Tibetan Buddhist Ethnography
Deficiencies, Developments, and Future Directions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.v27i2.221Keywords:
Tibetan Buddhism, ethnography, reflexivity, methodologyAbstract
In recent years scholars working in the area of Religious Studies have increasingly been obliged to acknowledge that the level of methodological rigour displayed in many studies on religious phenomena is unsatisfactory, perhaps particularly when compared to that of some academics operating in related subject areas. Arguably one of the principal areas in which an apparent reticence to engage with contemporary developments in method is evident is that of ‘religious ethnography’. The purpose of this short study is to assess the extent to which ethnographic practices in the study of Tibetan Buddhism have historically responded to methodological developments in ethnography and anthropology, and to briefly suggest ways in which studies in this area may progress in the future.References
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Alvesson, Mats. and Kaj Skoldberg. 2000. Reflexive Methodology: New Vistas for Qualitative Research. London: Sage.
Atkinson, Paul, Amanda Coffey, Sara Delamont, John Lofland and Lyn Lofland, ed. 2001. Handbook of Ethnography. London: Sage Publications.
Bowie, Fiona. 2000. The Anthropology of Religion. Oxford: Blackwell.
Bromley, David G. and Lewis F. Carter, eds. 2001. Toward Reflexive Ethnography: Participating, Observing, Narrating. New York: JAI Press.
Burawoy, Michael. 2003. ‘Revisits: An Outline of a Theory of Reflexive Ethnography’. American Sociological Review 68(5): 645–679. doi:10.2307/1519757
Capper, Daniel. 2003. ‘Scientific empathy, American Buddhism, and the Ethnography of Religion’. Culture and Religion 4(2): 233–253. doi:10.1080/01438830032000135692
Childs, Geoff. 2004. Tibetan Diary; From Birth to Death and Beyond in a Himalayan Valley of Nepal. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.
Clifford, James. 1983. ‘On Ethnographic Authority’. Representations 2: 18–146.
Davies, Charlotte Aull. 2002. Reflexive Ethnography. A Guide to Researching Selves and Others. London: Routledge.
Eckel, Malcolm David. 1994. ‘The Ghost at the Table: On the Study of Buddhism and the Study of Religion’. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 62(4): 1085–1110. doi:10.1093/jaarel/LXII.4.1085
Flood, Gavin. 1999. Beyond Phenomenology. Rethinking the Study of Religion. London: Cassell.
Fricke, Thomas. 1991. Review of Holmberg, David. 1989. ‘Order in Paradox: Myth, Ritual, and Exchange Among Nepal’s Tamang’. The Journal of Asian Studies 50(4): 972–974. doi:10.2307/2058608
Geertz, Clifford. 1975. The Interpretation of Cultures. London: Hutchinson of London.
———. 1988. Works and Live: The Anthropologist as Author. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Gellner, David. 1990. Review of David Holmberg, 1989, ‘Order in Paradox: Myth, Ritual, and Exchange Among Nepal’s Tamang’. Man, New Series 25(3): 553–554.
———. 2003. The Anthropology of Buddhism and Hinduism: Weberian Themes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Germano, David and Trainor, Kevin, eds. 2004. Embodying the Dharma: Buddhist Relic Veneration in Asia. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Grimshaw, Anna. 1992. Servants of the Buddha. London: Open Letters.
Goldstein, Melvyn and Kapstein, Matthew, eds. 1998. Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural Identity. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gombrich, Richard. 1971. Precept and Practice: Traditional Buddhism in the Rural Highlands of Ceylon. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gombrich, Richard and Obeyesekere, Gananath. 1999. Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Press.
Hammersley, Martyn. 1993. What’s Wrong with Ethnography? London: Routledge.
Harvey, Graham. 2003. ‘Guesthood as Ethical Decolonising Research Method’. Numen 50: 125–146. doi:10.1163/156852703321506132
Holmberg, David. 1989. Order in Paradox; Myth, Ritual, and Exchange Among Nepal’s Tamang. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Lather, Patti and Chris Smithies. 1997. Troubling the Angels: Women Living with HIV/AIDS. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Liberman, Kenneth. 2007. Dialectical Practice in Tibetan Philosophical Culture: An Ethnomethodological Inquiry into Formal Reasoning. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
Lopez, Donald Jr., ed. 1995. Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism under Colonialism. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
McHugh, Ernestine. 1990. Review of David H. Holmberg, 1989, ‘Order in Paradox: Myth, Ritual, and Exchange among Nepal’s Tamang’. American Ethnologist 17 (3): 579–580. doi:10.1525/ae.1990.17.3.02a00310
———. 1991. Review. ‘Himalayan Dialogue: Tibetan Lamas and Gurung Shamans in Nepal’ by Stan Royal Mumford. American Anthropologist 93(2): 468–469. doi:10.1525/aa.1991.93.2.02a00310
Mills, Martin. 1999. Review of Melvyn Goldstein and Matthew Kapstein, 1998, Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural Identity. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 5(2): 311–312. doi:10.2307/2660732
———. 2003. Identity, Ritual and State in Tibetan Buddhism: The Foundation of Authority in Gelukpa Monasticism. London: Routledge Curzon.
