Tibetannet

June 2 was the highlight of the month-long Sakya Dawa Festival in Tibetan custom to celebrate the day of Buddha Shakyamuni's birth, enlightenment and Nirvana.

In China’s Buddhist circle, Zhao Puchu, former president of the Buddhist Association of China, proposed that the Chinese lunar calendar regard the 15th day of the fourth month as "Buddha's Auspicious Day" to celebrate, with the international community, the day when the Buddha was born, reached enlightenment, and entered Nirvana.

There was only one Buddha Shakyamuni in the world, so there should be only one definite time and date of his birth, enlightenment and nirvana. However, due to the different calendars that are used in different countries and regions, the Buddhist records of this date vary.

Such a phenomenon is not unique to Buddhism, but it also exists for Christians regarding the definition of Christmas, which can change because believers are from different regions and follow different calendars. For example, the Catholic Church celebrates Christmas on Dec. 25, but the Orthodox Church celebrates it on Jan. 7. Therefore, in Russia, the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated twice a year.

During the development of some big religions as they expanded their geographical scope, they encountered new believers who were rooted in the culture of their individual regions. Thus, as time passed, the original religion gradually combined with the local culture, eventually forming a new sect. A typical example of this is the Islamic Shiah and Sunni sects, with the former based on the deeply rooted cultural influences of Persia and the latter on the Arabic culture respectively.

In China, this evolution of foreign religions has also occurred, such as in the fusion of Buddhism and Tibetan culture to form Tibetan Buddhism, and the absorption of Confucian culture in the mainland to create Chinese Buddhism.

In the process of the spread of Christianity in China, these cultural differences produced the "Chinese rites controversy, which lasted more than three centuries. The controversy between Chinese traditional etiquette and Catholic doctrine was ended in 1939 when Pope Pius XII issued an encyclical allowing Christians to participate in Confucian ceremony … it is permitted and appropriate".

Since the enlightenment, with the awakening of the sovereignty consciousness of modern states, religion and geography have become tied more closely. In China, the question is how to adapt religions to a socialist society with Chinese characteristics.

Min Zhong, said in an official Weixin titled "The united front neology" that "the Chinese characteristics" have three main aspects of performance: the first is to love the motherland, support the socialist system and the Communist Party of China, and abide by the national laws, policies and principles; the second is to engage in religious activities that best serve the overall interests of the country and the Chinese nation; the third is to lead, with core socialist values and to blend the traditional culture and religion and to interpret religious doctrines to meet the requirements of social progress.

Any religion that adapts to the social development of a region can better survive and develop, and then contributes positively to the social development in that region.