by Donatas Glodenis
"White Lotus" phenomenon: an overview
The "White lotus" movement is an interesting phenomenon in the post-soviet Ukraine, Lithuania and a few other countries in Europe[1]. The movement was started by Vladimir Ivanovich Skubajev (1956 - ) a Ukrainian national, who has graduated from a pedagogical institute (nowadays it would be called university), worked in a high school and later as an elevator maintenance man. He got acquainted with students from Laos, with whom he began to practice Kung Fu, later spending some time in Laos. Upon return he claimed he has been initiated as a teacher in a Laos Buddhist martial arts school "Sha Phoot Phan", and began to teach Kung Fu in 1988 in Cherkassy, Ukrainian town of about 400,000, where the construction of a Buddhist temple was started by the movement in 1989, and is continuing to date. The "White Lotus" movement has continued to spread since and currently it has branches in many of the former Soviet Union republics including Lithuania and other Baltic States, also Greece, USA (branch in Chicago), United Arab Emyrates and Germany[2]. The movement's manifold activities provide it with many marketable features, so the spread of the movement should be expected in the future.