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Anthropology (Buddhism)

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  1. Introduction
  2. Although the study of the anthropology of Buddhism falls within the anthropology of religion, it has evolved into its own interdisciplinary area, almost an “applied anthropology” for those outside the discipline of anthropology. The study of Buddhism through the lens of anthropology is not a new undertaking, with several fruitful studies from the 1960s onward; however, it has been inconsistent as a viable approach for scholars for many years. From about the mid-1950s until the early 1990s, historical, philosophical, and textual approaches dominated the study of Buddhism, providing the preferred lenses by scholars who often combined them with philological tools. These preferences were reminiscent of 18th and 19th century approaches toward Asian religions. The tendency was to elevate literary products over local practices, romanticize Buddhism, and reduce religion found in Asian contexts to Western essentialist notions. In turn, the rhetoric of “great and little traditions” became commonplace in the scholarship about Buddhism. What was described as “local” or popular was perceived and presented as corrupt and an aberration of an imagined “authentic” and static “great” monastic or ascetic and scholarly Buddhism. The view of insisting on an authentic or “original” Buddhism was often connected with perceptions concerning the Theravādin tradition. The lenses of colonial and postcolonial studies are also critical for the development of the anthropology of Buddhism. It is not ironic to find in the 1960s that anthropologists made a conscious effort to study Buddhism of the Theravādin tradition in areas with a colonial history. The anthropology of religion often constructed in these contexts dealt directly with the comparison of religious beliefs and practices in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, with notions of power, ethnicity and race, and the dichotomy between “magic” and the intellectual literary traditions. It was also common for scholars with personal ties to specific regions with a colonial past to counteract the textual and historical dominance. The relative paucity of earlier studies of the Mahāyāna traditions in the colonial contexts was likely due to the fact that these traditions were not as frequent in these contexts that they did not fit into European scholars’ notions of “authentic” Buddhism and, in some cases, these traditions were not accessible to academic studies. With postcolonial contexts and political events in Asia as well as the shift away from scholarly “ancestors” like Max Weber, later anthropologists paved the way to the study of Mahāyāna traditions, thus dispelling biases against them as corrupt forms of Buddhism. Early on, data collected for the anthropological study of Buddhism in general was structured under familiar theoretical constructs such as functionalism, structuralism or postmodernism in the fields of cultural (or sociocultural), social, archaeological, linguistic, or physical anthropology, and then expanded to include psychological and political lenses. The privileging of ethnographies in academic study became increasingly popular as one of the best ways to represent social acts. As the anthropology of Buddhism evolved, several particular foci like local religions and ritual, which typically occupies a central place in anthropology, were held to engage notions of popular versus elite or monastic Buddhism. Perhaps the most exciting trend derives from a diversity of scholars who employ an interdisciplinary approach utilizing anthropological, historical, and textual lenses with proficiency in vernacular languages. Psychology and the subarea of emotion studies co-opted Buddhism in order to study regional differences. An innovative area that is also evolving in contemporary studies of the anthropology of Buddhism is medicine and healing. Exciting works on religious revival and cultural identity, power and politics, and social engagement reveal the current innovations of several anthropologists and scholars of religion who cross boundaries. Although gender is an area in need of further development as a complement to the work done by textual scholars, there have been exciting ethnographic studies to date.
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  4. General Overviews and Methodological Considerations
  5. A number of works cover the anthropology of Buddhism in a general way, and several of these target the methodological approach. These often present a corrective to the preference of the Theravādin over the Mahāyāna traditions in past scholarship. Nash’s landmark 1966 essay critiques the lack of field experience of historical and textual scholars; here, Nash, et al. 1969 provides one of the earliest attempts by anthropologists to expand the field of Buddhist studies beyond the historical and textual. Smith 1968 is a unique study for its period, one of the earlier attempts to engage on a theoretical level what Smith called a “Buddhist anthropology” of contemporary Sinhala Buddhist society and its engagement with the secular. The Oxford-based special 1990 issue of the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford (JASO) is especially dedicated to the anthropology of Buddhism. An in-depth introduction, five review articles, sixteen book reviews, and two essays problematize the approaches of the anthropology of Buddhism, especially the prioritizing of the Theravādin tradition and the neglect of the Mahāyāna because of Western academic preferences and biases. Gellner 2001 applies the often popular Weberian approach to the study of religion in ethnographic studies of Nepal and Japan. Spencer 1990 provides an update on the anthropology of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. In tracing the history of the disciplinary identification of Buddhism in Sri Lanka as an anthropological object, De Silva 2006 questions Weberian and structuralist models including colonialist production of knowledge in the study of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. The 1960s and 1970s saw the rise of cultural and social anthropologists directing their attention to the study of rituals in Nepal, particularly Tibetan and Newar Buddhisms. Samuel 2005 updates the author’s earlier 1978 call for an interdisciplinary approach to Tibetan religious studies. Here he offers a new approach to Tibetan studies scholarship, which he sees represented as predominantly monastic oriented, and invites scholars to follow Southeast Asian scholarship’s shift to a more anthropological lens. Ramble 1990 notes in a study of Tibetan communities that anthropology concerns the ways in which traditions differ, not the degrees to which they do, noting discrepancies between precept and practice (a typical trend in the anthropology of Buddhism, as in the works of Richard Gombrich).
  6.  
  7. De Silva, Premakumara. “Anthropology of ‘Sinhala Buddhism.’” Contemporary Buddhism 7.2 (2006): 165–170.
  8.  
  9. DOI: 10.1080/14639940601025148Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  10.  
  11. Traces the history of the disciplinary identification of Theravāda Buddhism in Sri Lanka as an anthropological object. This essay also disputes the idealized Weberian and functionalist approach and the ways in which anthropological and colonial productions of knowledge about religion and ritual have objectified Buddhism in an unproblematic way.
  12.  
  13. Find this resource:
  14.  
  15.  
  16. Gellner, David N. “Introduction: What Is the Anthropology of Buddhism About?” Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 21.2 (1990): 95–112.
  17.  
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  19.  
  20. Part of a special JASO issue edited by Gellner dedicated to the anthropology of Buddhism and the wider issues of definitions and categories like Theravāda and Mahāyāna, Buddhist ritual, and the role of Christian Western scholars in scholarship about Buddhism.
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  22. Find this resource:
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  24.  
  25. Gellner, David N. The Anthropology of Buddhism and Hinduism: Weberian Themes. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  26.  
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  28.  
  29. A collection of essays that both engages with Max Weber’s work combined with detailed ethnography from Nepal and Japan. It challenges critical questions in the anthropology and sociology of Buddhism and Hinduism.
  30.  
  31. Find this resource:
  32.  
  33.  
