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Morality and Monastic Revival in Post-Mao Tibet
Abstract
The speed and extent of the Tibetan Buddhist monastic revival make it one of the most extraordinary stories of religious resurgence in post-Mao China. At the end of the 1970s, there were no working monasteries; within a decade, thousands had been reconstructed and repopulated. Most studies have focused on the political challenges facing Tibetan monasteries, emphasizing their relationship to the Chinese state. Yet, in their efforts to revive and develop their institutions, monks have also had to negotiate a rapidly changing society, playing a delicate balancing act fraught with moral dilemma as well as political danger. Drawing on the recent “moral turn” in anthropology, this volume, the first full-length ethnographic study of the subject, explores the social and moral dimensions of monastic revival and reform across a range of Geluk monasteries in northeast Tibet (Amdo/Qinghai Province) from the 1980s on. It shows that ideas and debates about how best to maintain the mundane bases of monastic Buddhism—economy and population—are intermeshed with those concerning the proper role and conduct of monks and the ethics of monastic-lay relations. Facing a shrinking monastic population, monks are grappling with the impacts of secular education, demographic transition, rising living standards, urbanization, and marketization, all of which have driven debates within Buddhism elsewhere and fueled perceptions of monastic decline. Some Tibetans—including monks—are even questioning the “good” of the mass form of monasticism that has been a distinctive feature of Tibetan society for hundreds of years. Given monastic Buddhism’s integral position in Tibetan community life and association with Tibetan identity, Morality and Monastic Revival argues that its precarity in relation to Tibetan society raises questions about its future that go well beyond the issue of religious freedom.
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Although Kalsang Namdren represents the monastic elite, the fears expressed in his poem reflect a popular narrative of decline and loss shared more broadly in Tibetan society, characterized as a diminishing of the virtue of monks and efficacy of lamas and a loss of faith among the public.
“Although Kalsang Namdren represents the monastic elite, the fears expressed in his poem reflect a popular narrative of decline and loss that is shared more broadly in Tibetan society - a decline characterized as 'a diminishing of the virtue of monks and efficacy of lamas … and a loss of faith among the public' (Caple 2020: 75; see also Caple 2019).”
From The Aesthetics of In/Authenticity: Buddhism, Commodification, and Ethnoreligious Belonging in a Sino-Tibetan Contact Zone (2021) · cites this paper as Caple 2019
The revival of Geluk Buddhism in northeast Tibet after the Cultural Revolution depended on the mobilization of community affiliations.
“The revival of Geluk Buddhism in northeast Tibet after the Cultural Revolution depended on their mobilization (Caple 2019: 19-37), albeit with gaps or absences produced by the many hierarchs and teachers who had died or gone into exile.”
From Feeling Apart: Relations of Belonging in Tibetan Buddhist Lay-Monastic Communities (2021) · cites this paper as Caple 2019: 19-37
These are also narratives of separation and distancing as monastic space was gradually reclaimed, physically rebuilt, and reconsecrated, as men who had maintained their vows put on the red robes, and as people reoriented their minds and bodies through prostration, circumambulation, and the outpouring of gifts of food, money, and jewelry to their lamas.
“But these are also narratives of separation and distancing as monastic space was gradually reclaimed, physically rebuilt, and reconsecrated, as men who had maintained their vows put on the red robes, and as people reoriented their minds and bodies through prostration, circumambulation, and the outpouring of gifts of food, money, and jewelry to their lamas (Makley 2007: 155-165; Caple 2013, 2019: 2”
From Feeling Apart: Relations of Belonging in Tibetan Buddhist Lay-Monastic Communities (2021) · cites this paper as Caple 2019
It intensified after the turn of the millennium with accelerated state-sponsored development, and again after 2008 when fast-track economic growth and urbanization were deployed as a facet of the Chinese leadership's response to Tibetan unrest.
“But it intensified after the turn of the millennium with accelerated state-sponsored development, and again after 2008 when fast-track economic growth and urbanization were deployed as a facet of the Chinese leadership's response to Tibetan unrest (Makley 2018; Caple 2019).”
From Feeling Apart: Relations of Belonging in Tibetan Buddhist Lay-Monastic Communities (2021) · cites this paper as Caple 2019
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Cited by 15
Metadata
- Authors
- Caple, J. E.
- Affiliations
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Caple, Jane E.
- ORCID
- Caple, Jane E.
- Venue
- University of Hawaii Press eBooks
- Publisher
- University of Hawaii Press
- Published
- 2019-05-17
- OpenAlex
- W2944745489
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 7.44
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- University of Hawaii Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (publishedVersion)
- Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Indian and Buddhist Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Chinese history and philosophy
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations
- Keywords
- Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, monastic revival, monastic reform, monastic economy, secular education, demographic transition, marketization, urbanization, Tibetan identity, religious freedom, Amdo
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