Historical Anthropololgy Study On Bajie Temple

The research of Chinese folk beliefs is often as a important perspective about the relations of nation, society and citizens both at home and abroad. It occupies an important place in sociology, ethnology (anthropology), folklore and history and so on. At the same time, the study of folk beliefs has made a series of achievements and a lot of theoretical paradigms. Since China’s reform and opening up, folk traditions and religious are restore in the nation-wide range. The phenomenon as "revival of tradition" and "the reconstruction of tradition" are becoming growing emphasis. This dissertation discusses the temple in Han village is carried out in such a theoretical and practical background.The object of this study is Bajie Temple in Baoshan, Yunnan province. The study includes some combs and analyzes about the Bajie Temple’s journey, beliefs and rituals, managements, significance; illustrates some aspects of community history about ecological environment, Han immigrants, ethnic relations, relation among villages; analyzes some aspects of beliefs and features, myths and legends, historical memory, etc. The three parts are, of course, very intimately connected, they influence and mutual support each other. The three parts are, of course, very intimately connected, they influence and mutual support each other. Bajie Temple is a representation of the local culture.Base on previous research achievements, the author takes the view of historical anthropology and investigates by the diachronically and synchronically. We are focusing the problem consciousness of "the past how cause now" and "now how to imagine the past". This dissertation with the aid of historical memory, community history, ethnic identity, cultural reconstruction, the capitalization of ethnic cultures, social capital, duality construction and other theories; takes anthropological methods such as participant observation, oral history, historical documents and holism. Meanwhile, the paper puts forward the "Xiyou culture" concept and gives cross-cultural comparison research. Through the above-mentioned efforts, the study has an overall interpretation of Bajie Temple’s beliefs and cultures, and theory dialogue. I have gained three main points by this research:the Bajie Temple is a reappearance of the compound culture in territory which has profound history and multiculture; multi-layers interactions between folk beliefs, community history, ethnic memory and identity are the historical background of temple; the folk beliefs also have a process as "the reconstruction of tradition" with believers, village authority, cultural elites and governments. In fact, in the process of reconstruction, not only have "conspire", but also have "intransigence". Every person, village and folk belief is creating history of their own. The characters of culture are so lively and diversity.