  34. Nash, Manning, Gananath Obeyesekere, Michael M. Ames, et al. “Ethnology: Anthropological Studies in Theravāda Buddhism.” American Anthropologist 71.6 (December 1969): 1149–1152.
  35.  
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  37.  
  38. This is one of the earliest attempts, by nine anthropologists, to expand Buddhist studies beyond the historical and textual approaches and so-called romanticist scholars who dominated the field and created a foundation for further approaches in the anthropology of Buddhism.
  39.  
  40. Find this resource:
  41.  
  42.  
  43. Ramble, Charles. “How Buddhist Are Buddhist Communities? The Construction of Tradition in Two Lamaist Villages.” Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 21.2 (1990): 185–197.
  44.  
  45. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  46.  
  47. This essay discusses the anthropological focus by examining the discrepancy between precept and practice. The author examines the ways in which village communities form representations of the religion itself, and how Buddhist precepts and forms of behavior are incorporated into local traditions.
  48.  
  49. Find this resource:
  50.  
  51.  
  52. Samuel, Geoffrey. “Tibet and the Southeast Asian Context: Rethinking the Intellectual Context of Tibetan Studies.” In Tantric Revisionings: New Understandings of Tibetan Buddhism and Indian Religion. By Geoffrey Samuel, 192–214. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2005.
  53.  
  54. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  55.  
  56. This work offers a corrective to the problem in Tibetan studies of isolating Tibetan societies from other Asian cultures and their studies, as well as the lack of larger regional discourses, especially Southeast Asian anthropology. The essay also critiques the lack of integration between Tibetanist and Sinologist discourses and the predominance of studies of monastic-oriented religious studies.
  57.  
  58. Find this resource:
  59.  
  60.  
  61. Smith, Bardwell L. “Toward a Buddhist Anthropology: The Problem of the Secular.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 36.3 (September 1968): 203–216.
  62.  
  63. DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/XXXVI.3.203Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  64.  
  65. This essay is one of the earliest attempts to discuss theoretically a particular Buddhist anthropological approach to contemporary Buddhist encounters with issues of the secular and the development of a new social ethic.
  66.  
  67. Find this resource:
  68.  
  69.  
  70. Spencer, J. “Tradition and Transformation: Recent Writing on the Anthropology of Buddhism in Sri Lanka.” Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 21.2 (1990): 129–140.
  71.  
  72. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  73.  
  74. This review article discusses the key perspectives in the anthropology of Buddhism and covers some of the seminal works about Sri Lanka. Key perspectives that have been the landmark of this approach include colonized Buddhism, the Buddhist way of life through the works of Carrithers and Southwold, and Buddhism transformed in the works of Gombrich and Obeyesekere.
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  76. Find this resource:
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  78.  
  79. Reference Works
  80. Although we do not yet have any reference work that is particularly focused on the anthropology of Buddhism, there are several works that engage this topic in diverse ways. One of the significant contributions to the study of religion is the mammoth encyclopedia edited by the phenomenologist and historian of religion Mircea Eliade. The entry Reynolds and Hallisey 1987 provides a brief discussion of Buddhism as a cultural system, while Lancaster 1987 briefly addresses the sociological approach in Buddhist studies. Boon 1987, in a different volume of this encyclopedia, addresses the relationship of anthropology, ethnology, and religion. Perhaps one of the most useful current publications is the Brill Dictionary of Religion. Auffarth and Mohr 2007 is an insightful discussion in a dictionary of the academic study of religion, which traces the shift from the historical, textual, and philological to the social sciences, several times emphasizing the anthropological. Perhaps the most entertaining nonspecialist overview of Buddhism reminiscent of old-style anthropology is Robinson 1983.
  81.  
  82. Auffarth, Christoph, and Hubert Mohr. “Introduction: The Academic Study of Religion—Historical and Contemporary Issues.” In The Brill Dictionary of Religion. Vol. 1, A–D. Edited by Kocku von Stuckrad, xi–xxxvi. Translated by Robert R. Barr. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2007.
  83.  
  84. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  85.  
  86. Provides a detailed framework of some key approaches in the study of religion, with several subsections on the predominance of the social sciences, especially anthropology, in modern and contemporary studies.
  87.  
  88. Find this resource:
  89.  
  90.  
  91. Boon, James A. “Anthropology, Ethnology, and Religion.” In The Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 1. Edited by Mircea Eliade, 308–315. New York: Macmillan, 1987.
  92.  
  93. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  94.  
  95. Presents a focused description of how the field of anthropology and subfield ethnology have targeted the religious elements of a society.
  96.  
  97. Find this resource:
  98.  
  99.  
  100. Lancaster, Lewis. “Buddhist Studies.” In The Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 2. Edited by Mircea Eliade, 554–560. New York: Macmillan, 1987.
  101.  
  102. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  103.  
  104. This essay outlines the field of Buddhist studies from monastic origins to the academy in Europe, Asia, and the United States. A particularly helpful and brief section, “Interdisciplinary Methods in Buddhist Studies,” outlines some of the major developments in the social sciences in South Asia, begun first in the Theravāda tradition because of its accessibility, to Chinese Buddhism of Taiwan and other areas of Asia.
  105.  
  106. Find this resource:
  107.  
  108.  
  109. Reynolds, Frank E., and Charles Hallisey. “Buddhism: An Overview.” In The Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 2. Edited by Mircea Eliade, 334–351. New York: Macmillan, 1987.
  110.  
  111. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  112.  
  113. In this essay, there is a subsection titled “Buddhism as a Cultural Religion” that briefly describes the much more anthropological perspective of Buddhism through culture.
  114.  
  115. Find this resource:
  116.  
  117.  
  118. Robinson, Richard. “Buddhism.” In Man, Myth and Magic: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion and the Unknown. Vol. 2. Rev. ed. Edited by Richard Cavendish, 354–360. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1983.
  119.  
  120. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  121.  
  122. Provides a brief overview for the nonspecialist on Buddhism from diverse perspectives such as the three trainings, psychic powers, merit, three jewels, nirvana, emperors, bodhisattvas, future buddhas, and revivalism in India.
  123.  
  124. Find this resource:
  125.  
  126.  
  127. Data Sources and Cooperatives
  128. In the age of the Internet, digitization, and e-book technologies, there are increasingly more online sources that reflect the popularity of the anthropology of Buddhism, many displaying scholarship, new pedagogical techniques, projects, and discussions by a diversity of scholars. Tibetan studies has spearheaded many initiatives, although there are increasingly other sites about Southeast Asia. The Tibetan and Himalayan Library at the University of Virginia is the leading resource in providing broad scholarship and networking facilities for the anthropological, textual, and historical studies of Tibetan Buddhist cultures. The Thai Digital Monastery, founded by Thai Buddhist scholar Justin McDaniel, provides a similar resource for Thai scholarship. Scholars of Buddhism are well versed in the use of BuddhaNet known as an information and education resource for Buddhist Studies and Buddhist communities. The Anthropology of Tibet and Tibeto-Burman Societies provides a forum for anthropologists and others who conduct fieldwork in Tibetan societies and Tibeto-Burman-language-speaking groups throughout Asia. Even a Columbia University course on Tibetan material culture entitled “Engaging Digital Tibet,” which runs on the platform Mediathread, provides online pedagogical and scholarly tools using anthropological perspectives.
