EDITED BY MICHAEL JERRYSON The Oxford Handbook of CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRSTPROOFS, Thu Jul 28 2016, NEWGEN The Oxford Handbook of CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM Edited by M IC HA E L J E R RYS O N 1 oxfordhb-9780199362387-fm-intro.indd 3 7/28/2016 3:55:35 PM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers ·the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2017 All.rights reserved. NQ part,of this publicatfon may be reproduced, sfored in a i:etrievaJ,system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means; withoutthe prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names:Jerryson, MicihaelK., editor. Title: Oxford handbook of contemporary Buddhism/ edited by MichaelJ erryson. Description: New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016021264 (print) LCCN 2016043517 (ebook) ISBN 9780199362387 (hardback) ISBN 9780199362394 (updf) ISBN 9780190623401 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Buddhism. BISAC: RELIGION I Buddhism I General (see also PHILOSOPHY/ Buddhist). RELIGION/ Buddhism/ Rituals & Practice. Classification: LCCBQ4055 .0942016 (print) LCCBQ4055 Ｈ･ｾｯｫＩ＠ DD C 294.309/ 051-dC23 LC record available athttps://lccn.loc.gov/2016021264 I I I I I I I 135798642 Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America I I CONTENTS ix Contributors Introduction: The Buddhist System in Transition 1 MICHAEL JERRYSON PART I REGIONS South Asian i. Contemporary Sri Lankan Buddhist Traditions 13 MARINDA DEEGALLE . 2: Buddhism in Contemporary India 1 DAVID GEARY AND SRAMAN MUKHERJEE Ｓｾ＠ Buddhism in Contemporary Bhutan 61 SAMDRUP RIGYAL AND ALYSON PRUDE East Asian · 4. Contemporary Chinese Buddhist Traditions 79 MARIO POCESKI 0) . Contemporary Korean Buddhist Traditions 100 MARK A. NATHAN . <£, Contemporary Japanese Buddhist Traditions 122 ELISABETTA PORCU Central Asian Contemporary Tibetan Buddhism ABRAHAM ZABLOCKI 143 r Vi CONTENTS 8. Contemporary Mongolian Buddhism 161 VESNA A. WALLACE AND CHRISTINE MURPHY Southeast Asian 9. Contemporary Vietnamese Buddhism 177 ALEXANDER Soucy 10. Contemporary Thai Buddhism RACHELLE M. SCOTT 11. Contemporary Burmese Buddhism 212 NIKLAS FOXEUS 12. Contemporary Cambodian Buddhist Traditions: Seen from the Past ASHLEY THOMPSON 13. Contemporary Buddhism in Malaysia JEFFREY SAMUELS 14. Contemporary Lao Buddhism: Ruptured histories 274 PATRICE LADWIG European-American 15. Buddhism in Latin America 299 CRISTINA ROCHA 16. US Buddhist Traditions 316 JOSEPH CHEAH 17. European Buddhist Traditions 332 LAURENCE Cox Southern 18. Buddhism in Africa 349 MICHEL CLASQUIN-JOHNSON 19. Buddhism in Australia and Oceania MICHELLE BARKER 366 CONTENTS Vii Global ｾＡｄ［Ｎ＠ Diasporic Buddhisms and Convert Communities JOHN NELSON 21. Buddhist International Organizations BROOKESCHEDNECK PART II MODALITIES Material Culture zz . .Buddhist Relics and Pilgrimage 421 . JOVAN MAUD ｾＺｊ＠ . Contemporary Buddhist Architecture: From Reliquary to Theme Park LAWRENCE CHUA 24. Contemporary Buddhism and Iconography 453 JESSICA LEE PATTERSON 25.. Buddhism and Media Technologies · ·GREGORY PRICE GRIEVE AND DANIEL VEIDLINGER Social Engagement 2: 6i. Contemporary Buddhism and Ecology 1 SUSAN M. DARLINGTON ｾＷﾷ＠ Buddhism, Business, and Economics TRINE BROX AND ELIZABETH WILLIAMS-0ERBERG 2.8. . Contemporary Buddhism and Education 518 VLADIMIR TIKHONOV ｾｽｊ＠ ... ]Buddhism, Nationalism, and Governance MATTHEW J. WALTON s;o:.. Buddhism, Conflict, and Peace Building MICHAEL JERRYSON 532 Viii CONTENTS Practices 3i. Contemporary Buddhist Chanting and Music PAUL D. GREENE 32. Buddhist Healing and Taming in Tibet BARBARA GERKE 33. Contemporary Buddhism and Magic 591 ERICK WHITE 34. Contemporary Tantric Buddhist Traditions 606 DAVID B. GRAY 35. Contemporary Buddhism and Death 619 . MARK ROWE Identity 36. Buddhism and Gender SHARON A. SUH 37. Buddhism, Race, and Ethnicity 650 JOSEPH CHEAH 38. Buddhism and Sexual Orientation 662 