Buddhism in Colonial Contexts

The practice of Buddhism in colonial Korea holds the key to understanding how Buddhist reformists tried to counter the challenges of modern transformation. Steeped in the traditions of Sŏn orthodoxy and lay salvationism, Korean Buddhism faced a new age with the arrival of the Japanese, who tried to restructure Korean Buddhist institutions according to Japan's colonialist governing system. Looking at the example of Han Yong'un, who spearheaded Buddhist reform efforts during the colonial period, this article examines what was at stake in attempting to reform Korean Buddhism so as to create a religion that could meet the needs of Korean society. Han wrestled with the task of bridging the gap between institutional Buddhism and lay Buddhism, which had resulted in the deterioration of the Buddhist ideal. In an attempt to find a middle ground that could connect these two extremes, Han's strategy was to focus on both the Buddhist notion of expediency and the caring spirit of bodhisattva. He was not particularly successful.

Reviewed by: Buddhism after Mao: Negotiations, Continuities, and Reinventions ed. by Ji Zhe, Gareth Fisher and André Laliberté Alison Denton Jones (bio) Ji Zhe, Gareth Fisher, and André Laliberté, editors. Buddhism after Mao: Negotiations, Continuities, and Reinventions. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2019. v, 355 pp. Hardcover $84, isbn 978-08-24-87734-7. Paperback $28, isbn 978-08-24-88834-3. Buddhism After Mao steps into an important gap in our understanding of religion in Contemporary China and of Global Buddhism today. As the volume points out on the first page, China is not only home to “the largest community of people on the planet who identify Buddhism as an important source of meaning in their lives,” but Buddhists also make up the “largest religious group in China” (p. 1). Despite these significant positions in China’s and the world’s religious fields, there is less scholarship on Buddhism in contemporary China than on other religious traditions there, or on Buddhist communities in other parts of the world. The introduction and eleven empirical chapters in this volume move our understanding forward along several dimensions. These contributions will be of interest to both scholars of Chinese religion and Buddhist studies scholars working on other traditions and regions, as well as to comparative religionists examining contemporary global religions dynamics such as religion- state relations, secularization, religious charitable activities, religious strategies to balance tradition and innovation while bolstering legitimacy, pressures on religious sites from tourism and urban renewal, tensions between “folk” and official forms of religion, online ritual spaces, and more. Although each chapter takes up a specialized topic, they are mostly quite accessible to nonspecialist [End Page 327] readers. Thus, the book will be of use in undergraduate classes and for scholars or lay readers who are not Buddhist scholars or China specialists. The volume is divided into three sections: “Negotiating Legitimacy” focuses on interactions between Buddhism and the PRC state; “Revival and Continuity” examines how Buddhist institutions and elites work to rebuild and elaborate upon traditional Buddhist institutions; and “Reinventing the Dharma” offers case studies of several temples to illustrate some of the diverse ways that Chinese Buddhists create community, moral discourse, ritual practice, and religious spaces within the complex and rapidly changing political, socioeconomic, urbanizing, and technological environments in the PRC today. The following section sketches each chapter, and the review concludes with overall reflections on the themes and limitations of the volume. Chapter 1, by André Laliberté, provides the national political context for the volume, outlining the relatively favorable relationship that (Han Chinese) Buddhism has with the PRC state compared with other religious traditions, and identifies four policy domains where the state hopes that Buddhism may work toward state goals. The chapter then traces the changes in Buddhism-state relationships regarding these four domains over the most recent three regimes: those of Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping. Claire Vidal’s chapter on the administration of the Buddhist pilgrimage site Putuoshan moves the lens on the Buddhist-state relationship to the concrete, local level. It shows us how the state’s complicated apparatuses for administration and political control interact with the Buddhist community’s attempts to carve out autonomy on both practical and discursive dimensions. As other case studies of religious revival in Reform Era China have shown, Vidal’s examination of Putuoshan demonstrates that, despite the apparently rigid hierarchical power structure and total state control, there is room for savvy religious leaders to take initiative. In addition to this practical (if unofficial) autonomy for the Buddhist community, Vidal argues that it uses traditional Buddhist stories and schema to reimagine the state-dominated administrative and power relations within a Buddhist precedent and cultural vision. This chapter is the most dense in the volume and may not be accessible to nonspecialists. An even more microlevel case study of Buddhism-state relationships is presented in chapter 3, where Susan K. McCarthy examines the Ren’ai Charity Foundation to explore the areas of overlap and disconnect between Buddhist concepts and practices of charity, and the Chinese state’s goals of social welfare provision and promoting civic-mindedness. This chapter raises a number of thought-provoking issues for both China...

