Establishing a pureland on Earth: The Foguang Buddhist perspective on modernization and globalization (China, Taiwan).

详细信息   

• 作者：Chandler ; Christopher Stuart.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2000
• 导师：Wei-ming, Tu
• 毕业院校：Harvard University
• 专业：Religion, History of.;Anthropology, Cultural.
• ISBN：0599777826
• CBH：9972473
• Country：USA
• 语种：English
• FileSize：16049816
• Pages：414

文摘

This dissertation utilizes the Chinese Buddhist organization Foguangshan to analyze the cultural dynamics underlying the rapid international expansion of a particular religious community. The crux of my thesis is that the globalization (guojihua) of Foguangshan represents the natural culmination of a sustained, vigorous attempt by an affluent community to modernize and promote what they regard as the best of their traditional culture in response to the Westernization and homogenization that are perceived to have heretofore predominantly shaped the nascent “global village.”;The dissertation moves from the particular to the global. Chapter I describes the group's headquarters, giving pointed attention to the site's gradual secularization over the years as it became one of Taiwan's premier recreational destinations, and the recent decision to reaffirm its sacrality by closing it to all tourists. In chapter II, I develop a concept of “immanent charisma” to explain how the group's founder, Master Xingyun, maintains an aura of mysterium tremendum for the role of Buddhist master without necessarily perpetuating assumptions of supernatural power.;Over the next three chapters, the dyad tradition/modernity gains salience as a conceptual frame. The import of such phrases as “Humanistic Buddhism” (Renjian Fojiao) and “establishing a pureland on earth” (jianli renjian jingtu) is explored, with special reference to how this discourse on the one hand influences and reflects the master's approaches to social and gender equality, economic justice, and political engagement, and on the other hand is said to perpetuate the best of China's Confucian heritage.;The modernization of Taiwan society is directly linked to its participation in the global economy. As devotees have become ever more affected by globalization, it has been natural for Master Xingyun to both address the ramifications of this new context for Buddhist practice and to globalize his organization. The dissertation concludes by analyzing how the Foguang efforts at globalization and “localization” (bentuhua) impinge upon issues of cultural identity. I demonstrate that Foguang monastics act as symbols of a post-modern lifestyle which brings together in dynamic balance the secular and sacred, traditional and modern, local and global.