  129.  
  130. Anthropology of Tibet and Tibeto-Burman Societies.
  131.  
  132. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  133.  
  134. This online forum-cum-cooperative for professionals and students is committed to the study of anthropology in Tibetan cultures through discussion, sharing, and collaborative projects.
  135.  
  136. Find this resource:
  137.  
  138.  
  139. BuddhaNet
  140.  
  141. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  142.  
  143. This online information and education network provides resources, which includes digitized Buddhist texts and links to Buddhist communities, connecting the textual, historical and anthropological aspects of the field.
  144.  
  145. Find this resource:
  146.  
  147.  
  148. Thai Digital Monastery
  149.  
  150. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  151.  
  152. The Thai Digital Monastery is a monastic digital library for Thailand that involves the cooperation of a diversity of scholars and technical experts connecting technology, field data, and digitized texts for access to local and scholarly communities. This project also trains local ethnographers, historians, and librarians in preservation, cartographic, and technical methods.
  153.  
  154. Find this resource:
  155.  
  156.  
  157. Tibetan and Himalayan Library.
  158.  
  159. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  160.  
  161. The Tibetan and Himalayan Library is a publisher of information services and networking facilities relating to the Tibetan plateau and southern Himalayan regions. It promotes the integration of knowledge and community across academic disciplines and creates awareness about global and local concerns.
  162.  
  163. Find this resource:
  164.  
  165.  
  166. Local Religions and Transformations
  167. One of the hallmarks of anthropological studies is the study of local—sometimes called “popular”—and regional traditions and comparisons made between these and what may be construed as the classical literary or “great” tradition. Ethnographic studies within anthropology also provide an account of a particular culture, society, or community. These approaches were reflected in studies of Buddhist traditions beginning with the Theravādin traditions in South and Southeast Asia. One of the earliest pivotal treatments of this approach is seen in Ames 1964, in which the author presents a structuralist anthropological approach to the study of Sinhalese Buddhism, often placing Theravāda Buddhism in opposition to indigenous, “magical” forms. Perhaps one of the most famous scholars studying local traditions and rituals within the anthropology of Buddhism is Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah. In his extensive studies of Buddhism in Thailand, he explores the complexities involved in the study of Buddhism on the local level. In his study of spirit cults in Thailand (Tambiah 1970, cited under Ritual), he demonstrates the continuities and transformations of village religious practices in comparison with the classical literary tradition. Carrithers 1983 consistently explores local monastic traditions in the Sri Lankan case that challenge Western notions of Buddhist practice. One of the earliest interdisciplinary and collaborative attempts combining the skills of a social and cultural anthropologist (and ethnographer) and a specialist in the study of religion is Gombrich and Obeyesekere 1990. In these studies of continuities and transformations, the authors reveal the emergence of a new phenomenon, “post-Protestant Buddhism,” in the Sri Lankan context. Spiro 1982 takes a psychological functionalist approach (see Psychology and Emotion) in the study of Burma revealing the tendency in the anthropology of Buddhism to distinguish “great” and “little” traditions and what Spiro calls “apotropaic” Buddhism. Although the trend was already evident in the 1960s, in the 1980s, Nepal increasingly became the main site of anthropological studies of local and popular forms of Buddhism. Sherry Ortner was one of the most prolific writers among other anthropologists in the study of Sherpas in Nepal. She specifically focused on practice theory deriving from French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in her aims to explain resistance and transformation within Sherpa society (Ortner 1989). She departed theoretically from what was viewed as folk or local religion. Works such as Mumford 1989 and Ramble 2008 reflect a consistent focus in scholarship on the tensions in local contexts between ethnic groups and the transformations that occur in Buddhist traditions. Gellner 1987 and Lewis 2000 (cited under Ritual) have dominated studies of local and popular practices in the Newar Buddhism of Nepal, often combining textual and historical studies with ethnographic research.
  168.  
  169. Ames, Michael M. “Magical Animism and Buddhism: A Structural Analysis of the Sinhalese Religious System.” In Religion in South Asia. Edited by Edward B. Harper, 21–53. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1964.
  170.  
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  172.  
  173. This early examination helped open the study of the anthropology of Buddhism, focusing on primary religious ideals, their practical implementation, and the problems involved in this approach to scholarship.
  174.  
  175. Find this resource:
  176.  
  177.  
  178. Carrithers, Michael. The Forest Monks of Sri Lanka: An Anthropological and Historical Study. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983.
  179.  
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  181.  
  182. This is a foundational study on reform movements and challenges perceived notions about Buddhist practices in Sri Lanka.
  183.  
  184. Find this resource:
  185.  
  186.  
  187. Gellner, David N. “The Newar Buddhist Monastery: An Anthropological and Historical Typology.” In The Heritage of the Kathmandu Valley: Proceedings of an International Conference in Lubeck, June 1985, Nepalica 4. Edited by Niels Gutschow and Axel Michaels, 365–414. Sankt Augustin, Germany: VGH Wissenschaftsverlag, 1987.
  188.  
  189. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  190.  
  191. This close study explores the history and practices of the Newar tradition and examines the differences it presents in comparison with Tibetan and Theravāda Buddhisms.
  192.  
  193. Find this resource:
  194.  
  195.  
  196. Gombrich, Richard, and Gananath Obeyesekere. Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990.
  197.  
  198. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  199.  
  200. This jointly authored book on religious innovation and change among Sinhala Buddhists in the 1970s and 1980s combines anthropological, particularly ethnographic, and religious studies approaches. This work reveals that the anthropology as reflected in the Buddhism of Sri Lanka is about colonized traditions that have undergone revivalization in protest to Western colonizers.
  201.  
  202. Find this resource:
  203.  
  204.  
  205. Mumford, Stan Royal. Himalayan Dialogue: Tibetan Lamas and Gurung Shamans in Nepal. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.
  206.  
  207. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  208.  
  209. This informative book is a result of two and half years of anthropological research in a Nepalese village where there were clashes between immigrant Tibetan lamas and indigenous Gurung shamans.
  210.  
  211. Find this resource:
  212.  
  213.  
  214. Ortner, Sherry B. High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.
  215.  
  216. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  217.  