The article dwells upon the evolution of music pedagogy in North America during the Colonial period. The study aims to highlight the development of music education in North America during this time and to identify the significant influences of European cultural heritage on the music pedagogy of the Indigenous peoples of North America. The authors have employed the following methods: systematization, analysis, and synthesis of historical, scientific, and pedagogical sources to generalize information on the outlined topic; historical and genetic analysis examines the impact of European notation systems and teaching methods on Indigenous traditions as well as the changes that occurred in musical practices during colonization; comparative analysis compares European and Indigenous musical traditions, particularly in the areas of vocal performance and pedagogical methods; cultural and contextual analysis addresses the social, cultural, and other conditions that accompanied music pedagogy during the Colonial period. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of how European musical practices were introduced and adapted within the colonial context, reflecting the complexities of cultural exchange and adaptation. The study focuses on transmitting European musical traditions, including instructional methods, notation systems, and musical repertoire, as they encountered the diverse cultural landscape of the American colonies. The article examines the role of music in colonial education, emphasizing its significance in religious instruction and socialization. It shows how hymns, psalms, and folk tunes were used in schools and religious settings to impart moral values and foster community cohesion. The impact of various European settlers is analyzed to reveal how their musical heritage influenced local pedagogical practices. Challenges such as geographical isolation, limited resources, and interactions with Indigenous populations are discussed to understand the adaptability of European music education practices in the colonial environment. The article also highlights the contributions of colonial educators and musicians who played a crucial role in shaping the musical education landscape. Future research prospects involve exploring contemporary educational practices in the context of historical influences and cultural changes, which will contribute to developing new approaches to music education that consider the diversity of cultural and social contexts. Key words: music pedagogy of North America, Colonial period, Indigenous peoples, European colonizers, musical traditions, cultural conflicts, assimilation, historical influence.

Reviewed by: New Postcolonial Dialectics: An Intercultural Comparison of Indian and Nigerian Plays by Sarbani Sen Vengadasalam Satkirti Sinha NEW POSTCOLONIAL DIALECTICS: AN INTERCULTURAL COMPARISON OF INDIAN AND NIGERIAN PLAYS. By Sarbani Sen Vengadasalam. London: Cambridge Scholar Publication, 2019. 243 pp. Hardcover, $72.00. In this book, Sarbani Sen Vengadasalam talks about her scholarly investigation on interculturalist philosophy in India and Nigeria before and after their Independence. Her research revolves around the struggle of Indian and Nigerian writers in finding a middle path for achieving a "cultural renaissance" in their respective countries by highlighting the role of interculturalism which neither denies tradition nor rejects western culture. Therefore, as a case study in her book, she presents the theatrical plays written by Rabindranath Tagore (Red Oleanders, 1925), Wole Soyinka (The Lion and Jewel, 1959 and The Road, 1965), and Badal Sircar (Procession, 1983) to examine the efficacy of interculturalism as a critical tool for achieving social amelioration in India and Nigeria at different phases of "culture encounter" during colonial and post-colonial periods. In the initial part of the book, the author states her objective is to cross-examine the above mentioned Indian and Nigerian intercultural plays separately and against each other to verify that "interculturalism as a comparative framework, could be a solution to the problems of comparative theories" (p. 47) and can be used to compare literature and portray social issues on the stage. As a reader of this book, I would agree that the author accomplishes her desired objective because her "investigation on four different intercultural plays confirms" (p. 215) that intercultural analysis could [End Page 590] be used to compare cross-cultural literature as well as act as a bridge for achieving cultural renaissance. The first chapter, "Colonial Encounter and the Intercultural Dialectic," illuminates the history of colonialism in India and Nigeria. The author explains how culture plays a vital role in determining the identity and character of human beings. She further states that "culture is the ethos of the nation, the character of a country and the spirit of people" (p. 2). After making her reader understand the importance of culture and its role in preserving the integrity of a community, she points out that first thing colonizers did while occupying a superior position in India and Nigeria was to inflict "cultural trauma" and create a "cultural cringe" among the colonized people so that they could be oppressed with their thought process controlled by British government. Vengadasalam is at her best in the first chapter while explaining the role of myths created by colonizers to destroy native culture in India and Nigeria and the creation of an elite class of Indians and Nigerians during the colonial period. As a reader, this part of the book helped me to understand why elites like Tagore during pre-independence and Sircar (and Soyinka both before and after) after independence in India and Nigeria adopted the intercultural model to modernize their societies. I also appreciate the explanation given by the author at the end of the chapter that the "interculturalism model is never outdated" (p. 48), as a result intellectuals like Tagore, Soyinka, and Sircar used intercultural philosophy in their plays. The second and third chapters are the essence of the book, where the reader sees how British imperialism expanded and denied the native cultures of India and Nigeria during the colonial period. The author illustrates how the colonial government controlled both countries by attacking their culture; the only difference between Indian and Nigerian colonialism was the latter's prior slave history. She further elaborates about nationalist movements that took place in both countries, especially Swadeshi in India and Negritude in Nigeria and how intellectuals like Tagore and Soyinka rejected these movements. Both Tagore and Soyinka believed an east-west synthesis could develop a new pluralistic and a modernized country. Most importantly the detailed analysis of Tagore's Red Oleanders in India and Soyinka's The Lion and Jewel in Nigeria highlights the history of performing arts field during the pre-independence period; such plays presented theatrical shows as a metaphor for social justice and championed intercultural philosophy. In the next two chapters, the author discusses the issue of neo...

