Multiple Buddhisms in Ladakh

Strategic Secularities and Missionaries Fighting Decline

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3443491
AutoresElizabeth Williams-Oerberg (University of Copenhagen), Brooke Schedneck (Rhodes College, autor correspondente), Ann Gleig (University of Central Florida)
Ano2021
Volume12
Fascículo11
Páginas932
Data de publicação2021-10-27
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoReligions (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
EditoraMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel12110932
OpenAlexW3209063503
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas18

During fieldwork in Ladakh in July-August 2018, three authors from Asian studies, anthropology, and religious studies backgrounds researched "multiple Buddhisms" in Ladakh, India. Two case studies are presented: a Buddhist monastery festival by the Drikung Kagyü Tibetan Buddhist sect, and a Theravada monastic complex, called Mahabodhi International Meditation Center (MIMC). Through the transnational contexts of both of these case studies, we argue that Buddhist leaders adapt their teachings to appeal to specific audiences with the underlying goal of preserving the tradition. The Buddhist monastery festival engages with both the scientific and the magical or mystical elements of Buddhism for two very different European audiences. At MIMC, a secular spirituality mixes with Buddhism for international tourists on a meditation retreat. Finally, at MIMC, Thai Buddhist monks learn how to fight the decline of Buddhism through missionizing Theravada Buddhism in this land dominated by Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Paying attention to this multiplicity-to "multiple Buddhisms"-we argue, makes space for the complicated, ambiguous, and at times contradictory manner in which Buddhism is positioned in regards to secularism and secularity

Buddhism · Epistemology · Islam · Meditation · Mysticism · Reincarnation · Secularism · Secularity · Sociology · Spirituality · Theology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Philosophy · Religious studies · Religious Tourism and Spaces