The Whole Tooth
Nothing But The Tooth
The Tooth is heading to the Venerable Master's Kaohsiung Fo Guan Shan Temple. The Tooth is one of the three teeth from the one and only original Buddha. Said Teeth, legend has it, were retrieved after the Buddha's cremation. Only three are said to exist. One is in Sri Lanka. One is in Beijing, and the third now has been brought to Taiwan.
Beijing wanted the tooth. They didn't want it to go to Taiwan. Why not? Perhaps the words of one of the officials involved in bringing the Tooth to Taiwan might give us a clue (from an AP report):
Wu Poh-hsiung, a delegate and an adviser to President Lee Teng-hui, said the move to bring back the tooth for worship was to "purify the public mind polluted by greed"Wu was prompted to make the above statement to clarify the reason for the bringing of the Tooth after some of the initial statements he made indicated that the Tooth could help Taiwan be safer from disasters and corruption. Rather than being a good luck charm, it is meant to be inspiring. The Venerable Master added "The tooth won't relieve Taiwan of misfortunes unless people make their own efforts."
Not surprisingly the government on the mainland side of the Taiwan straits is not happy about the Tooth going to Taiwan. Given what we know about the communist party and their campaigns, Jiang and Zhu must want it for their spiritual pollution and austerity campaigns. The tooth will help them to get those minds purer less polluted and more austere.
But they didn't get the Tooth. It did go to Taiwan, from India, via Bangkok, Thailand. So, the communists announced that the Tooth is a fake.
A fake? Seems feasible, what are the odds of a tooth of the Buddha being preserved for all this time? Pretty slim I'd think. It reminds me of those guys who'll claim a little piece of wood is part of the Cross that Jesus was crucified on.
But, no. That's not what they mean. Quoth an anonymous official for the official Chinese Buddhist Association via the official Xinhua News Agency:
The two teeth remaining in the mortal world are currently enshrined and worshipped in Sri Lanka and Beijing. The existing teeth enshrined in Sri Lanka and Beijing have been long recognized as those of the Buddha, while the third tooth fails to meet the aforementioned criteriaSo there it is. It's not that they don't believe in Buddha's Teeth, it's that the one that they can't have is fake. But of course theirs is real.
The Venerable Master didn't like hearing this accusation of course but still was magnanimous and humble in his response:
There are different theories about the number of surviving teeth. Some say there are three or four, while others say there are more. But no one said that there are only two....that is until the communist party did the other day.
Later the Venerable Master went on to address the issue quite pragmatically:
For a wonderful thing like this, it is meaningless to argue over what exactly is real and what is false. Some say the Lord Buddha had left four teeth, some say three. How can you tell which is real and which is false?The mainland authorities had tried to stop the Tooth from going to Taiwan. Presumably this was done by putting diplomatic pressure on whatever country would host a ceremony to present the Tooth to the Venerable Master so he could bring it to Taiwan. The Tooth was in India after being smuggled out of Tibet in 1968 at the height of the Cultural revolution when the communists were destroying any and everything they could that had to do with religion. Thailand, a strongly Buddhist nation, allowed the Tooth-turnover ceremony to take place there.
One reason the mainland government may be upset about this event is it illustrates the growing ties and friendship between the Tibetan exiles headquartered in Dharmasala India and Taiwan. See Evil Deeds in Public for a review of the Dalai Lama's visit to Taiwan in March '97 and Dalai Lama, Say What? for a review of the conflicting statements by the Dalai Lama and representatives of the exile government concerning the visit to Taiwan while it was still in the planning stage.
The visit to Taiwan of the Dalai Lama went so well he plans to go again later this year, tentatively in December. The Dalai Lama has been able to set up offices and organizations in Taiwan over the past year. This coziness between Tibetans and Taiwanese must turn the communists white with fright.
After the Tooth-turnover the entourage, a big one, flew back to Taiwan. The Taiwan Central News Agency reported the day before that traffic would be heavy and controlled for the welcoming of the Tooth ceremony. From the number of people there we can see why.
Revellers at Taipei Ceremony
The Tooth will be on display in Taipei for a few months and then will go to the Venerable Master's Temple in Kaohsiung as the Buddha Chopper's new home.
The Venerable Master is Hsing Yun. Some may recall that his temple in Hacienda Heights California is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Maria Hsia case. Hsia was indicted and charged with illegally laundering money into the Clinton-Gore campaign fund and DNC fund. His Temple in California is the His Lai Temple where Gore visited for his famous "I didn't know it was a fundraiser" visit. Maria Hsia has also be called an agent of the mainland Chinese government in the Senate Campaign Finance Hearings report. She says that is not true at all.
In terms of why the Venerable Master would play ball with Hsia and John Huang in their finance follies it is hard to say. One reason may be that he is from mainland China and his heart is still there. He was one of the many that went to Taiwan in 1949 before the communists took over. He was from the Nanjing region of mainland China and in his brochures and handouts calls mainland China his homeland. Perhaps by playing ball with these folks he understood that maybe in the future he might be able to build a temple in his homeland and bring his Buddha Light Mountain gospel there. The mainland authorities control these sort of things and playing ball with them is what they like. That of course is speculation, but...if Jiang Zemin and his mainland boys had all ready let him set up a temple in Nanjing by now maybe he would have brought the Tooth there rather than Kaohsiung and the communist boys could've pronounced the Tooth an authentic genuine ceritifed Tooth of the Lord Buddha.
But there is still hope. Perhaps Al Gore can use the Tooth to bring in cash and good luck for his race for President in the year 2000. Can you see it?
Al Gore in 2000?
I think they should give the tooth to Wei Jingsheng or Xu Wenli--they need teeth more than any of the others.
For a collection of articles about the Tooth and the controversy and ceremonies click here
