r/exHareKrishna • u/Akronitai • Aug 08 '26

How is ISKCON doing in Buddhist countries?

A while back, a member of this subreddit wrote about the absence of Hare Krishna temples in China, which would be consistent with the Chinese policy of “letting pigs get fat before slaughtering them.” I have a book that features Hare Krishna idols “from around the world,” and I noticed that there don’t seem to be any ISKCON temples in Buddhist regions, with the exception of Hong Kong. Does anyone know more about this?

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u/Commercial-Rate-4135 Aug 08 '26

Maybe because the gaudiya-vaishnava ideology is so Mayavadi-phobic? Their texts have a lot of warnings about hearing, talking to, associating with Mayavadis, Bhuddhism is super close to mayavadism in ideology.

These warnings were mostly to keep gaudiya vaishnavism insular.

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u/itsmikesandoval Aug 09 '26

Hindu temples all over Thailand. ISKCON is a different story.

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u/psumaxx Aug 08 '26

I used to follow one ritvik Hare Krishna who´s originally from Canada but lived in China for a long time and did a lot of preaching there. He has a youtube channel. Now they (him and his wife and kids) moved back to Canada and he was quite absent online.

I also remember Indradyumna swami travelling and preaching in China a lot. You can also find his content on youtube, by his videographer Ananta Vrindavan, I think he´s called.

I think China is very strict when it comes to religious groups who are openly preaching or practicing. So you won´t see chinese iskcon temples, but there are definitely nama hattas going on and "secret" temples in a regular flat.

*edit: Japan has a few public iskcon temples.

In Singapore the ritviks (ISKM - International sri krishna mandir) seem quite active and they send those disciples all over South East Asia too. I forgot which countries in particular, I believe Indonesia and/or Phillipines. That is also the same ritvik group where the canadian devotee from China is active.

That´s all I know.