Sacred Chinese site plans $118 million IPO

CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

(Bloomberg Businessweek) The managers of Putuo Mountain, a Buddhist shrine where worshippers go to pray for healthy children, want to raise 750 million yuan ($118 million) in an initial public offering, China Daily reported today... 

  

Plans for the offering by one of China’s four main Buddhist mountains come as China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs has criticized local governments for seeking to turn a profit off religious sites. More

• Religious sites face capital temptation
• (China Daily) Plans by local authorities to list famous Buddhist mountains on the country's equity markets are triggering a backlash regarding the commercialization of holy sites.

Lowest of sacred mountains (english.cri.cn)

Putuo Shan is one of the islands of the Zhoushan Archipelago, Ningbo, eastern China, which is comprised of 1,390 islands. The total area of Putuo Mountain is 12.93 square kilometers. It is one of China’s four great Buddhist Mountains. Putuo Mountain is the first group of national key places of interest, generally called [Chinese or Pureland] Buddhist Heaven on the sea and the Holy Land on the South Sea. It is a Five-A tourist destination in China. The immortal mountains [wrapped] in clouds and [surrounded by] waters offer travelers a feeling of mystery and sanctity. Putuo Mountain is a famous Kwan-Yin ceremonial center in China...

  

Monks go on 500-mile journey on their knees to Putuo

Mahayana monks making their way to Kwan Yin

A pair of Buddhist monks are to make a 500-mile journey on their knees to the religion's holiest shrines in China. Masters Zhiyuan and Hanliang will spend two months crawling to 99 temples on their way to the Putuo Mountains in eastern China until they reach a statue of Kwan Yin, the Buddhist goddess (bodhisattva) of mercy.... "They will crawl, and then every third step they will stop and bow as a sign of respect to the goddess," explained one.

Burma's diversity: Buddhists to Baptists

Shwedagon Pagoda, public access to the sacred shrine in the heart of Rangoon was the spark that ignited the military crackdown (Time.com).

(TIME photoessays) Living under the thumb of a brutal junta, the average Burmese hardly leads an easy life. But the plight of the country's ethnic minorities, many of whom once waged long and bloody insurgencies against the military regime, is even worse. As a new human-rights report released on Jan. 28, as well as the recent stories of destitute refugees who fled Burma attest to, members of Burma's ethnic groups face persistent discrimination by the military regime.

• PHOTOS
• Burma: 19 years of Protest
• Burma: Aftermath
• Burma: Discontent

They are the targets of unpaid forced labor campaigns, scorched-earth policies that destroy farmland, and relocation programs that require entire villages to move at a moment's notice.

Rohingya
Perhaps the most exploited minority in Burma, the Rohingya are a Muslim group. (Visiting the Rohingya, Burma’s hidden population)
1. Shan
   Clustered in the northeastern hills of Burma, the Buddhist Shan were accorded a measure of self-rule by British colonialists, thought in total to number at least 5 million.
2. Chin
   Overwhelmingly Christian (Baptist converts), the Chin live in the impoverished mountains near the India-Burma border and have an armed wing, the Chin National Front. (Pictures: Junta blocking Burma from receiving aid after a cyclone)
3. Karen
   The second-largest ethnic group after the Burmans, comprised of both Christians and Buddhists, the Karen have also waged a long rebellion against the Burmese junta.
4. Kachin
   Mostly Christian, the Kachin live in northern Burma and were famous during colonial times for their battle skills.

Called "Myanmar" [which is simply a more correct pronunciation of Bamar] by its military leaders, Burma derives its name from the Buddhist Burman (or Bamar) people. The country's largest ethnic group, the Burman historically lived in Burma's central and upper plains. But this patchwork country of 55 million is made up of more than 100 unique ethnicities.

• Tension in Burma
• UN Envoy trying to save Burma
• An eye in the sky on Burma

The isolation enforced by Burma's numerous mountains and hills helped nurture these culturally discrete groups, making it one of the most diverse countries in Southeast Asia, despite its relatively small geographic size. Here are five ethnicities, some of who have unsuccessfully waged long insurgencies against the central government and others who have made news recently because of the abuses they have suffered at the hands of the Burman-dominated regime. See full story.

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