Zenkoji Temple Vandalized After Declining To Host Torch Relay Event

I thought I’d only have enough Olympic-related news for one post today, but then I saw this ugly news:

Graffiti was found on the main building of Zenkoji Buddhist Temple in the city of Nagano on Sunday morning, after the major temple declined Friday to serve as the starting point of the Japan leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay, police said.

They have launched the investigation as a property destruction case, focusing on whether the incident is related to the temple’s withdrawal from the event, they added.

Circles and lines were drawn with white spray paint at six points on wooden doors and columns of the main building, a national treasure, according to the investigation. They were sprayed at a height of about 1 meter from the floor.

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Declining to host the torch relay, a Zenkoji official told reporters Friday, “Indiscriminate killings have taken place in Tibet. We were concerned about Buddhists in Tibet who rose up and the subsequent crackdown against them.”

It’s also being reported that Nagano City has turned down multiple requests from China to allow paramilitary police to guard the torch relay.