Sunday, October 17, 2010, 9:30am – 11:00am
“The Play of Meaning: Reflections on a Canadian Buddhist Death Ritual.”
Angela Sumegi (Carleton University). In this paper, I explore the challenges and advantages of constructing a Buddhist death ritual peculiar to local conditions. The local conditions in this case constitute a small Ottawa Buddhist sangha and their non-Buddhist friends and family. To qualify the ritual as “Buddhist” is to call upon a tradition that spans some 2500 years and encompasses numerous cultural expressions, most of which are mere curiosities for the majority of Canadians. How, then, to invoke the meanings embedded in the tradition and join them to the meanings that individuals of this place and time bring to the mystery of death? In order to study the dynamics involved in such an endeavour, I will take a performance theory approach, which, although fraught still with scholarly debate, offers the best avenue for understanding the meeting between a global tradition and a specific cultural instance that results in meaning felt, acknowledged, and enacted. To appreciate, in Catherine Bell’s words, “. . . the ways in which people manipulate traditions and conventions to construct an empowering understanding of their present situation” (Bell, in Critical Terms in Religious Studies, 1998, 217).
“Making a Traditional Tibetan Buddhist Monastery on the Highway to Heaven.”
Jackie Larm (University of Edinburgh). In Tibetan Buddhist centres that I have visited over the past three years in the UK and Canada, practitioners (or potential practitioners) often raise concerns over the authenticity of Tibetan Buddhist teachings, teachers, and centres outside of Asia. For them, the degree of authenticity correlates with the place’s ‘traditional form’ or lack thereof; some argue their centre is legitimate because it follows traditional methods, while others claim only a ‘de-Tibetanized’ form of Tibetan Buddhism is acceptable. Not surprisingly, these concerns affect how Tibetan Buddhist centres are being portrayed to the public. The Very Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, a high-ranking Kagyu tulku, will be opening his Canadian monastery, located on Richmond BC’s ‘Highway to Heaven’, at the end of July 2010. According to the website, this will be ‘the first traditional Tibetan monastery in Canada’. This paper will examine how the center at its onset seeks to establish an image of the traditional, attempting to insert itself within both a global Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism as well as within the local Canadian religious setting. How does the centre reinforce a message of traditionality while responding to the needs of its present-day community in Western Canada? Here, building architecture, types of programs offered, and use of rituals during the Opening Ceremonies will be considered. Moreover, the paper will investigate participants’ perceptions of what constitutes a traditional Tibetan Buddhist centre in Canada. What for them is indicative of ‘the traditional’ and is this important for their practice and participation in the monastery’s events? How does this connect with their vision of receiving ‘authentic’ teachings and/or experiences? What are their responses to the centre’s attempt to convey an image of being traditional? This paper will be based on qualitative data collected through participant-observation and semi-structured interviews conducted during the summer 2010.
“Tibetan Buddhist Monastic Performance: Ritual Practice and Cultural Preservation in the Tibetan Diaspora.”
Sarah Haynes (Western Illinois University). This paper addresses the process of ritual adaptation within Tibetan Buddhism as its cultural and religious traditions have encountered modernity. The foundation of this paper is the traveling road shows of Tibetan Buddhist monks who perform religious ritual and cultural traditions for North American audiences (with specific reference to video footage recorded in Calgary in 2005). Responding to the Tibetan diaspora, influential Tibetan Buddhists, including the Dalai Lama, have expressed the need to adapt the tradition to foreign audiences. The adaptation of Tibetan Buddhist ritual practice is motivated by the need to preserve cultural and religious traditions and is no better evidenced than in the traveling monastic road shows. Westerners have long had an undeniable attraction to Tibetan Buddhism. Exiled Tibetan Buddhists are faced with the need to adapt their religious rituals and performances in ways that both preserve their culture and are inclusive of interested Westerners. The monastic performers are bringing adaptations of their “local forms into immigrant communities” but more importantly are focusing on presenting their rituals to Western audiences. This ritual adaptation is clearly a product of the Tibetan diaspora, what is less clear is whether the adaptation benefits the practitioners’ religious well-being. This paper argues that the process of ritual adaptation that continues to occur in Tibetan Buddhism exists as a multifaceted and complex systematic response to the need to preserve cultural and religious tradition and one that is less about the religious goals of Tibetan Buddhist practitioners.
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