist culture,Nepal should be a peaceful country. They are distrustful of the recently appointed Chairman of the Maoist party as the ‘national directive committee’ for the development of Lumbini by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai’s cabinet as they are all non Buddhists trying to represent Buddhist issues.
The much controversial Lumbini Development Project under the Chairmanship of Mr.Pushpa Kamal Dahal is affiliated with both APEC and UNIDO .
Speaking to some members of the Buddhist Samrakchan Sarokar Samonayan Nepal (Coordination Council for Buddhist Concerns), they were informed that the turnout would have been greater if the monks and nuns and participating members were not forced to return mid-way at different junctions under the pretext of safety against other ongoing strikes.
Some of the monasteries had informed the council that they were unable to attend due to the strict reprimand of Free Tibet charges. Earlier, there were policing of the Sehchen gompa and White gompa in Bouddha.
Most monasteries are under the strict surveillance of the Government of Nepal’s One China policy.
Speaking to Coordinator of the Council for Buddhist concerns, Shakun Sherchand replied that “Lumbini is an encroachment by non Buddhists while Free-Tibet is a repressive tool manipulated against our historical, religious and cultural rights based on our identity”.
“This peaceful rally expresses the rightful demands of the indigenous Buddhists in a secular state and we will not tolerate any longer the unlawful as well as unconstitutional process of representing Buddhist issues by non Buddhist representatives”.
They will continue to put forth their five point demands.
1. Lumbini development area must be declared as an autonomous peace zone.
2. Marauding of Buddhist cultural heritage, historical sites and archeological treasures by unlawful acts must be deemed as crime against cultural heritage and must be stopped immediately.
3. Lumbini, Bouddha, Swayambu, Namabuddha and other important Buddhist religious sites must be declared as “peace zone”.
4. A separate Ministry for the development of Buddhist concerns in relation to religion, culture and its resources must be established under the representation of Buddhists only.
5. All Buddhist organizations, committees and functions under the Government of Nepal for Buddhist concerns which is affiliated with party politics without our consent will not be honored by its stake holders.
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