Between the Tibetan Plateau and Eastern China-Religious Tourism, Lay Practice and Ritual Economy during the Pandemic

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4910705
AutoresKai Shmushko (0000-0002-9832-8156, Leiden University, autor correspondente)
Ano2023
Volume14
Fascículo3
Páginas291
Data de publicação2023-02-21
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoReligions (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
EditoraMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel14030291
OpenAlexW4321499968
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas36

This article presents various institutional responses of Buddhist groups and leaders to COVID-19, adding a focus on how Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in China have responded to the pandemic. In particular, it examines the predicament of practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism. The article focuses on the material characteristics of Tibetan Buddhism and how they were manifested among Han Chinese urbanites during the pandemic through (1) a teleological inquiry, which looks into the concept of merit (sk: puñña, ch: gongde) 功德, and (2) an organizational inquiry, which explores the modalities in which Han Chinese groups practice Tibetan Buddhism in the socio-political sphere of the Chinese state. Within this inquiry, the article deals with a Buddhist community based in Shanghai and an individual account of pilgrimage in Tibet. Based on these two case studies and their contextualization, the article aims to assess how the COVID-19 crisis has affected the practices, modalities and religious technologies of Tibetan Buddhism practiced by Han Chinese. The article argues for a degree of resilience of lay practice in Tibetan Buddhism; it stresses that while some aspects of the practice called for accommodations and change, the particularities of the practice have pre-existing conditions (such as state regulation on religion and the physical distance of their religious authority) which could accommodate the practical, sociological and psychological implications of the COVID-19 pandemic

Buddhism · China · Contextualization · Environmental ethics · Geography · Modalities · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious Tourism and Spaces