Between Nation and Religion

Abstract

This paper takes a close and critical look at the contemporary resurgence of the Sino-Tibetan Buddhist network that has taken place in the general context of the ethnic and religious revival in China since the 1980s and particularly after the Chinese economic boom in the 1990s. It focuses on the cultural encounter between the Tibetan lamas/monks from the nation's ethnic borderland and the urban Han Chinese Buddhists/patrons from the Chinese metropolises. The author argues that this cultural phenomenon has to be contextualized both locally and globally in order to better understand the complex meanings and different connotations of various participants.