Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Kirsten Dunst Zen; Dalai Lama in India


(Wisdom Quarterly) It's a busy time for Tibet and the Dalai Lama, who visited a Jain site. China is bearing down on the political/religious leader. A Tibetan film-maker has been sentenced to six years by China for making a documentary about Tibet's problems. And Tibetan films have been pulled by China due to the Dalai Lama. Richard Gere steps into the fray. And Kirsten Dunst is getting spiritual.

Kirsten Dunst shares her Zen with a friend
(PopSugar) Kirsten Dunst stopped to pick up a friend before heading off to a yoga class in LA on Tuesday. December's Allure cover girl is focusing on her fitness on the West Coast during the holidays, though soon she'll have to switch up her routine when it comes time to promote All Good Things before its release in March.... Is Dunst a Buddhist? She dated Orlando Bloom, so some rumors are going about.


Zen III (Lisa5588/Flickr)

China: Dalai Lama is a political monk
BANGALORE, India - Wang Donghua, Consul-General of the People’s Republic of China, on Sunday described the Dalai Lama as “a political monk.” The “Dalai Lama is a political monk and not a pure religious leader,” Mr. Wang told presspersons here in response to questions on the sidelines of a function organized to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of China, and the India-China Friendship Association, Karnataka. Earlier, the Association’s general secretary V. Bhaskaran said: “The Dalai Lama should be sent back from this country [India].” Responding to Mr. Bhaskaran’s statement, Mr. Wang said: “Dalai Lama is not a pure religious leader."


Richard Gere leads peace march at Dalai Lama sermon
GAYA, India - Hollywood actor Richard Gere braved the morning chill on Wednesday to listen to a special sermon by Tibet's temporal and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, at the Kalchakra Maidan here. The Hollywood star joined hundreds of devotees at the historic venue, about 200 meters south of Bodh Gaya, where the Buddha attained enlightenment. The session was organized on the occasion of the seven-day Geluk Monlam Puja at Mahabodhi Mahavihara here.

China sentences Tibetan film-maker to six years
WASHINGTON (AFP) — A Chinese court has handed a six-year prison term to a Tibetan film-maker who made an internationally watched documentary in which ordinary people aired grievances, his family said Wednesday. Dhondup Wangchen, 35, had trekked across the Himalayan territory for five months asking about topics including Chinese rule, the exiled Dalai Lama and the Olympics which Beijing was preparing to hold in August 2008.

Chinese Films Pulled From Festival in Protest
(NYTimes, Jan. 6, 2010) - Two Chinese movies have been pulled from the Palm Springs International Film Festival in California to protest another film about the Dalai Lama and Tibet, Agence France-Presse reported. The Chinese movies “Nanjing! Nanjing!” (also known as “City of Life and Death”) and “Quick Quick Slow Slow” were withdrawn, according to China’s state-run Beijing Times, because the festival plans to screen a movie called “The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom” -- a documentary by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam that follows the Dalai Lama for a year. Its description in the festival’s program said that it chronicled “the 2008 protests in Tibet, the long march in India, the Beijing Olympics and the breakdown of talks with China.” The Beijing Times called the movie a “Tibetan independence” film.

Dalai Lama visits Jain pilgrim town of Palitana
BHAVNAGAR, India (Jan. 3, PTI) - Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama today visited the Jain pilgrimage town of Palitana near Bhavnagar and delivered a religious discourse along with Jain scholars."The 20th century belonged to science and technology. The present 21st century would belong to spirituality and non-violence," Dalai Lama told reporters. He said Jainism and Buddhism are on the forefront of promoting peace and non-violence around the world. "Jainism and Buddhism are like twins who have brought along with them the message of oneness and non-violence for the world," he said.

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