Making a Tibetan sect in twentieth-century China

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe paper investigates two conflicting dynamics observed by Holmes Welch in The Buddhist Revival in China, namely, the ascendance of the esoteric school of Buddhism and a rising anti-sectarian trend in the Republican period. The paper examines a Tibetan Gelug lineage founded by Nenghai in Chengdu, with a focus on his conceptualization of sectarian identification in relation to anti-sectarian concerns. The paper also explores the ways in which sectarian awareness was cultivated, expressed, and affirmed through discourses, practices, and the institutional building of a lineage.