Reacting to nineteenth-century forces of colonialism and globalization, Buddhist reformers across Asia strove to modernize Buddhist teachings, practices, and institutions. “Buddhist modernism” was typically characterized by disbelief in the supernatural, rejection of ritual, deinstitutionalization, and egalitarianism. The Revolution of Buddhist Modernism provides an account of the upheaval that took place within the world of Japanese Jōdo Shin (True Pure Land) Buddhism when scholar-priest Kiyozawa Manshi (1863–1903) initiated modernist reforms. Kiyozawa and his disciples, especially Soga Ryōjin and Kaneko Daiei, reenvisioned Pure Land teachings as a path to awakening in the present world rather than rebirth in a faraway Pure Land after death. This doctrinal reinterpretation led to a range of revolutionary institutional reforms, including new experiential methods of Buddhist studies, democratization of sect institutions, and enhanced cooperation with Japan’s imperialist state. By combining intellectual history with institutional history, The Revolution of Buddhist Modernism reveals deep connections between Buddhist thought, Buddhist institutions, and national and global politics. It tracks the chaotic, fascinating history by which modernist Buddhist ideas came to be grounded in Buddhist institutions and authoritative for Buddhist communities, offering readers a compelling, ground-level view of Buddhist modernism—and traditionalism—in action.

article published in Journal of Global Buddhism; Vol 16 (2015): Special Focus: Zen and Popular Culture

The 12 chapters in this volume seek to overcome the nationalist paradigm of Japanese repression and exploitation versus Korean resistance that has dominated the study of Korea's colonial period (1910-1945) by adopting a more inclusive, pluralistic approach that stresses the complex relations among colonialism, modernity, and nationalism. By addressing such diverse subjects as the colonial legal system, radio, telecommunications, the rural economy, and industrialization and the formation of industrial labour, one group of essays analyzes how various aspects of modernity emerged in the colonial context and how they were mobilized by the Japanese for colonial domination, with often unexpected results. A second group examines the development of various forms of identity from nation to gender to class, particularly how aspects of colonial modernity facilitated their formation through negotiation, contestation, and redefinition.

Primary Health Care initiatives in colonial Kenya

In this chapter, “Buddhist Practice in East Asia,” Paula Arai offers an overview of indigenous impulses in China and Japan that fueled the transformation of Buddhist teachings and practices in these cultures. Tailoring the aesthetics, values, and social dynamics to suit the people are integral and critical features of transformation. Later in the chapter, Eun-su Cho provides a historical overview of Korean Buddhist developments. Discussion extends into the purification movement after the colonial period and into contemporary developments, including introducing popular music, publications, and internet sites aimed at reaching a general public that is increasingly focused on a global context.

