REFILE-China turns to Buddhism to calm Tibet, Taiwan tensions

(Refiles to standarise spelling of "Panchen")

By Lucy Hornby

WUXI, China, March 28 (Reuters) - Communist China and Taiwan are for the first time jointly hosting a Buddhist forum at this lakeside city on Saturday, as Beijing turns to Buddhism as a balm for global economic turmoil and internal unrest.

"Harmonious world", the theme of the second World Buddhist Forum that begins in Wuxi, echoes the "harmonious society" slogans of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Gargantuan re-creations of Tibetan and South Asian prayer halls, built in a vast park housing a 1,000-year-old pagoda, show the resources China's formally atheist state is prepared to invest to reclaim its Buddhist mantle.

"Even though the views of politicians and monks are different, both are concerned about the financial crisis which has swept across the world," Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Bureau of Religious Affairs, wrote in a commentary in the overseas edition of the People's Daily.

While the rhetoric may be global, Beijing hopes its embrace of Buddhism can help ease tensions with Taiwan and Tibetans.

Tibetan areas are under military lockdown, one year after widespread protests against Chinese rule. Fifty years ago this March, the Dalai Lama fled to India following a failed uprising, and China has declared Saturday a holiday to commemorate the end of serfdom in Tibet.

The 19-year-old Panchen Lama, who Beijing picked and is grooming to tie Tibetan loyalty to China, will make a rare public appearance at the meeting. The two most senior exiled Tibetan Buddhist monks, the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa Lama, will not.