The space of religion : temple, state, and Buddhist communities in modern China
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The space of religion : temple, state, and Buddhist communities in modern China
（The Sheng Yen series in Chinese Buddhist studies）
Columbia University Press, c2023
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 381-398) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The Nanputuo Temple in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen has been a cherished site for the worship of the bodhisattva Guanyin for centuries. It was a center of modernizing Buddhism in the early twentieth century and a flagship for the revival of Buddhism after state suppression during the Cultural Revolution. The Space of Religion takes readers inside the Nanputuo Temple in order to explore the practice of Buddhism in modern China and the complex relationship between Buddhism and the Chinese state.
Based on three decades of ethnographic research, Yoshiko Ashiwa and David L. Wank tell the story of Nanputuo against the backdrop of a dramatic stretch of Chinese history. They vividly depict episodes such as renovating the halls, reestablishing ties with overseas Chinese donors, conflicts with local government, revival of ritual life, reopening of its Buddhist academy, and the passion of the Guanyin birthday festival. To understand Nanputuo, Buddhist communities, and other temples in Xiamen, Ashiwa and Wank develop the concept of religion as a space constituted by physical, semiotic, and institutional dimensions. They also show how the Chinese state and Buddhism have each adapted to the other, as the temple has adjusted to government policy while the state has deployed Buddhism in its promotion of Chinese culture.
This interdisciplinary book is both a theoretically generative analysis of religious spaces and an empirically rich account of the recovery of Buddhism in China after the Mao era.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Conventions
Glossary of Temple Names in Xiamen City
Introduction
Part I: Concept, Spaces, History
1. Themes and Concepts of the Study
2. Physical and Semiotic Spaces of Nanputuo Temple
3. Institutional Space and Nanputuo Temple's Historical Capital
Part II: Recovery and Development of Nanputuo Temple
4. Revival of Buddhist Practice and Education, 1982-1989
5. Expansion and Conflict in the Space of Religion, 1989-1995
6. Aligning with the Central State, 1996-2004
Part III: Nanputuo Temple and Local Buddhist Communities
7. Dynamism of Local Temples
8. Devotees and Lay Nuns
9. The Guanyin Festival: Being Buddhist the Chinese Way
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Leaders of Nanputuo Temple, 1684-
Appendix 2: Nanputuo Temple, a Millennium of Construction and Renewal
Appendix 3: Buddhist College of Minnan Curriculum, 1989
Appendix 4: Ordination Ceremony Schedule, October 13-29, 1989, Guanghua Temple
Notes
References
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"