31 MAY,2023.
Using Buddhism as a tool of soft power (PG 9)(GS 1, 2)
31 MAY,2023.
I am a Shakya from Nepal, a supposed descendant of Siddhartha Shakya, who went on to be known as the Buddha. • Every Shakya is engaged in a diff•erent path today, yet is bound by one phenomenon. • But it is rare for individuals, or the tribe, or even Nepal to feature in a congregation of Buddhists such as the Global Buddhist Summit, which took place in New Delhi in April. • Realisations like these prompt a closer look at why growing superpowers, India and China, are defi•ning their own versions of the future of Buddhism and using it as a tool of soft power. • The Shakyas who ruled Kapilavastu after Buddha’s Parinirvana did not have an army, and many were massacred in Sagarahawa. • Eventually, the remaining Shakyas fl•ed to diff•erent parts of Greater Magadha and to far-fl•ung places like Gandhara (modern-day Afghanistan) and Burma (Myanmar).