HSIAO- LAN Hu 39. Buddhist Encounters with Diversity DONALD K. SWEARER Academics 40. Buddhism and Science as Ethical Discourse 687 FRANCISCA CHO 4i. The Contemporary Study of Buddhism 701 NATHAN McGOVERN Index 715 INTRODUCTION The Buddhist System in Transition MICHAEL JERRYSON .IN Saint Petersburg, Florida, I visited a Buddhist nun at her meditation center, which simultaneously served as her residence. It was the spring of 2013 and the weather was turning hot and humid. After my visit, the nun accompanied me out. On the way, she showed me a qharma wheel affixed to the dashboard of her car. It was a Tibetan Prayer Wheel that spun around through solar energy. This was the first I had seen of such a device, and it prompted nie to think of the ways that technology is not only a religious tool, but also exerts influence over religion. Buddhists have recited "prayers" or mantras for"C:enturies. In early South Asia, Buddhists uttered recitations that were similar to those of Hindus and Jains. For many mantras, the more you recite them, the greater the benefits. Tlie beliefs about these practices persist to this day. For example, in i999 I visited the famous Buddhist monastery Erdene Zuu in Mongolia with some Mongol scholars. As we circumambulated a stupa, the Mongol scholars chanted a mantra three times. They explained that this recitation helped them accrue merit. Similarly, the. practice. of uttering mantras can be found outside established monasteries and at pilgrilnage sites, such as the SriDalada Maligawa in Kandy, Sri Lanka. There, local vendors sell Buddhist meditation beads to visitors and Buddhists on pilgrimages. The beads are a mnemonic device to help practitioners track the number of times they have recited a particular mantra. _While the emphasis on repeating mantras has remained contilmous throughout the cen turies, the manner of recitation has not. In Tibet, Buddhists wrote their mantras on prayer wheels, With each turning of the wheel,. they were. "reciting'' the mantra. In this way, a per$On could recite the mantra a hundred times ill mere seconds. The method of recitation has changed as well in the twenty-first century. In Saint Petersburg, Florida, a new technology ailowed the prayer wheel to spin through solar energy instead of the human hand. One ｣ｯｾｬ､＠ ponder the recipient of the merit from the Tibetan Solar Energy Prayer Wheel's rotations: Was it the nun or the sun?' Philosophical questions, such as ones about the nature of the Tibetan Solar Energy Wheel, i1fe common as Buddhism changes with modernity. Religion is not a static, monolithic category, put a livmg, fluid, and diverse assortment of people, beliefs, and practices. The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism charts these changes1 focusing particularly on the colonial and 2 MICHAEL JERRYSON postcolonial period. Over the last two hundred years, Buddhists have witnessed incredible transformations, and they often have participated in making them. Many of these changes have had to do with the fluidity and transformations oflocal, national, regional, and global cultures. The loss of monarchies and the advents of print technology; capitalism, socialism, and the nation-state all have had enormous impacts. One example of this is found in Sri Lanka. In 1815, a 2,300-year-old legacy of monarchs,ended with the exile of the last native king, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. The absence of a monarchy yielded a vacuum of political power. Whereas Sinhalese monarchs used to oversee the protection of Sri Lankan Buddhism and the sangha (community of monks), the British desired no hand in this. As Matthew Walton notes in Chapter 29, "Buddhism, Nationalism, and Governance;' monks began to take more active roles in politics, which in the early twentieth century led to significant changes within Sinhalese Buddhism. By the 1800s, religious scriptures were no longer solely hand copied, but printed and mass distributed. Gregory