  218. A classic study of Sherpa Buddhism in Nepal combining ethnographic and oral-historical methods to explore the interplay of political and cultural factors in the foundings of Sherpa monasteries. This work constituted a major advance both in our knowledge of Sherpa Buddhism and in the integration of anthropological and historical modes of analyses.
  219.  
  220. Find this resource:
  221.  
  222.  
  223. Ramble, Charles. The Navel of the Demoness: Tibetan Buddhism and Civil Religion in Highland Nepal. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
  224.  
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  226.  
  227. This pathbreaking comparative cultural ethnography combines fieldwork with information from indigenous archival documents. It illuminates the much-discussed conflict of Tibetan Buddhism and “pre-Buddhist” religious practices by creatively analyzing them as elements integrated into a broader civil religion in local communities in Nepal.
  228.  
  229. Find this resource:
  230.  
  231.  
  232. Samuel, Geoffrey. Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies. Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institute, 1993.
  233.  
  234. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  235.  
  236. This massive encyclopedic work combines fieldwork with extensive historical scholarship, suggestively portraying Tibetan Buddhism as a synthesis continually evolving in response to changing societal forms.
  237.  
  238. Find this resource:
  239.  
  240.  
  241. Ritual
  242. This related category to the topic of local and popular religions is one of the quintessential categories used in the field of anthropology. Of particular interest to anthropologists has been the role of ritual in structuring life crises, human development, religious enactment, and social transactions. From Émile Durkheim to Victor Turner and later theorists like Michael Silverstein, anthropological studies treat ritual as social action aimed at particular transformations. In the 1970s, scholars like David Jordan and Emily Martin found that in their studies of Chinese culture in Taiwan ethnographic research in cultural and social anthropology represented the most appropriate lens to find an accurate portrayal of Buddhist practices. The privileging of ethnographies as representative of social acts and the ethnographer’s personal investment became commonplace in the 1980s, and there is some evidence of this trend later (Desjarlais 1992 cited under Psychology and Emotion). The personal approach of Southwold 1983 attempts to provide a corrective to what the author interprets as anthropology’s short-sighted findings about Buddhism. On another note, Tambiah 1970 (as well as his work The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of Amulets [Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1984] on the cult of amulets) represents the structuralist approach to the study of Buddhism. In this study Tambiah demonstrates that contemporary village religion in the form of spirit cults in Thailand manifests continuities as well as transformations with respect to the classical literary tradition. Holmberg 1992 reveals the paradoxes apparent in the Buddhist practices found among Nepal’s Tamang ethnic group, affirming a much more socially and ritually engaged Buddhism. Ortner 1989 (cited under Local Religions and Transformations) accentuates that ritual is a lens to understand Sherpa Buddhism. Gellner 1992 and Lewis 2000 both focus on the ritualistic character of Newar Buddhism. Huber 1999 study of pilgrimage marks a central theme in the study of Buddhism in Tibetan areas, reflecting the accommodation of diverse religious elements and the study of ecology in Buddhist cultures. Reynolds and Carbine 2000 provides a refreshingly accessible collection of essays on Buddhist practices throughout Asia. Although not exclusively about Buddhism, the recent edited volume Palmer, et al. 2011 points the way to this anthropological trend, providing recent research on contemporary social dimensions of Chinese religious life including ethnic minority settings and addressing topics such as dimensions of the body, gender, environment, and civil society. Increasingly evident in religious studies is the complex methodological issues of viewing written texts as properly anthropological objects.
  243.  
  244. Gellner, David N. Monk, Householder, and Tantric Priest: Newar Buddhism and Its Hierarchy of Ritual. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  245.  
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  247.  
  248. This detailed sociological study explores the soteriological and ritual complexity of the Vajrayāna system in Newar society of the Kathmandu Valley.
  249.  
  250. Find this resource:
  251.  
  252.  
  253. Holmberg, David H. Order in Paradox: Myth, Ritual and Exchange Among Nepal’s Tamang. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992.
  254.  
  255. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  256.  
  257. Reflective of Himalayan studies and anthropology of the late 1980s and early 1990s with a focus on cultural transformation and change. This study moves toward a consideration of regional cultural groups that is politically and historically embedded.
  258.  
  259. Find this resource:
  260.  
  261.  
  262. Huber, Toni. The Cult of Pure Crystal Mountain: Popular Pilgrimage and Visionary Landscape in Southeast Tibet. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
  263.  
  264. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  265.  
  266. A well-balanced ethnohistorical reconstruction of the pilgrimage to Dakpa Sheri (Pure Crystal Mountain) in southeastern Tibet. It explores the esoteric and popular traditions of ritual of the 1940s and 1950s, and subsequent Tibetan diaspora into South Asia in terms of space, place, organization, and tradition. Drawing on an extensive range of written and oral sources, this study reveals the complexities of Tibetan religious beliefs and practices.
  267.  
  268. Find this resource:
  269.  
  270.  
  271. Lewis, Todd T.. Popular Buddhist Texts from Nepal: Narratives and Rituals of Newar Buddhism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000.
  272.  
  273. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  274.  
  275. This accessible study appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students explores that it is through domestication of narrative texts and rituals that religion is understood by local people in Nepal.
  276.  
  277. Find this resource:
  278.  
  279.  
  280. Palmer, David A., Glenn Shive, and Philip L. Wickeri, eds. Chinese Religious Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  281.  
  282. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731398.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  283.  
  284. This study reflects early-21st-century approaches to the study of Chinese religious life by focusing on contemporary social dimensions and addressing topics such as the body, gender, environment, and civil society in relation to the historical, sociological, economic, and political aspects of religion.
  285.  
  286. Find this resource:
  287.  
  288.  
  289. Reynolds, Frank E., and Jason A. Carbine, eds. The Life of Buddhism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
  290.  
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  292.  
  293. This collection of fifteen essays, which is quite accessible to undergraduates, offers a distinctive portrayal of the practices of Buddhism and lived experiences rather than doctrine and sacred texts that have often been the focus in Buddhist studies, for example, Donald Lopez’s works on Buddhism.
  294.  
  295. Find this resource:
  296.  
  297.  
  298. Southwold, Martin. Buddhism in Life: The Anthropological Study of Religion and the Sinhalese Practice of Buddhism. Themes in Social Anthropology. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1983.
  299.  
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  301.  
  302. By adopting Robertson Smith’s dictum that one should study religion by investigating practice rather than belief, this classic study offers a useful correction to the dominant Western academic trends of its time, still prevalent today in some circles. For this author, “authentic” Buddhism is to be found in ethnographies and not in canonical texts.
  303.  
  304. Find this resource:
  305.  
  306.  
  307. Tambiah, S. J. Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-East Thailand. Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology 2. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1970.
  308.  
  309. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  310.  
  311. Relates the beliefs and local practices of the people of a remote village in northeast Thailand to the wider cultural and classical notions of Buddhism of the Theravāda tradition, particularly in Pali texts.
