Rethinking Tibetan Buddhism in Post-Mao China 1980-2015

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  • Jane Eluned Caple
Rethinking Tibetan Buddhism in Post-Mao China: 1980-2015
The literature on Tibetan Buddhism in post-Mao China presents a bifurcated history: ethnic nationalism and (traditional) identity are foregrounded in scholarship on the revitalization of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet; consumption and/or (global) modernism are emphasized in studies of its spread in Sinophone China. Although there are considerable historical and social differences between these different constituencies, these characterizations do not fully capture the social differences, as well as convergences, that have shaped everyday engagements with Tibetan Buddhism among Tibetans and Chinese. Drawing on ethnographic data collected in northeastern Tibet and other recent ethnographic studies, I attempt to complicate this picture, arguing that we need to pay greater attention to the affective dimension of Chinese engagements, the social embeddedness of Tibetan Buddhist institutions in the Tibetan context, and the transformations that have taken place in Tibetan areas, as elsewhere in China.
Key words: Tibetan Buddhism, contemporary Chinese religion, Tibetan identity, religion and economy, consumption, affect, modern Buddhism

反思中国毛泽东时代后的藏传佛教:1980-2015
中国毛泽东时代后的藏传佛教的文献有两大分支:藏传佛教在西藏地区复兴的学术研究将种族民族主义和(传统)身份认同放在显著位置;藏传佛教在中国汉语圈传播的研究则侧重消费和(全球)现代化。尽管藏人和汉族藏传佛教徒这两个群体之间存在很大的历史差异和社会不同,这样的特性划分并不能完全体现影响藏人和汉人在日常生活中与藏传佛教互动的社会差异和相似。基于在青藏高原东北部所收集的田野数据和近期其他田野调查,我尝试丰富现有对藏传佛教的研究。我呼吁大家对汉人与藏传佛教在情感上的互动,藏传佛教体系在藏区的社会根基,和在藏区所发生的改变投入更多的关注。
关键词:藏传佛教,当代中国宗教,藏族身份认同,宗教和经济,消费, 情感,现代佛教
Original languageEnglish
JournalReview of Religion and Chinese Society
Volume7
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)62–91
Number of pages30
ISSN2214-3947
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

ID: 226273163