Solid Identity and Spiritual Practice in Fluid Digital Social Media Space
The Ethnography Embraces the Changing Lifestyle of Tibetan Buddhist Monks in Southwest China
This study draws upon Zygmunt Bauman's theory of Liquid Modernity. Employing ethnographic research methods, it analyzes the fluidity of digital spiritual practice among Tibetan Buddhist monks in the southwestern region of China, as well as the transformation of monastic life in this area. Lees verder
In contemporary society, digital technology and social media have become integral to our daily practices. Through these digital tools, individuals could shape their digital identities, cultivate relationships, participate in online commerce, express their political perspectives, and even explore digitized religious/spiritual practices.
In the milieu of an everevolving societal landscape, both individual identity and interpersonal relationships are confronting numerous challenges. More and more, individuals turn to digital platforms and material consumption to shape and understand their own identities, resulting in a neverending journey of selfdiscovery that rarely reaches a definitive state. Such a constant state of flux holds significant implications for one's selfperception and the manner in which we interact with others and integrate within the broader society.
Overall, this study draws upon Zygmunt Bauman's theory of Liquid Modernity. Employing ethnographic research methods, it analyzes the fluidity of digital spiritual practice among Tibetan Buddhist monks in the southwestern region of China, as well as the transformation of monastic life in this area. Centering on the impact of digital technology on the daily and spiritual practices of Tibetan Buddhist monks, the study further delves into how they construct and understand their monastic identities from offline to online. Concurrently, the research explores the building of emotional trust between monks and devotees in digital social media, the authenticity of digital spiritual practices, and spiritual consumption.
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- Uitgever
- Presses universitaires de Louvain
- Auteur
- Yifan Fan,
- Set
- Taal
- Engels
- BISAC Subject Heading
- REL000000 RELIGION > SOC000000 SOCIAL SCIENCE > REL007000 RELIGION / Buddhism > SOC002000 SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology > SOC008000 SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies
- BIC subject category (UK)
- JH Sociology & anthropology > HRE Buddhism
- Onix Audience Codes
- 06 Professional and scholarly
- CLIL (2013)
- 3122 Ethnologie > 3354 Bouddhisme > 3123 Les modèles et les codes sociaux > 4230 Bouddhisme tibétain (vajrayana)
- Voor het eerst gepubliceerd
- 30 januari 2025
- Subject Scheme Identifier Code
- : Politiques culturelles
: Bouddhisme
: Communication et média
: Sociologie
Paperback
- Publicatie datum
- 30 januari 2025
- ISBN-13
- 9782390615064
- Omvang
- Aantal pagina's hoofdinhoud : 302
- Code
- 107449
- Formaat
- 16 x 24 cm
- Gewicht
- 484 grams
- Packaging Type
- No outer packaging
- Aanbevolen verkoopprijs
- 32,00 €
- ONIX XML
- Version 2.1, Version 3
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Inhoud
Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Reasons for choosing the topic of research . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Research Background:"Fluidity" and Digital Consumption Age 8
1.3 Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.4 Research Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.5 Research Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.6 Relevant Theoretical Frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.6.1 Anthropology of Digital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.6.2 Digital Religious Practice or Digital Spirituality? . . . . . . . 23
2 Research Methods: From Physically Embodied Presence to Virtually Embodied Presence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.1 Physically Embodied Presence: Research Methods Offline . . . 34
2.1.1 Historical Documents Research And Comparative Related Research 34
2.1.2 Access to Fieldwork and Participant Observation . . . . . . . 35
2.2 Virtually Embodied Presence: Research Methods Online . . . . 40
2.2.1 Digital Ethnography and Digital Participant Observation . . . 40
2.2.2 A New Specific Ethnography Approach: WeChat Ethnography 44
3 Human Geography and Daily Life Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1 General Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.1.1 Shangri_la Human Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.1.2 Population, Ethnic, and Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.1.3 Religious Affiliation and Religious Practice Space . . . . . . . 66
3.2 The largest Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Yunnan Province: Ganden Sumtseling Monastery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.2.1 The Location of the Monastery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.2.2 The History of the Monastery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.2.3 The Institutional Framework of the Monastery . . . . . . . . 70
3.2.4 The Function of the Monastery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4 Offline Daily Life and Self-Identity of Tibetan Buddhist Monks 79
4.1 Change of lay identity: Becoming a Buddhist Monk . . . . . . 82
4.1.1 JC monk's household and monastic life . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.1.2 "It is liberating to be a monk" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.2 Monastic Organization: Regular Monastic Lifestyle . . . . . . 103
4.2.1 Three pillars of monastic institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.2.2 Monks' daily practices and routines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.3 Education Mechanism and Monastic Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . 133
4.3.1 General Titles and Their Educational Structure . . . . . . . . 134
4.3.2 Administrative Titles and Their Monastic Hierarchy . . . . . . 139
4.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
5 Online Changed Lifestyle and Self-expression . . . . . . . . . . . 145
5.1 Changed lifestyle through digital technology . . . . . . . . . . 149
5.1.1 "I feel like I have a closer bond with my family". . . . . . . . 149
5.1.2 Digital Spirituality: A Controversial Practice Amongst Monks . 152
5.2 Digital Self-expression through WeChat . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
5.2.1 Solid Monastic Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
5.2.2 Reconstruction of Digital Identity Hierarchy and Religious Authority185
5.3 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
6 Solid Monastic Authority: Digital Indexicality and Digital Consumer Spirituality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
6.1 A New Kind of Digital Spiritual Service : WeChat Chanting Scriptures Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
6.1.1 Digital Indexicality in WeChat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
6.1.2 Solid Monastic Authority in Fluid Digital Space . . . . . . . . 211
6.2 Digital Consumer Spirituality: Fluid Spiritual Practice and Solid Emotional Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
6.2.1 Monastics Involvement in Spiritual Commercial Collaboration: Reasonability and Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
6.2.2 Digital Spiritual Authenticity: A Solid Emotional Trust . . . . 240
6.3 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
7 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
List of symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289