Gifts and the Selfless Work Ethic in Tibetan Buddhist Centres in France

Bibliographic Data

ID4299522
AuthorsCécile Campergue (Université catholique de lyon, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume9
Issue11
Pages443-461
Publication date2015-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligion Compass (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1749-8171 • E-ISSN: 1749-8171
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/rec3.12183
OpenAlexW2173837952
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited6

Tibetan Buddhism has gained ground in France since it arrived there in the 1970s. As the most publicized form and the one most practised by Westerners, Tibetan Buddhism is embodied in France in many places of worship-some of which are of monumental proportions-run by Tibetan and Western masters (lamas). In France, 'dharma centres', as places of worship, cannot be subsidized by the State like other faiths (with some exceptions): their main source of income comes from the donations (in various forms) from disciples and other sympathizers. The Buddhist meritorious gift takes very different forms here, depending on French cultural, institutional and legal constraints. Moreover, donation practices have adapted to the masters' new public: a Western audience from a Christian background, which is unfamiliar with Buddhism and the meritorious gift, and which on the whole has to pay for Buddhist teachings. Dharma centres also offer a wide variety of religious services in exchange for payments-in effect, market exchanges that are dissimulated behind a euphemized discourse of the 'gift'. Bourdieu's analysis therefore proves relevant to our understanding of the giving practices recorded during our fieldwork

Buddhism · Dharma · Donation · Political science · Sociology · Theology · Worship · African Studies and Ethnography · Education, sociology, and vocational training · Law · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Philosophy · Religious studies

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