Buddhist Nationalism in Motion: Temple Restoration and Pan-Asian Diplomacy in the 1930s

• In Event: Buddhism in Motion: Cross-Fertilizations Across National Borders in Modern Asia

Abstract

Buddhism has long had a close association with the state in Asian history, but in the modern era the nature of this relationship changed drastically. Reform-minded Buddhist leaders across Asia began to envision a new role for Buddhism as emblematic of a national culture, yet Buddhism could also stand for something larger, as many Asian countries shared historic ties through the movement of Buddhist people and ideas across regions. During the emergence of nascent Asian nationalism in the late-colonial period, Buddhism had the potential to link Asian states together and in opposition to European powers.

My presentation examines how leaders in China built ties with other Asian countries through sponsoring Buddhist temple restoration projects both within China and abroad, projects that involved the flow of capital, expertise, political influence, and religious patronage across borders. Yet such efforts were complicated by the fact that Asian countries with a shared Buddhist past were often adversaries in the battle for power, as was the case with China and Japan from the diplomatic sparring of the 1910s through to the outbreak of full-scale war in 1937. The efforts to create new international relationships through means of Buddhist temple restoration gave rise to unintended consequences that speak to the productive contradictions inherent in Buddhism in modern Asia, bringing into question the precise boundaries of “Buddhism” and pitting Buddhist states against each other in the struggle for public support.

Author

• Gregory Adam Scott, University of Edinburgh