Mumford, Stan Royal. 1989. Himalayan Dialogue; Tibetan Lamas and Gurung Shamans in Nepal. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Obeyesekere, Gananath. 1967. Land Tenure in Village Ceylon: A Sociological and Historical Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1984. The Cult of the Goddess Pattini. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Ortner, Sherry. 1989. High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Rudolph, Lloyd I. 1997. ‘Self as Other: Amar Singh’s Diary as Reflexive “Native” Ethnography’. Modern Asian Studies 31(1): 143–175. doi:10.1017/ S0026749X00016966
Sagaster, Klaus. 1994. Review of Stan Royal Mumford, 1989, ‘Himalayan Dialogue: Tibetan Lamas and Gurung Shamans in Nepal’. Asian Folklore Studies 53(1): 187–189. doi:10.2307/1178573
Said, Edward. 1995. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. 2nd ed. London: Penguin Books.
Samuel, Geoffrey. 2005. Tantric Revisionings: New Understandings of Tibetan Buddhism and Indian Religion. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Schartz, Ronald D. 1994. ‘Buddhism, Nationalist Protest, and the State in Tibet’. In Tibet Studies: Proceedings of the 6th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, edited by Per Kvaerne, 728–738. Oslo: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture.
Schopen, Gregory. 1997. Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks. Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Spickard, James V., Shawn Landres and Meredith B. McGuire, eds. 2002. Personal Knowledge and Beyond: Reshaping the Ethnography of Religion. Albany: New York University Press.
Spiro, Melford, E. 1970. Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and its Burmese Vicissitudes. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Strong, John S. 2004. Relics of the Buddha. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Swearer, Donald. 2004. Becoming the Buddha. The Ritual of Image Consecration in Thailand. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Tambiah, Stanley Jeyaraja. 1970. Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-East Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511558184
———. 1976. World Conqueror and World Renouncer: A Study of Buddhism and Polity in Thailand against a Historical Background. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1992. Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Trainor, Kevin. 1997. Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism. Rematerializing the Sri Lankan Therav?da Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wallis, Robert. 2003. Shamans/Neo-Shamans: Ecstasies, Alternative Archaeologies and Contemporary Pagans. London: Routledge.
Watson, C.W. ed. 1999. Being There: Fieldwork in Anthropology. London: Pluto.
Alvesson, Mats. and Kaj Skoldberg. 2000. Reflexive Methodology: New Vistas for Qualitative Research. London: Sage.
Atkinson, Paul, Amanda Coffey, Sara Delamont, John Lofland and Lyn Lofland, ed. 2001. Handbook of Ethnography. London: Sage Publications.
Bowie, Fiona. 2000. The Anthropology of Religion. Oxford: Blackwell.
Bromley, David G. and Lewis F. Carter, eds. 2001. Toward Reflexive Ethnography: Participating, Observing, Narrating. New York: JAI Press.
Burawoy, Michael. 2003. ‘Revisits: An Outline of a Theory of Reflexive Ethnography’. American Sociological Review 68(5): 645–679. doi:10.2307/1519757
Capper, Daniel. 2003. ‘Scientific empathy, American Buddhism, and the Ethnography of Religion’. Culture and Religion 4(2): 233–253. doi:10.1080/01438830032000135692
Childs, Geoff. 2004. Tibetan Diary; From Birth to Death and Beyond in a Himalayan Valley of Nepal. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.
Clifford, James. 1983. ‘On Ethnographic Authority’. Representations 2: 18–146.
Davies, Charlotte Aull. 2002. Reflexive Ethnography. A Guide to Researching Selves and Others. London: Routledge.
Eckel, Malcolm David. 1994. ‘The Ghost at the Table: On the Study of Buddhism and the Study of Religion’. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 62(4): 1085–1110. doi:10.1093/jaarel/LXII.4.1085
Flood, Gavin. 1999. Beyond Phenomenology. Rethinking the Study of Religion. London: Cassell.
Fricke, Thomas. 1991. Review of Holmberg, David. 1989. ‘Order in Paradox: Myth, Ritual, and Exchange Among Nepal’s Tamang’. The Journal of Asian Studies 50(4): 972–974. doi:10.2307/2058608
Geertz, Clifford. 1975. The Interpretation of Cultures. London: Hutchinson of London.
———. 1988. Works and Live: The Anthropologist as Author. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Gellner, David. 1990. Review of David Holmberg, 1989, ‘Order in Paradox: Myth, Ritual, and Exchange Among Nepal’s Tamang’. Man, New Series 25(3): 553–554.
