On Life As Performances In The Temple

The religious revival in China begins at the policy of opening and reforming in the 1980s. With the help of related policies, the religions are developing promptly than any time in the history since the new government was established. Buddhism, in particular, shows its fast growing trend in the increasing number of temples. As a result, the author will investigate a Buddhist temple in the urban-rural fringe zone of Hangzhou to answer the question via anthropological approach, that is, to some extent, why Buddhism, not other religions, becomes so popular in the religious revival background.By adopting the concept of ritualization, the author examined the daily life of volunteers, the ritual activities and the financial situation of the temple, as well as the relationships between the authorities and the temple. Finally it turned out that the activities in the temple were a compound of performance to satisfy three parties, the authorities, the temple itself and lay people. This performance enabled the authorities to keep an eye on religious activities, the monks to make a living and the lay people to meet their needs. Besides, this thesis is trying to sketch the outline of Chinese modernity via the dynamic interactions among the authorities, religious institutions and individuals. In this case, the development of new religious movements, a power of social agency, was also apparently seen as a form of individualization in China. However, this kind of individualization is different from that in Yan Yunxiang’s case, which was on city migrants from rural places in China while most subjects in this thesis were youngsters from cities. It represented that the dual systems of city and countryside played a profound role in shaping Chinese modernity. At the same time, the subordination of new religious movements indicates the vacancy of related private institutions, which encouraging the individualization of individuals, in modern China context.Five parts are included in this thesis. The first introduction chapter raises the reasons of research, related literature, the frame of research, and research methods. The second chapter is about the history of Buddhism in China, not just with the economic history but also the politico-religious relationships since the Buddhism came from India in Han Dynasty. The third chapter mainly focuses on the daily life of lay people in the temple, especially to demonstrate how their belief connected with the life in the temple. Analysis then was made in the fourth chapter to link the ethnography and research frame, from the perspective of performance. At last, the fifth chapter concludes the activities in the temple are a series of performances:the temple space as a stage, the governmental regulations as the script syllabus, the monks as directors, and lay people as actors. During this process, three parties, the authorities, the temple itself and lay people, are all satisfied with this kind of implied pattern, and that can be seen as a cause to the prosperity of Buddhism in China nowadays.