Jones AD.
Accidental Esoterics: Han Chinese Practicing Tibetan Buddhism. In:
Bianchi E, Shen W Sino-Tibetan Buddhism across the Ages. A book dedicated to the memory of Monica Esposito. Brill East Asian Religions Series ; 2021.
Abstract
Ethnically Han Chinese lay Buddhists in major eastern cities can now often be seen adopting elements from Tibetan Buddhism into their practices. In Nanjing, we can see a young family sitting around the TV in the evening, each spinning a Tibetan hand-held prayer wheel while watching the news. When a Tibetan lama is in town, a group of “Buddhist grandmas” goes to make offerings and get blessings. A study group video-conferences with their teacher when he is back at home in his monastery in Labrang, a Tibetan region.
This trend has been increasing over the past two decades, but has received relatively little attention in the scholarly literature. This paper aims to address this gap by focusing on two questions: how do regular Han Chinese lay Buddhists in eastern cities come to adopt Tibetan Buddhist elements into their practices, and what does it look like when they do? Based on in-depth interviews and participant-observation with over fifty lay Buddhists in Nanjing, this paper investigates common processes of encounter and adoption of Tibetan Buddhist elements. It also provides the first detailed illustration of what it looks like when these are incorporated into lay Buddhists’ practices and outlook; through fine-grained profiles of three urban lay Buddhists and their activities.
I argue that the majority of Han Chinese lay Buddhists who incorporate Tibetan Buddhism into their practice are “Accidental Esoterics.” That is, they were not intentionally seeking out esoteric or Tibetan forms of Buddhism. Rather, they adopted Tibetan Buddhism into their toolkits primarily based on availability and effectiveness, not because of a preference for Tibetan Buddhism over Chinese Buddhism. Specifically, I contend that we should understand the incorporation of Tibetan Buddhist elements into Han Chinese toolkits as (1) accidental in the majority of cases, (2) driven by availability rather than preference, (3) eclectic rather than exclusivist, and (4) surprisingly ubiquitous.
This study thus suggests that previous research has missed two key points by focusing on the tiny minority of Han Chinese Buddhists who seek out Tibetan Buddhism, and by asking why people choose Tibetan Buddhism, rather than how people encounter and adopt it. First, that Tibetan Buddhist elements are found in the toolkits of a significant percentage of Han Chinese lay Buddhists in eastern cities. Second, that this trend, however large, may matter less than we suppose, as these Tibetan Buddhist elements are absorbed into people’s toolkits in a way that reduces their distinctiveness or impact on the worldviews of Han Chinese people.