2021
Eben Matthew Yonnetti
- Doctoral Candidate
- University of Virginia
Abstract
This research examines the transmission and growth of Tibetan Buddhism in Taiwan from 1980 to the present. Addressing a critical gap in the scholarship on contemporary Buddhism, this project combines archival research with in-depth ethnography among Tibetan Buddhist communities in Taipei and Tainan to study how teachers and practitioners have adapted and localized practices, rituals, and narratives in the Taiwanese religious landscape. Further, it examines how Taiwanese practitioners take part and influence transnational Tibetan Buddhist networks. Ultimately, I argue for a cosmopolitan approach to the study of transnational religions and an understanding of religion transmission as a process that is co-enacted as individuals carry religions across contexts and ground them in new realities.