Price Grieve and Daniel Veidlinger point out in Chapter 25 of this volume, "Buddhism and Media Technologies;' that the oldest extant printed book is not the Gutenberg Bible, but actually a copy of the Buddhist Diamond Sutra. Thus, Buddhist scriptures were part of print technologies from the very beginning. The rise in production of Buddhist texts increased the accessibility ofBuddhist doctrine; this, in turn, fueled an elevation in lay Buddhist activity. In countries such as Taiwan and Burma, lay Buddhist organizations sponsored new meditation practices and techniques. In the early twentieth century, lay Buddhists had not only become more prominent; they also had altered the presence of Buddhist traditions in their areas. For example, in midtwentieth-century Nepal, wealthy and influential lay Buddhists (Uday) turned away from their traditional Newar Buddhist system and instead supported the newly established Tibetan and Theravada Buddhist traditions, thus reconfiguring the operative Buddhist traditionsl.n Nepal (LeVine and Gellner 2005, 40 ). Capitalistic markets and the concomitant rise of commercialization have propelled new uses, distributions, and perceptions of Buddhist images. Lawrence Chua in Chapter 23, "Contemporary Buddhist Architecture: From Reliquary to Theme Park;' notes the changing Buddhist views of architecture over the centtiries. He cites the Dhammapada, in which the Buddha addresses the architecfnot to celebrate him, but to admonish him. While this was an earlier view of architects and their work, it changed in the contemporary period. Buddhists are concerned with reconciling two programs: a monumentaI.program that is focusing on the dissemination ofliturgical doctrine through symbolism, and a second program focused on the needs of the lay community. Political ideologies have had similar impacts on Buddhism. Across Asia, countries including China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos experienced successful socialist revolutions that quickly turned against the BuddhisUnonks who had supported their nascent beginnings. However, in the second half of the twentieth century, some of these countries began to appropriate Buddhism in new ways. instance, Mario Poceski in Chapter 4, "Contemporary Chinese Buddhist Traditions;' details the ways in which the Chinese government displayed no conipuhctions about using Buddhism for its own purposes or to realize internal political objectives. In Chapter 9, "Contemporary Vietnamese Buddhism;' of Buddhism in Vietnam. During the Alexander Soucy notes a slightly different ｡､ｯｰｦｩｾｮ＠ 1980s, the Vietnamese communist government enacted their own version of Glasnost in which Buddhism became one ()f the staples of state rhetoric. Through their work, Buddhism became a principal ingredient in what it meant ｴｾ＠ be Vietnamese. For· INTRODUCTION 3 'Wllrile states are tooted in bureaucratic and military infrastructure, the more recent popular has been imagined ala Benedict Anderson's concept of the nation as an imagined 1c@mmlanity. In this manner, nation_.states of the twentieth century sought ways to nurture :a sifu>.Wed sense of identification with the nation. This was hardly a new phenomenon. States IJ!iil!V<e done this for centuries. As Max Weber explains, "The belief in tribal kinship, regardless ｾｦｷｨ･Ｇｴｲｩ＠ has any objective foundation, can have important consequences especially for ｾｬ､ｯｲｭ｡ｴｦｮ＠ of a political community" (1961, 305). Belief is critical to the imagined kinship. iPieyrrthese emerging nation-states in the late nineteenth century, religion became a method of 1\!l!W,4ti:tlg sotial groups and legitimating their sense of shared national identity. •Allif:hough some scholars criticize approaches· that focus on the relationship between the ｦｊＱ｡ｩｴｯｲｾｳ･＠ and Buddhist traditions (e.g., Payne 2013), it is a costly miscalculation to ignore ©f; undervalue national· influences on Buddhist traditions in the contemporary period. Diii'$rliatic changes have taken place since the seventeenth century; these necessitate an examiregional and national particularities. One excellent example is the role oflanguage .