The First Constituent Meeting of ABCP 1969-1970 – Ulaanbaatar

THE FIRST CONSTITUENT MEETING OF ABCP OR THE MEETING OF THE “INITIATIVE GROUP”

An Initiative Group Meeting was held in Ulaanbaatar on 5 December 1969 with representatives of Sri Lanka Buddhist Congress of Ceylon, Young Buddhist Council of Nepal, Mahabodhi Society of India, Buddhists of the USSR and Gandan Tegchenling Monastery of Mongolia attending, and the meeting of the Asian Buddhists was held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on 11-13 June 1970, where the Asian Buddhists Conference for Peace was officially established, which was also recorded as the First ABCP General Conference.   During the month of July 1969, thousands of innocent people living in the Indo-China peninsula were losing their lives, were being tortured and maimed, and their religion humiliated by the US war of aggression, Most Ven. Khambo Lama S. Gombojav, the head of the Gandan Tegchenling Monastery in Mongolia came up with an initiative to launch a campaign among the Asian Buddhists in support of and to render assistance to the suffering people of Indo-China.

The initiative was welcomed and supported by Buddhists from Ceylon, India and Nepal, who were then on a friendship missions to the Mongolian People’s Republic. Friends in the Dhamma from Ceylon, India, Nepal, USSR and Mongolia met in Ulan-Bator in the beginning of December 1969 and unanimously decided that a meeting of Asian Buddhists for promoting peaceful activities in Asia should be held in the capital of the Mongolian People’s Republic in 1970. Accordingly, a meeting of Asian Buddhists was held in Ulan Bator (now Ulaanbaatar) on 11-13 June 1970, attended by representatives of Buddhists from India, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Singapore, the USSR and Vietnam (Both the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Republic of South Vietnam), and they agreed to set up the Asian Buddhists Committee for Promoting Peace – ABCPP¸ with the purpose of promoting and coordinating the peace efforts of the Asian Buddhists, and this inaugural conference is rightly regarded as the First Conference of the Asian Buddhists Conference for Peace.   It adopted two resolutions, one on promoting cooperation among Asian Buddhists in the struggle for peace and the other on Vietnam and Indo-China. The inaugural Conference of ABCP made an appeal to all Asian Buddhists noting “We resolutely condemn the US War of aggression against Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and join our voices with all the just peoples who demand an immediate stop to the US war of aggression … and call upon dear friends and brothers in faith … to unite in the just struggle of the three peoples of Indo-China for their independence and freedom, and to contribute to the establishment of durable peace in Indo-China and Asia. The Inaugural/constituent Conference of ABCPP elected the Most Ven. Samaagin Gombojav, Chief Abbot of the Gandan Tegchenling Monastery, Mongolia as ABCPP President, Most Ven. Jinaratana Maha Nayak Thero of India and Ven. M. Sumanatissa Thero of Sri Lanka as Vice Presidents, and Prof. Ch. Jugder of Mongolia as its Secretary General. It also issued a Communique, which summarized the deliberations and decisions of the inaugural First Conference of the Asian Buddhists Committee for Promoting Peace.