Public Lecture: Brenton Sullivan on Tibetan Buddhist Monasticism

“Between Heaven and Hell: The Daily Life of Tibetan Buddhist Monks and the Social Fabric of Tibet”

Talk by Brenton Sullivan, Sunday, February 22, 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m., in Room 120 of the C. K. Choi Building.

​The image of monasteries in Tibet has suffered from the same sort of distortion affecting Tibetan history and society more generally. As the renowned, critical historian of Tibet writes, “Tibet’s complexities and competing histories have been flattened into a stereotype. Stereotypes operate through adjectives … With sufficient repetition, these adjectives becomes innate qualities … And once these qualities harden into an essence, that essence may split into two opposing elements. Thus Lamaism may be portrayed in the West as the most authentic and the most degenerate form of Buddhism, Tibetan monks may be portrayed as saintly and rapacious …” In this talk I will address one of the more prevalent stereotypes of monks in Tibet, one that contributes to the image of monks and monasteries as “rapacious,” namely, their “mindless” and “pointless” memorization of prayers and rituals. By moving beyond the accounts of Western missionaries and Communist ethnographers to historical sources, particularly “customaries” or “guidelines” of monasteries, one uncovers a complex system of liturgical practice, scholastic exegesis and debate, and administrative procedures that give life and cohesion to some of the world’s largest religious communities and to Tibetan society as a whole.

Brenton Sullivan completed his Ph.D. in 2013 (University of Virginia) and is currently a post-doctoral research and teaching fellow in UBC’s Department of Asian Studies and the Cultural Evolution of Religion Research Consortium. He has published articles on the Chinese Republican Period monk Fazun (1902-1980) and his directorship of the Sino-Tibetan Buddhist Institute (1932-1950) and more recently on the history of monasticism and the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism. He has taught ASIA 371 (“Foundations of Chinese Thought”) and ASIA 590 (“Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion”) for the Department of Asian Studies, and this summer he will also be teaching ASIA 381 (“Daoist Religion and Its Philosophical Background”).