ｾ｡ｩＡｯｮｲｴｏ＠ in IB·uddhist traditions. By the seventeenth or eighteenth· century, vernacular-language liteliatttres mi Southeast Asia had become more "empire"specific?' Historian Victor Lieberman s•uceinctly explains, "While in the Theravada world such works used Burmese and various ［ｾｽＺ｜ｬｴｩｦｳ＠ of Tai, especially capital dialects, in lieu of Pali or Sanskrit, in Vietnam demotic writing ,systems increasingly supplemented Chinese characters" (2003, 59). Hence, although transna:.. tiliona1 elements such as the languages Sanskrit, Pali, or Mandarin may have helped transmit ｾｳｰｲ･｡､＠ Buddhist scriptures across Asia, they were replaced by regional and national lan;gimireges. In fact, suclYwas the case with Buddhist artifacts, beliefs, and everyday practices. ﾩＡＧｾｬＵｰｯＮｮ･ｴ＠ 1 to VOLUME OVERVIEW -·-··:.•,.; ... ·-· .............. ........................... ··-· ........................................................................ ......... .......................................... '. - ｾ＠ ｾ＠ Over the last two hundred years, nation-states' normative religions have become connected With the nationalized languages, customs, and traditions. For countries that have had a politically strong Buddhist base, Buddhism often becomes treated as the de facto national religion. These examples strikingly demonstrate some of the ways in which nation-state building has dramatically transformed Buddhists and their traditions. In light of these influences, the volume's Part I, "Regions;' contains twenty-one chapters that address Buddhist traditions within particular geographic regions. The majority of chapters in this section are devoted to countries with a long history of Buddhist influence. Some c:ifthese countries are known globally for their specific Buddhist traditions, such as Japan, Chlna, and Thailand. Other countries have equally important Buddhist traditions, but they areless known in Western accounts, such as Vietnam and Bhutan. Each ofthe chapters in Part I briefly reviews the ways in which Buddhism was introduced to the country, and then identifies the changes in Buddhist traditions leading up to the colonial period. After covering this background, the focus is on the Buddhist activityfrom the colonial period to the present. · Whereas many countries in South, East, Central, and Southeast Asia have had a prolonged history of Buddhist activity, some areas of the world have not had sustained exposure to Buddhism on either a political or a social level. Nonetheless, these regions are important in charting the acti\Tity ofB uddhists in the contemporaryperiod. For instance, Malaysia has been a Muslim-dominated country for the last sixhundred years. However, as Jeffrey 4 MICHAELJERRYSON Samuels notes, Malay Buddhists coexisted with their fellow Malay Muslims throughout this period. In Chapter 13, "Contemporary Buddhism in Malaysia;' Samuels traces this diversity to the :fifteenth century. As late as the fifteenth century, the area was part of the Buddhist kingdom Langkasuka, and the kingdom has archaeoJogical evidence of its activities dating back to the second century c.E . .In a similar f;lshion, several chapters of this volume discuss Buddhist activity within larger regional contexts. Latin America, Europe, and Oceania may not possess c.ountries with intense Buddhist activity, but as they representlarge regional territories, they serve as important locations ofchange for Buddhists. For example, Michel C1asquin-Johnson explains in Chapter 18, "Buddhism in Africa;' that while .Buddhists had been on the African continent as early as the 2oos c.E., due tc:> a lack of state support the Buddhist traditions attenuated and died out.. However, trends in. the twenty-first .century indicate new developments for B.uddhist traditions in Africa. Discussing Latin America in Chapter 