On Face Masks as Buddhist Merit: Buddhist Responses to COVID-19. A Case Study of Tibetan Buddhism in Shanghai
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4727565Keywords:
Religion and COVID-19, Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhist merit, ritual economyAbstract
The global media has reported various institutional responses of Buddhism to COVID-19. This paper offers a look at the grassroots of Buddhist religious activity in response to the pandemic, examining its impact on lay Buddhist followers of the Nyingmapa Buddhist tradition in Shanghai. The paper relates the activity of this group of lay adepts vis-à-vis COVID-19 to the material characteristics of Tibetan Buddhism, and how they manifest in the Han Chinese urban environment. Exploring the concept of merit, the paper argues how religious responses to the pandemic act as components in contemporary China's ritual economy.
References
Abbas, Ackbar. 1996. “Cultural Studies in a Postculture,” in Disciplinarity and Dissent in Cultural Studies, eds. Cary Nelson and Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar, London: Routledge, 291–92.
Bennett, Jane. 2016. The Enchantment of Modern Life: Attachments, Crossings, and Ethics. Rights, Action, and Social Responsibility. Princeton: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400884537.
Campbell, Heidi A. 2013. Introduction: The rise of the study of digital religion. In: H. A. Campbell, ed. Digital religion: Understanding religious practice in new media worlds. London: Routledge.
Caple, Jane. 2015. “Faith, Generosity, Knowledge and the Buddhist Gift: Moral Discourses on Chinese Patronage of Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries”. Religion Compass. 462-482
Chau, Adam Yuet. 2013. Religion in Contemporary China: Revitalization and Innovation. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Harvey, David. 2007. "Neoliberalism as Creative Destruction". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 610 (1): 21-44.
Ji, Zhe. 2008. Secularization as religious restructuring statist institutionalization of Chinese Buddhism and Its Paradoxes . In Mayfair Mei-Hui Yang . ed., Chinese religiosities : Afflictions of Modernity and State formation. Berkeley: University of California Press. 236-237.
Jones, Alison D. 2011. "Contemporary Han Chinese Involvement in Tibetan Buddhism: A Case Study from Nanjing." Social Compass 58, (4): 540-553.
Kapstein, Matthew T. 2009. Buddhism between Tibet and China. Boston : Wisdom Publications.
Kieschnick, John. 2003. The impact of Buddhism on Chinese material culture. Princeton (N.J.): Princeton University Press.
Madsen, Richard. 2008. Democracy's dharma: religious renaissance and political development in Taiwan. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press.
Marx, Karl. 1990. Capital. Trans: Ben Fowkes London: Penguin Classics.
McCracken, Grant. 1990. Culture and consumption. Bloomington, Indiana University Press.
Laliberté, André. 2016. "Engaging with a Post-Totalitarian State: Buddhism Online in China." In Religion and the Media in China: Insights and Case Studies from the Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong, edited by Stefania Travagnin, 129-150. New York, London: Routledge.
Leung, Beatrice K. F. 2018. "Xi Jinping’s Religious Freedom Policy Vs. Human Rights." Contemporary Chinese Political Economy and Strategic Relations: An International Journal 4, (2): 369-392.
Osto, Douglas, 2016. “Merit,” in The Buddhist World, ed. John Powers. London and New York: Routledge, 351–366.
Palden, Sherab, Tsewang Dongyal, Ann Helm, and Michael White. 2010. The Buddhist Path: A Practical Guide from the Nyingma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications.
Schedneck, Brooke. 2019. “An Entangled Relationship: A Lived Religion Approach to Theravada Buddhism and Economics.” Journal of Global Buddhism (20): 31–48.
Tarocco, Francesca. 2017. "Technologies of Salvation: (Re)Locating Chinese Buddhism in the Digital Age." Journal of Global Buddhism 18: 155-175.
Terrone, Antonio. 2012. "Messengers from Tibet’s Past: The Role of Buddhist Charismatic Leaders in the Spread of Tibetan Buddhism in Contemporary China." Asiatica Ambrosiana (4): 103-121.
Travagin, Stefania. 2019. "Cyberactivities and Civilized Worship." In Buddhism After Mao. Negotiations, Continuities, and Reinventions, edited by Ji Zhe, Gareth Fisher, André Laliberté, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 290-311.
Trungpa, Chogyam. 2002. Cutting through Spiritual Materialism . Boston: Shambhala.
Salguero, Pierce. 2020. “How do Buddhists handle coronavirus? The answer is not just meditation” The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/how-do-buddhists-handle-coronavirus-the-answer-is-not-just-meditation-137966 . Accessed: May 30, 2020
Sørensen, Henrik H. 2011. “Esoteric Buddhism and Magic in China” In Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. ed by Stephen F. Teiser, Martin Kern and Timothy Brook. Leiden and Boston: Brill. 197-207
Yao, Yushuang, Taiwan's Tzu Chi as Engaged Buddhism : Origins, Organization, Appeal and Social Impact. Leiden ; Boston: Global Oriental, 2012.
Yü, Dan S. 2012. The Spread of Tibetan Buddhism in China: Charisma, Money, Enlightenment. London; New York: Routledge.
Walsh, Michael J. “The Economics of Salvation: Toward a Theory of Exchange in Chinese Buddhism.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 75.2 (2007): 353–382.
Wilson, Jeff. “Buddhism Without Merit: Theorizing Buddhist Religio-Economic Activity in the Contemporary World.” Journal of Global Buddhism 20 (2019): 87–104.
Whitaker, Justin. 2020. “Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation Offers Coronavirus Aid to the Vatican and Beyond”. Global Buddhist Door. https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/buddhist-compassion-relief-tzu-chi-foundation-offers-coronavirus-aid-to-vatican-and-beyond. Accessed: May 7, 2020
Zhang, Yanshuang. 2017. "Digital Religion in China: A Comparative Perspective on Buddhism and Christianity's Online Publics in Sina Weibo." Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture 6 (1): 44-67.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Kai Shmushko
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
