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Cited by 16Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and IdentificationSocial and Cultural DynamicsIndian and Buddhist Studies

Consuming belief: Luxury, authenticity, and Chinese patronage of Tibetan Buddhism in contemporary China

Osburg, John·2020·HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
DOI 10.1086/708547
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Abstract

This essay examines two domains in which wealthy Chinese seek to cultivate social distinction. The first section examines luxury consumption and highlights the ambivalences surrounding global luxury goods in China. Given that luxury goods often fail to deliver on their promises of distinction, many wealthy Chinese have turned to new forms of money-mediated spirituality—in particular, patronage of Tibetan Buddhism. I argue that in a context in which forms of value, authenticity, taste, morality, etc., are all too easily reduced to quantitative, monetary terms, appropriation of the spiritual power of Tibetan lamas and the authenticity associated with Tibetan Buddhism has become increasingly attractive to wealthy Han Chinese. This appropriation, however, has generated tensions between practitioners for whom Buddhist patronage is an extension of worldly projects of social distinction and wealth accumulation and those for whom Buddhism is imagined as an isolated spiritual retreat from those same concerns.

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  • Some Han Chinese have appropriated Tibetan Buddhist lamas as sources of authenticity and moral authority to set themselves apart from 'the amoral fray of Chinese society.'

    “Some have appropriated Tibetan Buddhist lamas as sources of authenticity and moral authority to set themselves apart from 'the amoral fray of Chinese society' (Osburg 2020: 69).”

    From The Aesthetics of In/Authenticity: Buddhism, Commodification, and Ethnoreligious Belonging in a Sino-Tibetan Contact Zone (2021) · cites this paper as Osburg 2020

  • Osburg found that among wealthy Han Chinese interlocutors in Chengdu, factions among followers view themselves as true believers and dismiss others as merely looking to profit materially or spiritually from Buddhism.

    “Among his wealthy Han Chinese interlocutors in Chengdu, John Osburg found that 'factions among followers tend to view themselves as 'true believers' and dismiss others as merely looking to profit - either materially or spiritually  - from their engagement with Buddhism' (2020: 79).”

    From The Aesthetics of In/Authenticity: Buddhism, Commodification, and Ethnoreligious Belonging in a Sino-Tibetan Contact Zone (2021) · cites this paper as Osburg 2020: 79

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Authors
Osburg, J.
Affiliations
University of Rochester (US)
Corresponding author
Osburg, John
ORCID
Osburg, John
Venue
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Published
2020-03
Volume
10
Issue
1
Pages
69-84
ISSN
  • 2049-1115 (ISSN-L)
  • 2575-1433
DOI
10.1086/708547
OpenAlex
W3006287715
Cited by
16
References
18
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1
FWCI
2.58
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Hau Journal of Ethnographic Theory (publishedVersion)
  • Hau Network of Ethnographic Theory (University of Rochester) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Cultural Dynamics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Indian and Buddhist Studies
Keywords
luxury consumption, social distinction, Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhist patronage, authenticity, Han Chinese, wealth accumulation, commodification of spirituality

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