Prominent Nuns: Influential Taiwanese Voices Jennifer Eichman In recent times, scholars have certainly taken note of the burgeoning ranks of well‐educated Taiwanese nuns. From the 1960s onward, the Taiwanese nuns community slowly shed its image as a vocation of the undereducated, disaffected, and lovelorn. In the last thirty years, college‐educated women have swelled the ranks of well‐established Buddhist monasteries and also instituted their own female enclaves. These nuns have garnered the respect of the larger society and made numerous contributions to Taiwanese social welfare, environmental protection, Buddhist education, and many other areas of social and spiritual life. The more prominent voices in this very fertile landscape have created transnational networks, increasing their global reach. As Elise DeVido has rightly pointed out, the phenomenal success of these nuns is unprecedented in the Mahayana diaspora including Korea, Japan, and Mainland China. Theravada and Tibetan communities too have yet to nurture female talent in the same sustained way.1 In this article, I will make passing reference to the contributions of numerous talented Taiwanese nuns, while largely focusing on the work of four extraordinary individuals. They range from conservative to radically other and from studiously reflective to kinetically active. The most internationally prominent Taiwanese nun, Cheng Yen (1937‐), focuses almost exclusively on “doing religion” through charitable activities, while the nuns Kuan Ch’ien (1956‐), Wu Yin (1940‐), and others have made it their mission to improve the doctrinal sophistication of the sangha through education. Cheng Yen, Kuan Ch’ien, and the more politically active nun Chao Hwei (1965‐), all represent a new movement in the propagation of Taiwanese/Chinese Buddhist doctrine and practice.2 At times their approaches and organizations have been criticized, yet all three remain well within the range of contemporary normative practices. Not so for the fourth individual. Ching Hai (1950‐) was tonsured in Taiwan and for a brief time she shaved her head and wore traditional monastic robes. However, she soon struck out on her own, developing what to some is Buddhist heresy and to others a new age religious organization. Without the strong financial backing and spiritual commitment of her large and loyal Taiwanese base, Ching Hai could not have severed all ties to Taiwanese Buddhist organizations and proceeded to transmit her own unique vision, let alone create an extensive global network. For this reason, I have chosen to include her here. New religious offshoots, even when they are roundly condemned by their incubating organizations, provide some comparative perspective on both what constitutes the norm and what kinds of spiritual experimentation we might expect to see from other intrepid religious innovators. These four voices represent a range of approaches to Buddhist modernization that capitalized on Taiwan’s economic advancement, female education, and democratization. The out migration of highly educated Taiwanese has been an equally indispensable factor in the ability of Taiwanese‐based Buddhist organizations to create transnational networks, build temples overseas, and increase their presence in a global spiritual marketplace. Recent immigrants lend their manpower and knowledge of local laws while major Taiwanese Buddhist institutions send financial support and monastic expertise. Many institutions have also sent nuns to run these centers, thereby increasing their international visibility and educational opportunities. Refocusing the tradition: Buddhism for the here‐and‐now The twentieth century brought with it political, economic, and religious turmoil greatly hindering the ability of Mainland China Buddhist organizations to survive let alone forge creative responses to modernity.3 This was especially so after the Communist takeover in 1949. Since the beginning of the 1982 Reform Era, Mainland Chinese have begun to revive their Buddhist institutions, yet despite the presence in Mainland China of historically famous Buddhist monasteries, these institutions have yet to achieve the global reach of such Taiwanese organizations as Compassion Relief, Dharma Drum, or Buddha’s Light whose transnational networks are continually expanding operations and centers in the West and around the world.4 In past centuries, Taiwan was a peripheral outpost that hardly warranted a dot on the map of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims and spiritual seekers. At the present moment, Taiwanese Buddhist organizations are enjoying an unprecedented newfound prominence. Compassion Relief has turned Hualian, Taiwan, into a desirable pilgrimage destination; for those...

Reviewed by: The Arts of the Missions of Northern New Spain, 1600–1821 Nicolasa Chávez The Arts of the Missions of Northern New Spain, 1600–1821. Edited by Clara Bargellini and Michael Komanecky. (Mexico City: Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, in collaboration with San Antonio Museum of Art, Museo de Historia Mexicana, Centro Cultural Tijuana, and Oakland Museum of California. 2009. Pp. xxiv, 371. $78.00. ISBN 978-6-079-52170-7.) Coedited by the curators of the exhibition of the same title, The Arts of the Missions of Northern New Spain goes beyond general art history to place [End Page 401] the religious artistic traditions of Catholic Spain and its objects within the context of the geographical, social, and historical milieu of the regions that encompass present-day Texas, New Mexico, southern Colorado, Arizona, California, and northern Mexico. In her introduction Clara Bargellini describes the catalog and exhibition as not only featuring the art of the missions but also mission life. This is achieved by including an ample number of scholarly articles by an international team of experts from many different fields such as historian David Weber, ethno-historian William Merrill, archaeologist and art historian Marie-Areti Hers, and architectural historian James E. Ivey. The essays tell the stories of the mission enterprise in the north. Weber’s essay details the uneasy relations throughout the mission-building period as he delves into components of force, fear, and violence that shaped the lives of both Natives and Spaniards. Hers’s article deals with the diverse cultures and artistic expressions abundant in Northern New Spain before the arrival of the Spanish, while Merrill’s article discusses the various indigenous societies and how their diverse cultures affected the colonial system. Ivey’s article deals with the diversity of not only indigenous societies but also how landscape, geographical environs, and economy influenced and changed the set rules of mission building. Bargellini’s article is an informative narrative of art in the missions themselves while Michael Komanecky’s article bridges past the colonial period into an era when the image of the Spanish mission was romanticized by outside artists. A final article is authored by conservators Liliana Gioguli Chávez, Molanda Madrid A., Mercedes Murguía Meca, Fanny Unikel Santoncini, Jannen Contreras, and Rosa Lorena Román Torres. The final section of the book is the exhibition catalog. This section is much more than a simple showcase of images and accompanying labels; it includes an in-depth description of each item from the exhibition. Interspersed are individual essays describing a specific artistic tradition such as Marina Garone Gravier’s article on the printed word and the use of indigenous languages. Other detailed articles discuss painting on hide, metalwork, silver objects, and Native American basketry in Spanish missions. This book includes images from the various regions in Northern New Spain depicting the landscape within which these people lived and the environs in which many cultures merged. A disappointment is that only one map is included in the book. This map, in Merrill’s essay on indigenous societies and the colonial system, depicts the many diverse languages spoken throughout Northern New Spain. Other maps should have been included to illustrate the many place names mentioned in each article. The Arts of the Missions of Northern New Spain will appeal to scholars and the general public alike. It is a wonderful compilation of articles depicting [End Page 402] the diverse cultures and artistic traditions that developed during the colonial period in New Spain. Nicolasa Chávez Museum of International Folk Art Santa Fe, NM Copyright © 2011 The Catholic University of America Press

