Monks, Money, and Morality: The Balancing Act of Contemporary Buddhism

Description

Vibrantly engaging contemporary Buddhist lives, this book focuses on the material and financial relations of contemporary monks, temples, and laypeople. It shows that rather than being peripheral, economic exchanges are key to religious debate in Buddhist societies. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in countries ranging from India to Japan, including all three major Buddhist traditions, the book addresses the flows of goods and services between clergy and laity, the management of resources, the treatment of money, and the role of the state in temple economies. Along with documenting ritual and economic practices, these accounts deal with the moral challenges that Buddhist adherents are facing today, thereby bringing lived experience to the study of an often-romanticized religion. Cover Contents List of Illustrations Introduction: Sangha Economies Saskia Abrahms-Kavunenko, Christoph Brumann, and Beata Świtek PART ONE Reciprocity, Money, and Trust 1 Economic Agency and the Spirit of Donation: The Commercialization of Buddhist Services in Japan Beata Świtek 2 Merit, “Corruption,” and Economy in the Contemporary Thai Sangha Thomas Borchert 3 Ritual Virtuosity, Large-Scale Priest-Patron Networks, and the Ethics of Remunerated Ritual Services in Northeast Tibet Nicolas Sihlé 4 “Bad” Monks and Unworthy Donors: Money, (Mis)trust, and the Disruption of Sangha-Laity Relations in Shangri-La Hannah Rosa Klepeis PART TWO Beyond Reciprocity 5 Donations Inversed: Material Flows From Sangha to Laity in Post-Soviet Buryatia Kristina Jonutytė 6 Exorcising Mauss’s Ghost in the Western Himalayas: Buddhist Giving as Collective Work Martin Mills PART THREE Managing Temples and Monasteries 7 Monks and the Morality of Exchange: Reflections on a Village Temple Case in Southwest China Roger Casas 8 Wealthy Mendicants: The Balancing Act of Sri Lankan Forest Monks Prabhath Sirisena 9 Monastic Business Expansion in Post-Mao Tibet: Risk, Trust, and Perception Jane Caple PART FOUR Capitalism, Decline, and Rebirth 10 Regeneration and the Age of Decline: Purification and Rebirth in Mongolian Buddhist Economies Saskia Abrahms-Kavunenko 11 Saintly Entrepreneurialism and Political Aspirations of Theravadin Saints in Mainland Southeast Asia Alexander Horstmann Notes Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index