  312.  
  313. Find this resource:
  314.  
  315.  
  316. Psychology and Emotion
  317. Psychological anthropology as an interdisciplinary subfield was one of the earliest critical lenses through which to study Buddhism of the Theravādin tradition in Sri Lanka. Gananath Obeyesekere was famous for this type of approach from the 1970s onward; his works in the 1980s and 1990s focused on what he saw as syncretic traditions (Obeyesekere 1990). Obeyesekere 1985 reflects his interest on depression and culture in relation to the Theravādin tradition. Functionalist approaches tend to dominate this subfield. Spiro 1982, who studied the relationship between Buddhism and spirit cults in Burmese practices, presents a psychologically oriented lens. Spiro’s debates over cultural relativism and postmodern theory among cultural anthropologists in the 1980s and early 1990s also influenced the focus on the comparative method and the appreciation of universal cultural and psychological processes. The seminal work Desjarlais 1992 on the body and emotion reflected a burgeoning field in the anthropology of emotions at the time, which went beyond the psychobiological framework to concerns for emotion’s social-relational, communicative, and cultural aspects. This approach attracted anthropologists often hostile to the psychological lens. Desjarlais also expanded earlier works on Sherpa Buddhism and highlighted the importance of ethnographic research in aesthetic studies in the anthropology of Buddhism.
  318.  
  319. Desjarlais, Robert R. Body and Emotion: The Aesthetics of Illness and Healing in the Nepal Himalayas. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.
  320.  
  321. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  322.  
  323. This is a study of the relationship between culture and emotional distress, and of the cultural forces among the Yolmo Sherpas and their Tibetan Buddhism. The ethnographic study calls for a sentient anthropology, which moves beyond meaning-centered approaches to pain and the body, and outlines the profound role of the aesthetic in society.
  324.  
  325. Find this resource:
  326.  
  327.  
  328. Obeyesekere, Gananath. “Depression, Buddhism, and the Work of Culture in Sri Lanka.” In Culture and Depression: Studies in the Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Psychiatry of Affect and Disorder. Edited by Arthur Kleinman and Byron Good, 134–152. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
  329.  
  330. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  331.  
  332. From an author known to have done the most to preserve a single perspective on Sinhala Buddhism, this work addresses the application of Western conceptions of depression to Buddhist cultural idioms.
  333.  
  334. Find this resource:
  335.  
  336.  
  337. Obeyesekere, Gananath. “The Indian Oedipus in Sri Lanka: Pulleyar and the Lord Buddha Revisited.” In The Work of Culture: Symbolic Transformation in Psychoanalysis and Anthropology. By Gananath Obeyesekere, 105–125. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
  338.  
  339. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  340.  
  341. This is a classic psychoanalytic approach to the syncretic nature of religious traditions in Sri Lanka. Best for upper-level undergraduates and graduate-students to expose them to this area of anthropology.
  342.  
  343. Find this resource:
  344.  
  345.  
  346. Spiro, Melford E. Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and Its Burmese Vicissitudes. 2d ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.
  347.  
  348. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  349.  
  350. This classic anthropological study on Buddhism in Burma in the 1960s filled the gap in scholarship at the time by addressing stability and change in social and cultural systems and the relation between religious conceptions and the general ordering of social and cultural life.
  351.  
  352. Find this resource:
  353.  
  354.  
  355. Medicine and Healing
  356. One of the most exciting trends in the anthropology of Buddhism is the study of medicine and healing. Medical anthropologists as well as religious studies scholars have uncovered new dimensions in Buddhist traditions through the study of medical texts and practices and ethnographic studies of healing rituals (although the study of healing traditions has a long history in the anthropological field). Much of this research has been dominated by Tibetan Buddhist studies in India, Nepal, and Tibet. Adams, et al. 2010 is a key example of this trend, a discussion of the correlation of Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan medical and scientific traditions. Adams 2001 explores in this earlier work the particular meanings that have come to be associated with the term “science” in relation to traditional conceptions of Tibetan medicine and religion in the contemporary Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. Janes 1999, a discussion of etiological discourse, provides a refreshing perspective on the intersection of religious, political, and social dimensions of illness. Vargas 2009 examines the Buddhist dimension of spirit diseases in Tibetan medical texts and contemporary local and regional practices in Tibetan communities in China and India, the relationship between religion and ecological concerns, and transformations of Buddhist ideas in contemporary Tibetan medical practices. Samuel 1999 covers the confluence of religion and healing practices in late-20th-century Tibetan communities. Pordié 2003 presents a close study of Ladakhi medical practitioners’ connections to religion and the role of Buddhism in medical practice.
  357.  
  358. Adams, Vincanne. “The Sacred in the Scientific: Ambiguous Practices of Science in Tibetan Medicine.” Cultural Anthropology 16.4 (November 2001): 542–575.
  359.  
  360. DOI: 10.1525/can.2001.16.4.542Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  361.  
  362. This study addresses the “cultural cartography of science” that maps the convergences of epistemologies of the practice of science in diverse cultural settings and in what the author calls the “translingual circulation.” The author examines the signifiers “science” and “religion” into and within Tibet.
  363.  
  364. Find this resource:
  365.  
  366.  
  367. Adams, Vincanne, Mona Schrempf, and Sienna Craig, eds. Medicine between Science and Religion: Explorations on Tibetan Grounds. New York: Berghahn, 2010.
  368.  
  369. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  370.  
  371. This well-crafted thirteen-essay volume is an excellent illustration of the current advances made in medical anthropology and Buddhism within the context of modernity and globalization to date. It explores the entanglement of science, medicine, and religion in Tibetan communities and traditions.
  372.  
  373. Find this resource:
  374.  
  375.  
  376. Janes, Craig R. “Imagined Lives, Suffering, and the Work of Culture: The Embodied Discourses of Conflict in Modern Tibet.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 13.4 (December 1999): 391–412.
  377.  
  378. DOI: 10.1525/maq.1999.13.4.391Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  379.  
  380. This article explores the cultural epidemiology of rlung (wind) disorder among Tibetans living in the modern Chinese state of Tibet. The article addresses through this lens multiple social, emotional, and religious phenomena and political crisis.
  381.  
  382. Find this resource:
  383.  
  384.  
  385. Pordié, Laurent. The Expression of Religion in Tibetan Medicine: Ideal Conceptions, Contemporary Practices and Political Use. Pondy Papers in Social Sciences 29. Pondicherry, India: French Institute of Pondicherry, 2003.
  386.  
  387. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  388.  
  389. This monograph explores the characteristics the Ladakhi amchi-s (medical practitioners) have in common with Tibetan religion in order to provide elements for comparison with the operative logics animating Tibetan medicine.
  390.  