15, Cristina Rocha provides completely new territory for the study ofBuddhism. She describes how, after thefall of the Soviet Union, the Cuban goyernment 1;urnc:(d to the Jap::µiese Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International for support. As a result,. today Soka Gakkai of the RepubUc of Cuba (SGRC) is the only Buddhist organization with legal status in Cuba, While some Buddhist activities have. been heavily impacted by national and regional interests, there are Buddhist activities that transcend, the na,tion,state and regional interests. Tue last two chapters in "Regions" address Buddhism's transnational and global framework. In Chapter 20, "Diasporic Buddh.isms and Convert Communities;' John Nelson reviews diasporic Buddhist :movements and cultural adaptations. In Chapter 21, "Bud,dhistlnternational Organizations;; Brooke Schedneck examines the proliferation of Buddhist organizations over the last two hundred years. Part II of the volume, "Modalities," contains twenty chapters that explicate themes endemic to the study bf contempbrary Buddhism. Tue structure of the volume avoids the traditional problems embedded in separating Buddhist traditions based upon doctrine. As recent scholars have noted, such taxonomies provide more complications than cla,rificatipns. Stanley Tambiah explains in his treatment of Buddhist relics !llld images, It would seem that when we fully understand the symbolism of Buddhlst architecture, myths, rites, and texts as they obtained in the past and obtain today in Southeast Asia, the classic Mahayana-Theravada distinctions become sometimes, if not always, difficult or irrelevant to impose on the compleJi: reality arid Va:rying circi:imstances-either because both traditions have .interacted at various times or because ·they' have elaborated similar conceptions. (1984,205) Thus, some chapters in "Modalities" track the various W!iYS in which Buddhists engage with t!llltra, education, business, healiJ,lg, and death ｰｲ｡ｾｴｩ｣ｳＬ＠ ｆｯｾ＠ instance, .in Chapter 32, "Buddhist Healing a,nd 1.'atning in Tibet;' BarbaraGerke looks at Tibetan Buddhist rituals that enhance the potency of medicines, as well as ｰｲｾｴ･｣Ｌ＠ ｗＮｾＬｰｨ｡ｲｭｱｹ＠ and the people working in it froµi accidents. Mark Rowe's Chapter 35, .'.'.BuddhisJ:I?.,aJ14 Death;' discusses the other end of the spectrum oflife-sustaining practice11, Rowe explains ·tha,t ｓｩ､｣ｦｵｾｴｨｳ＠ encounter with .death is synonymous with the fundamental Bu,qPJ;iist teaching of. ill1permanence. In this way, death serves as both a teacher and as somethjJJ.g to be. overcome .. . Other chapters in "Modalities" look at th.e ways in whicl1 Buddhists interact with important social engagements, such as ｰ･｡｣Ｍｭｾｧ＠ ｾ､＠ viole:µce, nationalism and gover26, "C,ontemp9:r:ary:Bud,dh.; ism and Ecology;' Susan nance, ecology,. and science. in. ｃｨｾｰｴ･ｲ＠ . . . . . .' INTRODUCTION 5 i];lJlt1ington examines the Buddhist discourse on ecology. Darlington untangles the probways in which some Buddhist practices are often perceived as ecologically friendly. ｦｩｬｾ｡ｮ､ｳ｣＠ Gho underscores the importance of comparison in Chapter 40, "Buddhism and $del,lce as Ethical Discourse:' She notes how recent developments in evolutionary biology, ｲｃｾＮｧｮｩｴｶ･＠ science, and quantum physics are engendering hope for a new spiritualistic science M1lirecognizes that this approach finds a compatible partner in Buddhism, . Ad.d.iticmal chapters in "Modalities" examine Buddhism and identities, such as gender, sex1!1r1\il ｯｾｩ･ｮｴ｡Ｌ＠ and race and ethnicity. The female monk Chao-Hwei is one of the few glob. ｡ｩｬｾｲ＠ re<:ogpized Buddhist monastics who stand up for minority sexual rights. Unfortunately, Ｑ ｴＺｾ｡ｯＭｈｷ･ｩ＠ is hardly known in the West because she writes exclusively in Chinese. In iChapter ·38, "Buddhism and Sexual Orientation;' Hsiao-Lan Hu reviews Chao-Hwei's work r1l1fl:d rerp,inds us that the Buddhist doctrine (and the model of the monks) is not directly appliｾ＼ｊ｢ｬ･＠ to lay practice and behavioral norms, particularly in defense of heteronormative agen. das. In Chapter 37, "Buddhism, Race, and Ethnicity;' Joseph Cheah addresses the problems of ｾ｀Ｌｲｭ｡