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The Aura of Buddhist Material Objects in the Age of Mass-Production
Open accessAbstract
The article discusses material religion in a commercial setting and sets off this discussion with Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936). Benjamin argues that mechanical reproduction emancipated works of art from religious rituals and evaporated the aura of art. This has resonance among some Tibetan Buddhists in the context of mass-produced Buddhist material objects. Are such objects fit to be given as gifts, implemented in rituals, and worshipped on altars? Based upon ethnographic work at a Tibetan Buddhist market in urban China, the article argues that although objects manufactured in factories for profit are not made or handled according to Buddhist tradition, the aura can be produced in different ways and at different points of an object's life.
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“In the Tibetan market, we can see such an aesthetics of persuasion at work in sensational forms, or kinds of 'packaging' (Brox 2019a), in which shopkeepers 'wrap' their goods, creating an appealing Tibetan Buddhist atmosphere that convinces customers that the goods for sale are true or real rather than fake.”
From The Aesthetics of In/Authenticity: Buddhism, Commodification, and Ethnoreligious Belonging in a Sino-Tibetan Contact Zone (2021) · cites this paper as Brox 2019a
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Feeling Apart: Relations of Belonging in Tibetan Buddhist Lay-Monastic Communities
Caple, J. (2021) · Numen · doi:10.1163/15685276-12341636 · Cited by 9
Brox, T. (2021) · Numen · doi:10.1163/15685276-12341639 · Cited by 6
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Metadata
- Authors
- Brox, T.
- Affiliations
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Brox, Trine
- ORCID
- Brox, Trine
- Venue
- Zenodo
- Publisher
- Zenodo
- Published
- 2019-01-01
- OpenAlex
- W2969928794
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 20.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (cc-by)
- Funders
- Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond
- Copenhagen Graduate School for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Indian and Buddhist Studies
- Social Sciences › Geography, Planning and Development › Religious Tourism and Spaces
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Study and Philosophy of Religion
- Keywords
- aura, material culture of religion, Tibetan Buddhism, mechanical reproduction, Walter Benjamin, Buddhist ritual, urban China, commodification of religion
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The Aura of Buddhist Material Objects in the Age of Mass-Production. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.5281/zenodo.3238213
- The paper
- Brox, T. (2019). The Aura of Buddhist Material Objects in the Age of Mass-Production. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3238213
