Exploring contemporary Han Chinese monastic religiosities in mainland China’s Sino-Tibetan Buddhist landscape

This project will undertake an in-depth ethnographic study, supplemented by textual research, of Han Chinese monastics in the contemporary Tibetan Buddhist world inside the PRC. Not only will it survey the institutional landscape of Han Chinese monastic involvement in Tibetan Buddhism, with a focus on the key centres of Larung Gar and Yachen Gar, it will explore the role of Han Chinese monastic practitioners in the spread of Tibetan Buddhism through their teaching and institution-building activities. The mobility of Han Chinese monastic practitioners in the Sino-Tibetan Buddhist landscape will also be analysed, as will the ways in which they negotiate their religious identities and pursue different goals, ideals and agendas through their involvement in Tibetan Buddhism. The present study expects to significantly enrich understandings of the assimilation of Tibetan Buddhism in contemporary Han China and the importance of Han Chinese monastic practitioners in this process.