ｴｩｶｹ＠ with regard to Whiten.ess. Cheah examines the way Buddhists are categorized in . ifhe United States to underscore the racial formations that instruct Buddhist identities. Th.e Oxford Handbook of Contempomry Buddhism covers. the dynamic and fluid envi1"1»nments for Buddhists in the contemporary period, as well as the important patterns and !Wlen;ies across Bµddhist traditions. Each chapter highlights the history behind Buddhism's transformations and the ways in which Buddhists have adapted their practices and tech·tmiqµes,.Buddhism is growing in the twenty-first century. This is largely due to its adaptable a1nd inclusive ideological infrastructure. One effective manner of encapsulating this dyna :m.ism.and fluidity is by referring to Buddhism as a system. ｾ･ｭ｡Ｃ｣＠ CONCLUSION: THE BUDDHIST SYSTEM •\·····-········································································································································-······································· · 1;his volume provides one of the most extensive and comprehensive collections of essays on Buddhism in the contemporary period. This is no small feat. Buddhism is an incredibly ·..qiyerse religion. It is so diverse that scholars have referred to it as "Buddhisms" (Ling 1993, 1) or.have treated it in its regional variations as "Buddhist traditions" (e.g., Holt.1991; Schober 1997; Buswell 2005). Indeed, as these chapters demonstrate, there are few shared characterisｾｩ｣ｳ＠ that permeate the various Buddhist traditions. One Western penchant is to chart and distinguish religions based upon their religious scriptures or doctrine. However, there is no dosed canon in Buddhist traditions. There are agreed-upon categories for doctrine-in effect, structural similarities, Even in Southeast Asia, which has a collection of scriptures called the Pali Canon, there are regional and local variations of which scriptures are included in such categories. For instance, the Japanese Tendai and Nichiren Buddhists exalt the importance of one partiqilar scripture called The Lotus Sutra, but this scripture is largely unknown to Buddhists in Southeast Asia. A common means of discerning a Buddhist identity is to witness a person seeking refuge in the Three Jewels: the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. However, this foundational element in Buddhism also varies. Matthew Kapstein notes that in Tibetan Buddhism, "Often, one's lama, or guru, is added to this universal Buddhist trinity as afourth refuge" (2006, 216). For Tibetan Buddhists, the lama or guru serves as the gateway to the three other refuges. r 6 MICHAEL JERRYSON Dietary practices also differ among the traditions. In Central Asia, Tibetans and Mongolians believe that eating small animals is wrong because it takes the death of many lives to feed one person. On the other hand, Buddhists in most parts of Southeast Asia and in Sri Lanka argue that it is wrong to· eat large animals because the larger the animal, the more they feel pain. In addition, there are Chinese Buddhists, who often commit themselves to a vegan diet. While many Buddhists venerate bodhisattvas-awakened ｢･ｩｮｧｳｾｵ｣ｨ＠ beings may look different or function differently based upon the region or locality they come from. The variability becomes more prevalent in the veneration of local or regionally recognized monks who have passed. For instance, the bodhisattva of compassion is called Avalokiteshvara and is commonly known throughout Buddhist traditions. While he is often depicted with a thousand arms to help those who suffer, in Chinese Buddhist traditions, the bodhisattva is depicted as a female, Guan Yin. For Tibetans, Avalokiteshvara is their Dalai Lama. This widespread diversity has led some scholars to question the effectiveness of using the terms "Buddhism" or "Buddhisms:' Timothy Fitzgerald remarks on his difficulty to differentiate Buddhism from "indigenous cultural traditions:' He posits "This notion that Buddhism is an entity with an essence that can be described and listed with other such entities, the Religions or the world religions, can be described as an essentialist fallacy" (2000, 27). Indeed, any attempts to discover an "essence" would prove difficult among the vast assortment of Buddhist beliefs and practices. Buddhists always have included "indigenous cultural traditions:' Speaking to this point, Alexander Soucy explains in Chapter 9 oncontemporary Vietnamese Buddhism, "This seamless unity betWeeri Buddhism and belief in spirits, as well as Buddhism as a way to advance worldly interests, should not be understood as an addition to Buddhism, or even as a degeneration of Buddhism from a pristine original Buddhist tradition:' Instead of supporting the premise of an "authentic" or "original Buddhism;' Vietnamese Buddhist traditions provide yet another instance of Buddhism in culture. Thus, it may work better to see Buddhism as a theoretical construct that becomes· "tradition" through the imputation of culture. To disentangle Buddhism from its "indigenous cultural tradition'' would be the same a:s separating a skeleton from its flesh. It would become a dead, abstract quantity, one that cannot shed light on lived and grounded experiences. The dialectic between religious doctrine and culture aside, there is no mistake about the modern construction of the word "Buddhism:' Anne Blackburn addresses this issue head on in her analysis of religion, kinship, and Buddhism: ''As the recent work of so-called postOrientalist historians and anthropologists so clearly indicates,· it is no longer possible to ignore the historically conditioned quality of aterm like 'Buddhism'" (1993, i5). It was only in the nineteenth century that the Greek suffix "-ism" was coined to mint the term "Buddhism:' Indeed, as Nathan McGovern notes in Chapter 41, "The Contemporary Study of Buddhism;'' Orientalist and more general Western presuppositfons about the nature of "religion" shaped the academic trajectory'ofBuddhist studies in its earlyinchoation. But all terms have constructed origins, and mostcontemporary identities come from recent troubled pasts. To disown Buddhists from their rights to call themselves "Buddhists" because of the term's modern construction would be more destructive than helpful. Although the term "Buddhism'' or ''Buddhist" is part of people's worldviews in the twentyfirst century, it is best to abandon the pursuit of "essences"· for more profitable directions. Speaking to this direction, historian of religion Jonathan Z. Smith applies the polythetic mode of classification for the study of religion. He explains, "In this new mode, a class is INTRODUCTION 7 defined as consisting of a set of properties, each individual member of the class to possess 'a . large (but unspecified) number' of these properties, with each property to be possessed by 'large number' of individuals in the class, but no single property to be possessed by every rnember of the class" (1982, 4). One relatively new and fertile approach that works in tandem with Smith's call for a polythetic mode of classification treats Buddhism as a system. Francisca Cho and Richard King Squier introduce the approach of systems theory and religion in their 2013 article, "Religion as a Complex and Dynamic System:' In it, they remark . about Clifford Geertz's lasting insights into the study of religion. Because of Geertz's essays ;'''.Religion as a Cultural System;' and "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of C1,1lture;' of the 1970s, religious studies scholars have moved toward the examination of par. ticularities and difference. This focus on thick descriptions unfortunately led to the reduction in comparative projects, a primary artery of information for the study of religion. Cho and Squier suggest