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About 200 Buddhist students held a peaceful protest rally outside an outlet of the international franchise Buddha Bar in the Indonesian capital on Thursday, accusing it of defaming their religion.

Avoiding alcohol and other intoxicants is the fifth of the “Five Precepts” that form the basic moral code of Buddhism.

Meanwhile the secretary-general of the Indonesian Pandita Sabha Buddha Dharma Foundation, said sealing off the bar was not the Buddhist way of seeking a solution. “Our way is never to force anything. A dialogue is needed,” he said.

When it comes to funerals the Japanese have traditionally been inflexibly Buddhist – so much so that Buddhism in Japan is often called “funeral Buddhism,” a reference to the religion’s former near-monopoly on the elaborate, and lucrative, ceremonies surrounding deaths and memorial services.

But that expression also describes a religion that, by appearing to cater more to the needs of the dead than to those of the living, is losing its standing in Japanese society.

On four different occasions from December 2005 to May 2006, the old priest performed indecent acts on the woman, using the excuse of her needing to undergo purification to rid her body of eczema that was plaguing it and feeling her up.

Tales of corruption, looting and religious rivalry are swirling around the spot where Buddha is said to have gained enlightenment in eastern India some 2,500 years ago, sullying one of Buddhism’s holiest sites.

A 17-year-old boy picked by China as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s second-highest figure, pledged his support for the Communist Party in a rare public appearance, state media said.

“We wanted to show the young people that Buddhism is cool, and temples are not a place just for funerals,” said Koji Matsubara, a chief monk at Tsukiji.

The Dalai Lama says he may appoint a successor or rely on an election before his death in a break with tradition, a Japanese newspaper reported Tuesday, following recent orders that China must approve Tibet’s spiritual leaders.

China, in its latest tirade against Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, on Tuesday accused the exiled Nobel peace prize laureate of supporting “evil cults” like Falun Gong and Japan’s Aum Shinrikyo.

Burma’s major religion is Buddhism and thousands of pagodas dotted around the country are a major tourist attraction. It’s the involvement of the country’s revered Buddhist monks that gave added weight to the demonstrations.

The two-week confrontation between Burma’s monks and military is no ordinary uprising, but a deeper struggle between spiritual and worldly forces in a country torn between the two polar opposites.

Experts say the number of Americans who actually identify themselves as Buddhists — as opposed to just sympathizing with them — continues to steadily grow.

President George W. Bush next month will attend a ceremony to award the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama, an event likely to annoy China which views Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader as a separatist.

The passive, otherworldly image of Buddhism can be misleading. In Burma, where two-thirds of the country is Buddhist, the religion has an overwhelming influence on day-to-day life and plays a continuing political role that makes the current protest marches by tens of thousands of monks through the streets of Yangon especially significant.

A Chinese order claiming Beijing must approve all of Tibet’s spiritual leaders is an attempt to further repress and undermine the religious culture of the Himalayan region, the Tibetan government-in-exile said Sunday.

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