More than half a century ago, Georges Balandier (1951) defined the ‘colonial situation’ while the empires of European nations crumbled. He described colonial rule as a domination imposed by a foreign minority in the name of cultural superiority on a majority of natives who were in a situation of material inferiority. This notion of the ‘colonial situation’ made it possible to discuss the dynamics of social transformation in a ‘colonial encounter’. Such a discussion was necessary when the colonies and their populations represented nearly one third of the territory and of the people of the world and when these people were regarded as societies with a ‘static history’ (Levi-Strauss, 1961). The physical occupation of conquered territories enabled the colonial rulers to acquire anthropological knowledge based on participant observation. This method was first adopted in the Trobriand Islands by scholars of the British Anthropological Institute directed by Bronislav Malinovski. He initiated this new approach in order to overcome the kind of ethnographical analysis based on the reports of others who had not really mastered the methods of investigation (Cefai, 2003). Even though the new methods were largely adopted in a colonial context, they helped to overcome the ethno-centrisms and habits of thought introduced in colonial areas by travellers, missionaries and European administrators (Copans, 1974). The ending of empires and their newfound independence then enabled the people of the former colonies to make use of their new freedom of speech and to enter the field of post-colonial studies. This field is characterized by a multiplicity of disciplines with their different approaches to this subject. A conceptual clarification is required because the very term ‘post-colonial’ can refer to an area of research, a historical period or a specific category of analysis. This can give rise to a veritable academic carnival (Bayart, 2010). Without adequate clarification ‘post-colonialism’ would just provide a screen, shielding a welter of confusing assertions.

The article sheds new light on colonial encounters in eighteenth-century Luzon by viewing them through the lens of mobility. Historical actors—both Spaniards and indigenes—created and sustained ties with each other through reciprocal visits punctuated by feasts. Encounters were not singular events but rather pertained to a series of multiple mobilities and multisited celebrations. The very act of travelling transformed the visitors’ identities, which became ever more entangled with their hosts’. In the colonial context, encounters did not involve a simple unilateral or unidirectional penetration and conquest of the island's interior on the part of Spanish missionaries and officials. They were embedded in a combination of Spanish and indigenous practices of reciprocal mobilities.

Cosmopolitanizing Colonial Memories in Germany

Confucian values are widely recognized as integral to traditional Korean culture. However, some aspects of this culture were significantly altered during Japanese colonial rule. This study explored how Japanese colonial policies reshaped Korean Confucianism and their lasting impacts on contemporary practices. It employed a historical analysis of colonial regulations, newspaper articles, and primary historical documents. This approach helped to trace the changes in Confucian practices and ideologies during and after the colonial period. The study found that Japanese authorities utilized Confucian values, such as loyalty and filial piety, to promote assimilation into the imperial state, redirecting these concepts toward the Japanese emperor and government. Efforts to democratize Confucianism included repurposing traditional sites for non-traditional uses, which were parts of a broader strategy to embed imperial ideology in Korean society. Despite Korea’s liberation, some aspects of this altered Confucianism continued to influence Korean politics and society. Understanding the transformation of Korean Confucianism during the colonial era is crucial for grasping the evolution of contemporary Confucian practices in Korea. This study provides insight into the origins and motivations behind cultural practices that are often misinterpreted as “traditional”.