Events

This workshop is organised by the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore; with funding support from the Foo Hai Ch’an Monastery Fellowship in Buddhist Studies.

CHAIRPERSON

Assoc Prof Jack Meng-Tat Chia, Department of History, National University of Singapore

PROGRAMME

 
ABSTRACT

Following Indian Buddhist vinaya prescription on meals and livelihood in the monastery, Southeast Asian Theravada lineage has an unbroken tradition of alms begging. However, in China, Buddhism encountered cultural criticisms that included the charge that alms collection is akin to begging and is thus parasitic to the state economy. Consequently, medieval Chinese monastic communities restructured their daily regiments, introduced dietary changes and meal preparation, which ultimately reoriented the food culture and ethics in Chinese monasteries. Kitchens and stoves were quickly installed in medieval Chinese monasteries as architectural alignments to such changes. In the contemporary global era, Chinese Buddhist diasporic communities would derive inspiration from Theravada observances in Southeast Asia to (re)adopt alms begging in response to broader social and economic changes.

One such community is the Buddhist nuns of South Forest (Nanlin) in Central Taiwan, who reinterpreted the vinaya to reinstate alms rounds in the daily routine of their monastery. This paper contextualizes the history and ritual contexts of this communal implementation of daily alms begging. Through ritual routinizing of alms meals, Nanlin enacts a paradigm of gift exchange that mirrors what they believe to be the daily ethical and economic actions of the Buddha and his monks in ancient India. Close ritual analysis of the daily enactment of alms begging and their performative implications reveals that the paradigmatic shifts introduced by South Forest nuns have profound impact in (re)structuring the monastic economy and in reiterating the ideal symbiotic relationship between monastics and laity.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Zhiru Shi is Buddhist Nun Scholar and Professor of Buddhism and Chinese Religions at Pomona College, an elite liberal arts college in Southern California. Her early career was devoted to the study of medieval Chinese Buddhist devotional history through art, narratives, and texts, which culminated in her book The Making of a Savior Bodhisattva: Dizang in Medieval China (Kuroda Studies in East Asian Buddhism 21). She has also published on material and visual cultures, Chinese religio-intellectual diversity, and Taiwanese Buddhist devotion and ecology. Her most recent publication is titled “Lighting Lamps to Prolong Life: The Bhaisajyaguru Cult and Ritual Healing in Fifth- and Sixth-Century China.” Currently, she is wrapping up a sutra translation for Numata Tripitaka Project and completing a paper on food rituals in Central Taiwan. She also has interest in Buddhist art, death and dying, non-canonical expressions, Yogācāra, as well as women and science/medicine.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed. However, we welcome walk-ins to join us if there are available seats.