The Karmapa has been questioned by the Indian police after huge amounts of cash—the equivalent of $1.6m in some reports—in various currencies, including Chinese yuan, were seized from the monastery he occupies.

One of the two main political parties of the indigenous people in Bangladesh’s southeastern hill tracts prevented Christians from celebrating Christmas, sources said.

The United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF), which has demanded that Christian converts return to Buddhism, threatened tribal Christians of at least seven churches in Khagrachari district, some 300 kilometers (180 miles) southeast of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.

Scientists and religious practitioners can learn a lot from each other and should work together to find a productive balance between spirituality and secular research, the Dalai Lama said Sunday.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader’s comments came at a news conference kicking off his three-day visit to Emory University in Atlanta. During his visit, he plans to teach, lecture and receive an update on the development of the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative.

The Dalai Lama is a presidential distinguished professor at Emory — the only university appointment he has accepted.

The Dalai Lama said he has long been interested in scientific knowledge — particularly in the areas of cosmology, neurobiology, physics and psychology, which he says are mentioned in Buddhist texts.

Buddhist extremists held eight Chakma Christians for four days to force them to return to Buddhism.

The captives were all forced to wear Buddhist robes, shave their heads, bow down before a statue of Buddha and clean the temple; they were also threatened with beatings and even death if they tried to escape.

The amendment bill would punish “proselytizing” that “uses coercion or other forms of inducement” – vaguely enough worded, Christians fear, that vigilantes could use it to jail them for following the commands of Christ to feed, clothe and otherwise care for the poor.

“There was always a virtual anti-conversion law in place, but now it is on paper too,” said a senior pastor from Thimphu on condition of anonymity. “Seemingly it is aimed at controlling the growth of Christianity.”

The Dalai Lama has sent a message of support for Armed Forces Day, which is next Saturday. In it, he writes of his admiration for the military. That is perhaps not so surprising. As he explains, there are many parallels between being a monk and being a soldier – the need for discipline, companionship, and inner strength.

Followers of an internationally known Buddhist monk say tensions are rising at a monastery in Vietnam’s Central Highlands after local officials accused them of trying to “sabotage” Vietnam’s communist government.

An angry crowd gathered outside the Bat Nha monastery on Monday and local police conducted late-night searches of the rooms, said Brother Phap Tu, speaking by telephone Tuesday from the compound in Lam Dong province.

AP says the monks and nuns there are followers of Thich Nhat Hanh, an exiled Vietnam-born monk who has sold more than 1 million English-books in the West and is now based at the Plum Village monastery in southern France.

Today’s Religion News Roundup brings you soothsayers, fortune tellers, astrologers, a ‘vampire’, and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

With the flim-flam out of the way, there’s also room for the Samaritan (“the smallest sect in the world”), China’s whining about the Dalai Lama, and some religion/abortion issues.

In today’s RNB Religion News Roundup we’ve got items about religious radio/tv programming, the Grand Prix Priest does Britain’s Got Talent, and human rights abuser Donald Rumsfeld quoting the Bible.

Imagine playing John Lennon’s anti-religious Imagine at church…

And then there’s a Catholic spokesman whose quotes newspapers have to —- out.

In the tiny Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, high in the Himalayan mountains, under a new Constitution adopted last year, government programs — from agriculture to transportation to foreign trade — must be judged not by the economic benefits they may offer but by the happiness they produce.

Now, the Bhutanese are refining the country’s guiding philosophy into what they see as a new political science, and it has ripened into government policy just when the world may need it

• A primer on the Dalai Lama  • Dalai Lama inspires reverent silence, cheers at stadium  • The Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society practices a unique incarnation of Buddhism infused with punk rock’s anti-establishment ethos  • The similarities between ancient Buddhism and modern psyschology: both practices are focused on releasing followers from suffering, and both aim for emotional health. But…

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.