  391. Find this resource:
  392.  
  393.  
  394. Samuel, Geoffrey. “Religion, Health and Suffering among Contemporary Tibetans.” In Religion, Health and Suffering. Edited by J. R. Hinnells and R. Porter, 85–110. London: Kegan Paul International, 1999.
  395.  
  396. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  397.  
  398. Originating from an international workshop held at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in London, this volume makes a substantial contribution to anthropology especially the ways in which health and suffering can be articulated. Samuels covers the confluence of religion and healing practices in contemporary Tibetan communities.
  399.  
  400. Find this resource:
  401.  
  402.  
  403. Vargas, Ivette. “Demon Disease and Tibetan Medicine: The Interface between Religion and Science.” In As Long as Space Endures: Essays on the Kālacakra Tantra in Honor of H. H. the Dalai Lama. Edited by Edward A. Arnold, 367–383. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2009.
  404.  
  405. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  406.  
  407. This ethnographic and textual study addresses the religious dimensions of a Tibetan medical text through the lens of spirits and their diseases in India, Tibet, and the United States as well as connections with cultural identity and ecology.
  408.  
  409. Find this resource:
  410.  
  411.  
  412. Religious Revival and Cultural Identity
  413. Since the beginning of the 21st century, there has been increasing interest in the intersection of religious revival and cultural identity in the anthropology of Buddhism across Asian contexts. Earlier studies created a foundation for this interest like Gaborieau 1978 paving the way to the study of more ethnic groups in Nepal and Goldstein and Kapstein 1998, which focused on Tibetan local festivals and pilgrimages. There is a plethora of exciting studies on Tibetan communities in China as seen in Smyer Yü 2011 creating new avenues of discussion not possible before. Goldstein and Kapstein 1998 collects case studies that reveal revivalist movements in both monastic and lay communities and the accommodation of religion in order to deal with political tensions in contemporary Tibet. The interdisciplinary approach in Makley 2007 combines a poststructuralist and postcolonial sensibility with feminist and linguistic anthropological theory. Makley’s studies of post-Mao-era revivalism of Tibetan Buddhism, gender ideals and practices, and identity in Labrang in southwest Gansu Province provide new insight on transformations not available in earlier studies. Smyer Yü 2011 approaches Tibetan Buddhist revivalism and cultural identity in contemporary China from the perspective of state ideology, popular imagination, globalization, and the market economy. Similarly but with different data, Janes 2002 and Scott 2009 (cited under Social Engagement) reflect on the globalization, or commodification and commercialization, of Buddhism in the Asian context, one in Tibet and the other Thailand, and how these factors redefine cultural identity. In China, recent Han Chinese converts to Tibetan Buddhism are the subject of studies such as Jones 2011 transforming contemporary notions of Tibetan Buddhism. Religious renaissance and Buddhist identity is explored in case studies in Taiwan (Madsen 2007) through the establishment of religious NGOs and other institutions. LeVine and Gellner 2005, a study of the Theravādin movement in contemporary Nepal, provides a rich ethnography on Buddhist modernism by contemporary converts to Theravāda Buddhism.
  414.  
  415. Gaborieau, Marc. Le Nepal et ses populations. Pays et Populations. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1978.
  416.  
  417. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  418.  
  419. A landmark study that provides a broad, comparative analysis of the practices of diverse Tibeto-Burman ethnic groups in Nepal expanding earlier narrower studies in the field about religious practices and culture.
  420.  
  421. Find this resource:
  422.  
  423.  
  424. Goldstein, Melvyn C., and Matthew T. Kapstein, eds. Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural Identity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
  425.  
  426. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  427.  
  428. Case studies conducted on popular pilgrimages and festivals in the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Sichuan and Qinghai Provinces explore the revival and transformation of the Buddhist heritage in monastic communities and among laypersons. The studies demonstrate how revival of the Buddhist tradition must contend with tensions between the Chinese state and aspirations for Tibetan autonomy.
  429.  
  430. Find this resource:
  431.  
  432.  
  433. Janes, Craig R. “Buddhism, Science, and Market: The Globalisation of Tibetan Medicine.” Anthropology and Medicine 9.3 (2002): 267–289.
  434.  
  435. DOI: 10.1080/13648470216337Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  436.  
  437. This paper discusses the processes by which Tibetan medicine has become globalized, and which transformed local practices of healing in both Tibet and the West.
  438.  
  439. Find this resource:
  440.  
  441.  
  442. Jones, Alison Denton. “Contemporary Han Chinese Involvement in Tibetan Buddhism: A Case Study from Nanjing.” Social Compass 58.4 (December 2011): 540–553.
  443.  
  444. DOI: 10.1177/0037768611421134Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  445.  
  446. This preliminary exploration addresses the contemporary trend of the adoption of Tibetan Buddhism by ethnically Han Chinese lay Buddhists. It combines both structural and cultural approaches in understanding the reconstruction of Tibetan Buddhism.
  447.  
  448. Find this resource:
  449.  
  450.  
  451. LeVine, Sarah, and David N. Gellner. Rebuilding Buddhism: The Theravāda Movement in Twentieth-Century Nepal. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.
  452.  
  453. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  454.  
  455. This rich ethnography and collaborative study on a local form of Theravādin Buddhist modernism focuses on the experiences of Nepalis who have adopted Theravāda Buddhism. It also traces how discourses about being Buddhist have been generated inside and outside of various Buddhist communities.
  456.  
  457. Find this resource:
  458.  
  459.  
  460. Madsen, Richard. Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
  461.  
  462. DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520252271.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  463.  
  464. Short in length but broad in significance, this book explores the remarkable religious renaissance that has reformed the practices of Buddhism and Daoism in Taiwan through the efforts of religious NGOS and other institutions.
  465.  
  466. Find this resource:
  467.  
  468.  
  469. Makley, Charlene E. The Violence of Liberation: Gender and Tibetan Buddhist Revival in Post-Mao China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
  470.  
  471. DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520250598.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  472.  
  473. This is the first major in-depth monograph of the post-Mao-era revival of Tibetan Buddhism, concerning changing gender ideals and practices, and identity in the major monastic township of Labrang (Chinese Xiahe) in southwest Gansu Province. Makley’s concept of “mandalization” recalls Clifford Geertz’s and Stanley Tambiah’s theoretical frameworks.
  474.  
  475. Find this resource:
  476.  
  477.  
  478. Smyer Yü, Dan. The Spread of Tibetan Buddhism in China: Charisma, Money, Enlightenment. New York: Routledge, 2011.
  479.  
  480. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  481.  
  482. Based on cross-regional ethnographic work, this study focuses on contemporary Tibetan Buddhist revivals in the Tibetan regions of the Sichuan and Qinghai Provinces of contemporary China. It explores revivalism in conjunction with cultural identity, state ideology, popular imagination, globalization, and the market economy.