the use of systems theory to acknowledge boundaries. The systems they suggest are porous, complex, and constantly changing in order to allow for a particularism iyith comparison capabilities. They explain, a We are concerned instead with the basicpremises of systems theory and what they have to say aboutreligion as an object of study. We first look at what systems theory has to say about identifying boundaries between religions in order to get past atomistic conceptions. We then look at the idea of complexity and the limitations it imposes on our ability to exhaustively describe anything. This encourages us to rethink particularism and· resuscitate the pursuit of larger scale analysis based on the identification of patterns. (2013, 361) Thus, instead of referencing the religion in the singular "Buddhism;' or the plural "Buddhisms;' or as "Buddhist traditions;' the use of the "Buddhist system" would allow us to look at particular Buddhist characteristics and engender comparisons with other religions and ideologies. In addition to the comparisons present in these chapters, this volume can be placed in conversation with other Handbooks, such as The Oxford Handbook of Theology and Modern European Thought. Doing so will illuminate important contours and particularities. Such directions will only deepen the incredible contributions these chapters make to the study of Buddhism in the contemporary period. NOTE i. On the Amazon India website for the item, the product description explains, "Scriptures were installed inside the prayer wheel, often turn [sic] it may bring peace, auspicious, victory, development, and accumulate immeasurable qualities. A beautiful gift item:' http://www. amazon.in/Tej-Gifts-Tibetan-Energy-Prayer/dp/BooL9EKGQO. Accessed August 10, 2015. BIBLIOGRAPHY Blackburne, Anne M. 1993. "Religion, Kinship and Buddhism: Ambedkar's Vision of a Moral Community:' The Journal of the International Association ofBuddhist Studies 16(1): 1-23. Buswell, Robert Evans, Jr. 2005. Currents and Countercurrents: Korean Influences on the East Asian Buddhist traditions. Honolulu: University ofHawai'i Press. 8 MICHAEL JERRYSON Cho, Francisca, and Richard King Squier. June 2013. "Religion as a Complex; and Dynamic System."]ournal of the American Academy ofReligion 81(2): 357-398. Fitzgerald, Timothy. 2000. The Ideology ofReligious Studies. New York: Oxford University Press. Holt, John Clifford. 1991. Buddha in the Crown,:Avalokitesvara in the Buddhist Traditions of Sri Lanka. New York: Oxford University Press, Kapstci,n, MatthewT. 2006. The Tibetans. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing: . LeVine, Sarah, al;ldDavid N. Gellner. 2005. Rebuilding Buddhism: The Theravada Movement in . Twentieth-Century Nepal, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. . Lieberman, Victor. 2003. Strange Parallels, Vol. 1: Integration of the Mainland Southeast Asia in Global Context, c. 800-1830. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress. Ling, Trevor. i993· Buddhist Trends in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast ASian Studies·. Payne, Richard. 2013. "Buddhism beyond the Nation· State:' Oxford University· Press Blog. ·August 13, 2013. http://blog:oup.com/ 2013/ ＰＸＯ｢ｵ､ｨｩｳｭＭ･ｹｯｮ｡ｴｾｧｰｬ｣＠ ｾ＠ division/. Accessed June 20, 2015. Schober, Juliane. 1997. Sacred Biography in the Buddhisttraditions of South and Southeast Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, Smith, Jonathan Z. 1982. Imagining Religion: From Bablyon to Jonestown. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. · · Tambiah, Stanley J. 1984. The Buddhist Saints of the Forest.and the Cult ofAmulets: A Study in Charisma, Hagiography, Sectarianism, and Millennial Buddhism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Weber, Max. 1961. "Ethnic Groups:' Translated by Ferdinand Kolegar. In Theories of Society, Vol.1, edited byTak:ott Parsons et al. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press.