Between the Tibetan Plateau and Eastern China—Religious Tourism, Lay Practice and Ritual Economy during the Pandemic

Abstract

This article presents various institutional responses of Buddhist groups and leaders to COVID-19, adding a focus on how Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in China have responded to the pandemic. In particular, it examines the predicament of practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism. The article focuses on the material characteristics of Tibetan Buddhism and how they were manifested among Han Chinese urbanites during the pandemic through (1) a teleological inquiry, which looks into the concept of merit (sk: puñña, ch: gongde) 功德, and (2) an organizational inquiry, which explores the modalities in which Han Chinese groups practice Tibetan Buddhism in the socio-political sphere of the Chinese state. Within this inquiry, the article deals with a Buddhist community based in Shanghai and an individual account of pilgrimage in Tibet. Based on these two case studies and their contextualization, the article aims to assess how the COVID-19 crisis has affected the practices, modalities and religious technologies of Tibetan Buddhism practiced by Han Chinese. The article argues for a degree of resilience of lay practice in Tibetan Buddhism; it stresses that while some aspects of the practice called for accommodations and change, the particularities of the practice have pre-existing conditions (such as state regulation on religion and the physical distance of their religious authority) which could accommodate the practical, sociological and psychological implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Modern White Horse Temple and Online Reconfiguring of a Buddhist Heritage Space

“…The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has not openly opposed the expansion of Buddhism, and has even initiated what it calls a "passive form of support". However, state policies are intended to control the influence of Buddhism and use it for the state's objectives (Laliberté 2011, 109;Shmushko 2022b).…”

“…The CCP now considers Buddhism to be part of Chinese civilization's core (Xi 2014). The party's current line is to flatten Buddhism into cultural activities and expressions in Chinese society, often disconnecting it from its religious and spiritual aspects (Shmushko 2022a). In recent years, several arguments have been made by Xi Jinping regarding Buddhism being a tradition (文化, wenhua), not a religion (Dubois 2015, 56).…”

“…Relevant to this paradigm of Buddhism as a cultural phenomenon, it is useful to inquire to how Chinese visitors respond to the temple's renovation. In recent years, Chinese temple visits are highly documented on social media, which incapsulates various aspects of Chinese Buddhism, including temples creating online sanghas, conducting online rituals, and documenting pilgrimages and worship (Zhang 2017;Shmushko 2023). Concerning one aspect of these responses, I began researching social media representations of users sharing their visits to The White Horse Temple.…”

An Analysis Of People’s Republic Of China’s Socio-Political And Economic Implications Of Covid-19 Outbreak Year 2020

“…It is important to understand that the outbreak in China as the first detected patients found from this country has delivered global attention whilst the development of vaccine is still on the research. Thus, as many controversies on the outbreak happen, even targeted towards China, the research is purposefully to create the understanding on COVID-19 implications towards socio-political and economic condition in China and it will be a better off condition when people could have more fact checks on the problems that China also face through the declining socio-political and economic situation (Shmushko, 2023).…”