  483.  
  484. Find this resource:
  485.  
  486.  
  487. Power of Place and Politics
  488. The anthropological focus on power and politics and the related issues of nationhood and cultural identity have received considerable attention in recent years in the study of Buddhism. In contemporary scholarship, interest has expanded further to include several geographic areas. Charles Keyes, one of the most preeminent scholars of Thailand’s social and political movements, ethnic group relations, religion, and modernity, is a key representative on studies of the power of place and politics in the anthropology of Buddhism in Southeast Asia (see Keyes 1987). Tambiah 1992 focuses on the complex relationship between Buddhism and politics and addresses the ethical divide that some monastics cross for the sake of cultural identity and Buddhism. Obeyesekere 1995 (cited under Social Engagement) is a key example of this relationship. Hillman 2005 addresses anthropologically the complex issue of how Tibetan religious authorities interact with Chinese state institutions; such a study reflects another perspective on the recent trend of the so-called spiritual void in contemporary China reported in recent scholarship and the media. In dealing with the interrelations between Tibetan politics and religion within Tibet and among Tibetan diaspora, the sociological and eyewitness accounts of Tibetan revolts and Chinese government retaliations in Schwartz 1994 reveal the complexity of political-religious protests. Mills 2003 addresses the politics of authority and ritual prevalent in a Buddhist tradition in Ladakh and in Tibetan Gelukpa monasteries in particular. Finally, Schober 2011 draws attention to the intersection of Buddhist conceptions and practices and political power in Myanmar. Swearer 2010 is an accessible study across traditions that incorporates both historical and anthropological studies.
  489.  
  490. Hillman, Ben. “Monastic Politics and the Local State in China: Authority and Autonomy in an Ethnically Tibetan Prefecture.” China Journal 54 (July 2005): 29–51.
  491.  
  492. DOI: 10.2307/20066065Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  493.  
  494. This is one of several anthropological studies conducted in recent years in Tibetan monastic establishments in China. This study addresses the questions of how religious authorities interact with state institutions at the local level in a remote western region.
  495.  
  496. Find this resource:
  497.  
  498.  
  499. Keyes, Charles F. Thailand: Buddhist Kingdom as Modern Nation-State. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1987.
  500.  
  501. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  502.  
  503. This study represents cutting-edge social and cultural anthropological approaches about Thai Buddhism’s connections to its political structure.
  504.  
  505. Find this resource:
  506.  
  507.  
  508. Mills, Martin A. Identity, Ritual and State in Tibetan Buddhism: The Foundations of Authority in Gelukpa Monasticism. RoutledgeCurzon Studies in Tantric Traditions. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
  509.  
  510. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  511.  
  512. This powerful ethnographic and sociological theoretical study is a close study of Kumbum Monastery in Ladakh. It focuses on underlying indigenous understandings of Tibetan Buddhist ritual and religious authority.
  513.  
  514. Find this resource:
  515.  
  516.  
  517. Schober, Juliane. Modern Buddhist Conjunctures in Myanmar: Cultural Narratives, Colonial Legacies, and Civil Society. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2011.
  518.  
  519. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  520.  
  521. This carefully crafted work critically analyzes legacies of colonial scholarship and views that continue to pervade studies of Buddhism. This study takes issue with Max Weber’s characterization of Buddhism as “otherworldly.”
  522.  
  523. Find this resource:
  524.  
  525.  
  526. Schwartz, Ronald D. Circle of Protest: Political Ritual in the Tibetan Uprising. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
  527.  
  528. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  529.  
  530. This sociological and eyewitness account of events and demonstrations of the Tibetan revolt against Chinese rule from 1987 to 1992 explores the relationship between religious belief, practice, and political action.
  531.  
  532. Find this resource:
  533.  
  534.  
  535. Swearer, Donald K. The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia. 2d ed. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2010.
  536.  
  537. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  538.  
  539. Presents an account of the history and practices of diverse Buddhist traditions. This is an example of the correlation of history and studies of practice that are increasingly popular in understanding Buddhism comparatively.
  540.  
  541. Find this resource:
  542.  
  543.  
  544. Tambiah, Stanley Jeyaraja. Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
  545.  
  546. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  547.  
  548. This volume addresses the apparent conundrum of politically and violently engaged Buddhist monks in modern Sri Lanka. Discussions concerning a postcolonial framework and a Sinhalese cultural identity are foundational to understanding Buddhism in this context. Tambiah’s book is aimed at general readers, using the first ten chapters to familiarize his audience with Buddhism’s background with violence.
  549.  
  550. Find this resource:
  551.  
  552.  
  553. Social Engagement
  554. One of the key ways in which the anthropology of Buddhism is apparent is in the formation of social movements in Asia. Scholars have analyzed “engaged” Buddhist movements as attempts by Buddhists to link Buddhist teachings to social, economic, and political concerns and have, as a result, created innovative traditions. Obeyesekere 1995 explores Buddhist fundamentalism in terms of nationhood and cultural identity. Queen and King 1996, in addressing the area of “engaged Buddhism,” covers a much more anthropological perspective of social movements. Jordt 2007 is a fascinating ethnographic and cultural-political study that shows how Burma’s military government’s behavior emerged from a Buddhist cosmological vision revealed in and shaped by the mass meditation movement that developed after World War II. See also Makley 2007 (cited under Religious Revival and Cultural Identity) in the Tibetan case. Scott 2009 uses a different lens on social engagement, namely, the perspective of commodification. Houtman’s extensive work in the 1980s on meditation and his timely and innovative work Houtman 1999 on Burma’s social crisis, political challenges, and issues of legitimacy present contemporary examples of how the anthropology of Buddhism intersects diverse theoretical perspectives. Cook 2010 addresses another perspective of Thailand’s engaged Buddhist community through meditation movements.
  555.  
  556. Cook, Joanna. Meditation in Modern Buddhism: Renunciation and Change in Thai Monastic Life. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
  557.  
  558. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511760785Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  559.  
  560. This informative ethnography and phenomenology of Buddhist insight meditation in contemporary northern Thailand uncovers and analyzes the formation of subjectivity and intersubjectivity, and the embodiment of ethics in Buddhist practice.
  561.  
  562. Find this resource:
  563.  
  564.  
  565. Houtman, Gustaaf. Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics: Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy. Tokyo, Japan: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 1999.
  566.  
  567. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  568.  
  569. This study demonstrates the central importance of mental culture in the practices of vipassana and samatha for understanding Burmese political ideology and political conflict between the military regime and the democracy movement.
  570.  
  571. Find this resource:
  572.  
  573.  
  574. Jordt, Ingrid. Burma’s Mass Lay Meditation Movement. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007.
  575.  
  576. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  577.  
