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Article: Little Buddhas: 'Tibetan Buddhism' is all the rage - although it has little to do with Buddhism, or Tibet.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- June 22, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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###DAVID KLINGHOFFER
'Tibetan Buddhism' is all the rage -- although it has little to do with Buddhism, or Tibet.
ON bus stops across New York City, a poster for Smirnoff vodka shows two cartoon characters a la Jules Feiffer, one holding up a bottle of non-Smirnoff spirits. The man boasts: "This vodka comes in a bottle designed by albino monks from Tibet." Unimpressed, the woman asks: "How's it taste?" The question hadn't occurred to him: "Taste?"
In vino veritas, or anyway in vodka. The poster neatly captures a cultural vortex that has snagged upper-middle-class white people by the tens of thou- sands. These folks have got their hands on a bottle with ...