What would it take to make China into a Buddhist-majority country until the present day?
In Sri Lanka, a Buddhist majority country for over 2000 years, this was achieved by a simple yet strong concept. It’s called in my native language, ‘Gamai Pansalai Wevai Dagebai’, which translates in to ‘Village, temple, tank and stupa’. Village and temple are self explanatory. Tank refers to unique rain water collecting cascading man made lakes and stupa is always build next to a lake ( temple as well). This is how most of the country was planned. Village provide all necessary support for the temple and temple and its monks support the village with all their rituals and worship. Stupa remains as the centrepiece of visible Buddhist iconography and tank provide all necessary water for farming and other daily needs. This tight knit concept withstood kings who wanted to convert people to different religions, invasions that lasted centuries and also, the test of time. Chinese may need to come up with a concept that will make Buddhism an everyday part of life rather than the real deeper practice of it. Bind it to society in a way that is almost impossible to remove by any change in top management of the kingdoms. Then it will stand the test of time as well.