———. 2003. The Anthropology of Buddhism and Hinduism: Weberian Themes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Germano, David and Trainor, Kevin, eds. 2004. Embodying the Dharma: Buddhist Relic Veneration in Asia. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Grimshaw, Anna. 1992. Servants of the Buddha. London: Open Letters.
Goldstein, Melvyn and Kapstein, Matthew, eds. 1998. Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural Identity. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gombrich, Richard. 1971. Precept and Practice: Traditional Buddhism in the Rural Highlands of Ceylon. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gombrich, Richard and Obeyesekere, Gananath. 1999. Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Press.
Hammersley, Martyn. 1993. What’s Wrong with Ethnography? London: Routledge.
Harvey, Graham. 2003. ‘Guesthood as Ethical Decolonising Research Method’. Numen 50: 125–146. doi:10.1163/156852703321506132
Holmberg, David. 1989. Order in Paradox; Myth, Ritual, and Exchange Among Nepal’s Tamang. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Lather, Patti and Chris Smithies. 1997. Troubling the Angels: Women Living with HIV/AIDS. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Liberman, Kenneth. 2007. Dialectical Practice in Tibetan Philosophical Culture: An Ethnomethodological Inquiry into Formal Reasoning. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
Lopez, Donald Jr., ed. 1995. Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism under Colonialism. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
McHugh, Ernestine. 1990. Review of David H. Holmberg, 1989, ‘Order in Paradox: Myth, Ritual, and Exchange among Nepal’s Tamang’. American Ethnologist 17 (3): 579–580. doi:10.1525/ae.1990.17.3.02a00310
———. 1991. Review. ‘Himalayan Dialogue: Tibetan Lamas and Gurung Shamans in Nepal’ by Stan Royal Mumford. American Anthropologist 93(2): 468–469. doi:10.1525/aa.1991.93.2.02a00310
Mills, Martin. 1999. Review of Melvyn Goldstein and Matthew Kapstein, 1998, Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural Identity. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 5(2): 311–312. doi:10.2307/2660732
———. 2003. Identity, Ritual and State in Tibetan Buddhism: The Foundation of Authority in Gelukpa Monasticism. London: Routledge Curzon.
Mumford, Stan Royal. 1989. Himalayan Dialogue; Tibetan Lamas and Gurung Shamans in Nepal. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Obeyesekere, Gananath. 1967. Land Tenure in Village Ceylon: A Sociological and Historical Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1984. The Cult of the Goddess Pattini. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Ortner, Sherry. 1989. High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Rudolph, Lloyd I. 1997. ‘Self as Other: Amar Singh’s Diary as Reflexive “Native” Ethnography’. Modern Asian Studies 31(1): 143–175. doi:10.1017/ S0026749X00016966
Sagaster, Klaus. 1994. Review of Stan Royal Mumford, 1989, ‘Himalayan Dialogue: Tibetan Lamas and Gurung Shamans in Nepal’. Asian Folklore Studies 53(1): 187–189. doi:10.2307/1178573
Said, Edward. 1995. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. 2nd ed. London: Penguin Books.
Samuel, Geoffrey. 2005. Tantric Revisionings: New Understandings of Tibetan Buddhism and Indian Religion. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Schartz, Ronald D. 1994. ‘Buddhism, Nationalist Protest, and the State in Tibet’. In Tibet Studies: Proceedings of the 6th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, edited by Per Kvaerne, 728–738. Oslo: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture.
Schopen, Gregory. 1997. Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks. Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Spickard, James V., Shawn Landres and Meredith B. McGuire, eds. 2002. Personal Knowledge and Beyond: Reshaping the Ethnography of Religion. Albany: New York University Press.
Spiro, Melford, E. 1970. Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and its Burmese Vicissitudes. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Strong, John S. 2004. Relics of the Buddha. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Swearer, Donald. 2004. Becoming the Buddha. The Ritual of Image Consecration in Thailand. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Tambiah, Stanley Jeyaraja. 1970. Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-East Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511558184
———. 1976. World Conqueror and World Renouncer: A Study of Buddhism and Polity in Thailand against a Historical Background. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1992. Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Trainor, Kevin. 1997. Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism. Rematerializing the Sri Lankan Therav?da Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wallis, Robert. 2003. Shamans/Neo-Shamans: Ecstasies, Alternative Archaeologies and Contemporary Pagans. London: Routledge.
Watson, C.W. ed. 1999. Being There: Fieldwork in Anthropology. London: Pluto.
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2011-01-25
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Owen, M. (2011). Tibetan Buddhist Ethnography: Deficiencies, Developments, and Future Directions. Buddhist Studies Review, 27(2), 221-238. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.v27i2.221
