Religious Commodities or Cultural Elements?: Lay Han Practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism and the “Living Hall” (Shenghuo guan 生活馆) Model

This article is a case study of a lay Buddhist community that employs a business model called “living hall” (Shenghuo guan 生活馆) to facilitate the practice of Tibetan Buddhism among its members. The living hall model is explored in the context of the politics of religion in the People’s Republic of C...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Review of Religion and Chinese Society
Main Author: Shmushko, Kai (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2022
In: Review of Religion and Chinese Society
Further subjects:B Tibetan Buddhism
B ritual economy
B Material Religion
B religious entrepreneurship
B China
B Lay Buddhism
B RELIGIOUS groups
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Summary:This article is a case study of a lay Buddhist community that employs a business model called “living hall” (Shenghuo guan 生活馆) to facilitate the practice of Tibetan Buddhism among its members. The living hall model is explored in the context of the politics of religion in the People’s Republic of China (prc) and the dynamics of Tibetan Buddhism among Han Chinese in the past decades. The author investigates the model’s origin, its implementation in a contemporary Buddhist community, and its interaction with the discourse on Buddhism in the prc. The article joins a recent academic endeavor to illuminate the different modalities in which lay practitioners carry out Buddhist practice outside the sphere of institutionalized Buddhism. The article sheds light on the delicate dynamics between religion and state control in the prc and the role of entrepreneurs and materiality within lay Tibetan Buddhism.
ISSN:2214-3955
Contains:Enthalten in: Review of Religion and Chinese Society
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/22143955-08020015