periods. With the expansion ofBrazilian Buddhist communities and their growing presence in society,you can not avoid the question of the relationship of thesecommunities with Brazilian society. I believe therefore, thatessential at the moment is to strengthen education and systematicstudy of Buddhism. I also believe that there will only be a'Brazilian Buddhism' at the time the Buddhists start thinkingBrazilian society from the premises of the Buddhist tradition."During the Tibetan uprising of March 2008, the Monk Joaquim Monteirowas one of the few Buddhists in Brazil to speak and write openlyabout the issue, condemning the repression sponsored by the Chineseregime. But something seems to have prevented other Buddhist leadersto manifest with the same vehemence, and he answered to it during hisinterview:"The positions I took during the Tibetanuprising were derived in part from study and reflection I have beendeveloping for more than two decades on the Tibetan issue and partlyin a sense of urgency that made me realize that I was experiencing amoment of decisive importance. I felt that the moment had come totake action. With regard to the Buddhist leaders you refer to, I cannot say anything conclusive about the possible obstacles thatprevented them from acting. With a few exceptions Brazilian Buddhistleaders responded to the current situation through a silence to meincomprehensible. I do not want and can not give a conclusive answerregarding the attitude of the leaders referred to, but I believetheir silence is perhaps an expression of individualistic mentalitythat has blocked both the systematic study of Buddhism in itsrelation to contemporary society as formation of a community visionconducive to social praxis." When asked about the failure (at the time of the uprising) of most ofthe Buddhist leaders, in particular the Brazilian community ofTibetan Buddhism, something so nonsense, Monk Joaquim said:"Raising a hypothesis to be confirmed, thisposture of the Buddhists of Tibetan tradition can be a circumstantialfailure of the introduction of this tradition or it may be expressingthat the process of introduction of Tibetan Buddhism in Brazil ismore problematic than is generally thought. I've had to date verylittle contact with the Buddhist Tibetan tradition in Brazil, but Irealized through these contacts some extremely good points and somepotentially problematic aspects. What I feel like the more consistentcontribution of Tibetan Buddhism in our environment is that it wasable to form a minority of serious scholars of Buddhist thought on alevel never sighted in our country. However, I feel a sense ofcommunity centered on lineages may have serious difficulties in thetransition to the concrete social praxis. All these are questions Iwould like to share in a possible dialogue with the leaders of theTibetan traditions in Brazil."This "sense ofcommunity centered on lineages" hasturned out to be demonstrated in our activities when we realized thatmembers of Tibetan sanghas in Brazil were instructed to not engage,or to directly not support the actions of the Free Tibet in ourcountry. After this interview, and a few more facts, we lost thesupport of several pro-Tibet activists for no apparent reason. Theyseemed to have been really oriented to move away...After insistent questioning, I received from Chagdud Gonpa Brazil aresponse by e-mail about why little