  578. Jordt makes the astute argument that modern mass meditation in Burma is a communal endeavor that connects the Burmese people together by creating a shared worldview despite its military regime. This study examines the influence of the meditation movement of the monk Mahasi Sayadaw (1904–1982).
  579.  
  580. Find this resource:
  581.  
  582.  
  583. Obeyesekere, Gananath. “Buddhism, Nationhood, and Cultural Identity: A Question of Fundamentals.” In Fundamentalisms Comprehended. Edited by Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby, 231–256. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
  584.  
  585. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  586.  
  587. This author joins a host of scholars to address the issue of fundamentalism in religious traditions, testing the premise that fundamentalisms in all faiths share certain “family resemblances.” Obeyesekere’s focus on Buddhist traditions in relation to nationhood and cultural identity challenges assumptions of religion’s relationship with society and traditional norms.
  588.  
  589. Find this resource:
  590.  
  591.  
  592. Queen, Christopher S., and Sallie B. King. Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996.
  593.  
  594. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  595.  
  596. This study gives a brief introduction to several different approaches of the modern application of Buddhism. It starts with the Ambedkar movement in India and ends with the Soka Gakkai in Japan.
  597.  
  598. Find this resource:
  599.  
  600.  
  601. Scott, Rachelle M. Nirvana for Sale: Buddhism, Wealth, and the Dhammakāya Temple in Contemporary Thailand. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2009.
  602.  
  603. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  604.  
  605. This solid ethnographic resource for students and scholars alike provides a clearly written and complex study of Buddhism and wealth more broadly. It does not lament the commercialization of Buddhism or consumerism in Thai society like most studies of local traditions; its focus is on how particular religious discourses and practices are situated in reference to perceived pasts.
  606.  
  607. Find this resource:
  608.  
  609.  
  610. Gender
  611. The anthropology of Buddhism has addressed the study of gender and feminism, although rigorous theoretical studies still need to be developed in this area. For several years, anthropologists and religious studies scholars have examined the role of gender and women in social and cultural dimensions of Buddhist practices. Havnevik 1989 focuses its attention on the role of Tibetan Buddhist nuns in contemporary India and Tibet in both historical and anthropological studies of Buddhist communities. Grimshaw 1994, Gutschow 2004, and Cook 2010 (cited under Social Engagement) are works by three of many contemporary scholars reflecting a trend toward Western women’s personal experiences in female monastic communities. All three in diverse contexts explore the ambiguity of female monastic roles in contemporary ritual and relational contexts, as well as the ethics of practice. Such ambiguity is also explored in the gendered practices and pressures about cultural preservation in Huber 1994 and Makley 2003. Makley, in particular, draws on the work of recent theorists of space, place, and identity to analyze the complex gender and identity politics through the Tibetan practice of circumambulation. Such a practice is analyzed as the key activity in producing power and pressures Tibetan women to preserve Tibetan culture through religion. The author of Tsomo 2000, herself a Buddhist monastic and academic, has combined several disciplinary approaches including ethnography in her publications in order to understand both historical and contemporary practices of Buddhist renunciant women, many of whom are also Western. The social anthropologist Monica Lindberg Falk focuses on the interconnectedness of gender, religion, and social change in studies of Thai Buddhist nuns (Falk 2007). Soucy 2012 is a timely study that maps out the social construction, contextualization and negotiation of Buddhist practices through age and gender in Vietnam.
  612.  
  613. Falk, Monica Lindberg. Making Fields of Merit: Buddhist Female Ascetics and Gendered Orders in Thailand. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007.
  614.  
  615. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  616.  
  617. This ethnographic study examines gender patterns in Thai contemporary society through the lens of Thai Buddhist nuns (mae chii) and the creation of religious space and authority through feminine religious representation.
  618.  
  619. Find this resource:
  620.  
  621.  
  622. Grimshaw, Anna. Servants of the Buddha: Winter in a Himalayan Convent. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim, 1994.
  623.  
  624. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  625.  
  626. Provides a fascinating ethnography on experiences with a community of Buddhist nuns in the Himalayas and their challenges with local male monastics and lay society.
  627.  
  628. Find this resource:
  629.  
  630.  
  631. Gutschow, Kim. Being a Buddhist Nun: The Struggle for Enlightenment in the Himalayas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
  632.  
  633. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  634.  
  635. This richly textured profile of Zanskari culture offers the first ethnography of Tibetan Buddhist society from the perspective of its nuns, resulting in valuable insight into the relationship between women and religion in South Asia through ritual and the social construction of gender boundaries.
  636.  
  637. Find this resource:
  638.  
  639.  
  640. Havnevik, Hanna. Tibetan Buddhist Nuns: History, Cultural Norms, and Social Reality. Oslo: Norwegian University Press, 1989.
  641.  
  642. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  643.  
  644. This is a good introduction to Tibetan nuns and nunneries in contemporary Tibetan communities from historical and anthropological perspectives.
  645.  
  646. Find this resource:
  647.  
  648.  
  649. Huber, Toni. “Why Can’t Women Climb Pure Crystal Mountain? Remarks of Gender, Ritual and Space at Tsa-ri.” In Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Sixth Seminar of the I.A.T.S. Edited by Per Kvaerne, 350–371. Oslo: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, 1994.
  650.  
  651. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  652.  
  653. This innovative study of Tsa-ri reminds readers of the complexity of Tibetan religion and gendered practices when studied through the mountain ritual pilgrimages of local Tibetans.
  654.  
  655. Find this resource:
  656.  
  657.  
  658. Makley, Charlene E. “Gendered Boundaries in Motion: Space and Identity on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier.” American Ethnologist 30.4 (November 2003): 597–619.
  659.  
  660. DOI: 10.1525/ae.2003.30.4.597Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  661.  
  662. This article explores the gendered nature of religious revitalization in the Tibetan Buddhist monastery town of Labrang in southwest Gansu Province, China, after post-Mao reforms.
  663.  
  664. Find this resource:
  665.  
  666.  
  667. Soucy, Alexander. The Buddha Side: Gender, Power, and Buddhist Practice in Vietnam. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2012.
  668.  
  669. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  670.  
  671. Drawing from several years of ethnographic studies in Hanoi, Vietnam, this work has wide-ranging implications on the intersections of gender, age, power, and religious praxis in the Buddhist context.
  672.  
  673. Find this resource:
  674.  
  675.  
  676. Tsomo, Karma Lekshe, ed. Innovative Buddhist Women: Swimming Against the Stream. Richmond, UK: Curzon, 2000.
  677.  
  678. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  679.  
  680. Karma Lekshe Tsomo, an ordained monastic herself, combines the voices of anthropological and textual scholars in order to understand the role of Buddhist women historically and in contemporary practice.
  681.  
  682. Find this resource:
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