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Buddhists target 30-140 window
TIBET — Buddhist evangelistic groups are aggressively targeting the 30-140 window where most of the world's Christians reside, in an unprecedented effort to promote the Buddhist religion. The campaign's title refers to the longitudinal area that includes North and South America, which Buddhists consider a mission field ripe for harvest.

"We are praying over maps, meeting during the week and interceding for the un-enlightened people of the Americas," says one Buddhist priest who subsists on goat cheese and dandelion stems at a temple 14,000 feet up in the Himalayas. His congregation of 150, though poor, is devoted to the 30-140 proselytizing effort, and they pray fervently for the U.S. and other nations every Wednesday evening. Several laypeople, who say they have the gift of intercession, spend hours spinning the prayer wheel and asking various gods to invade the Americas with a Buddhist revival.

The 30-140 campaign, launched last year at a prayer and fasting convention of Buddhist leaders in Tibet, has brought new focus to the religion. They have distributed nearly two million color-coded prayer maps, featuring statistics and guides for each region in the window. For example, the prayer guide for July 2004 focuses on the American South. The prayer guide depicts crowds of what appear to be sad and confused parishioners slumping into church, and the caption reads, "Because of its long Christian history, the American South is swathed in spiritual darkness, but as the influence of the Christian myth wanes in popular culture, more people are opening up to the light of true knowledge. Pray that cultural traditions will fall, and that your prayers to the demon-god Osiris will pave the way for the Buddha's teachings."...