Buddhism in Post-Soviet Russia: the Geographic Contexts of ‘Revival’ Written by Edward Christian Holland Has Been Approved for the Department of Geography
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BUDDHISM IN POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: THE GEOGRAPHIC CONTEXTS OF ‘REVIVAL’ by EDWARD CHRISTIAN HOLLAND B.A., Princeton University, 2002 M.A., University of Colorado, 2007 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography 2012 This thesis entitled: Buddhism in Post-Soviet Russia: The Geographic Contexts of ‘Revival’ written by Edward Christian Holland has been approved for the Department of Geography ______________________________ John O’Loughlin ______________________________ Jani Little Date____________ The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. IRB protocol # 0709.10 Abstract Holland, Edward Christian (Ph.D., Geography) Buddhism in Post-Soviet Russia: The Geographic Contexts of ‘Revival’ Thesis directed by Professor John O’Loughlin This dissertation is about religious practice and belief among Buddhists in the Russian Federation. Using the case studies of Kalmykia and Buryatia, two of Russia’s 21 ethnic republics, I explore contemporary opinion about the relevance of Buddhism through a multiple methods approach. In Kalmykia, I use elite interviews, focus groups, and a small-scale (N=300) survey as the primary methodologies. While religious elites generally view the region’s religious revival as broad but not deep, there is a genuine sentiment that religion is an important component of post-Soviet national identity as expressed by interlocutors in focus groups and in survey responses. These competing discourses around revival complicate a straightforward reading of the role of Buddhism in the republic. To frame this discussion, I also compare responses on the question of attendance at religious services to a 2005 sample conducted in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan; I find that ethnic pride is an important predictor of frequent attendance at religious services among ethnic Kalmyks, while gender is the key independent variable in explaining higher levels of attendance in the Muslim republic. In Buryatia, I rely primarily on a cross-national survey (N=143) to compare religious practice and belief among the titular Buryats and ethnic Russians (as well as members of other groups) who live in the republic. The key finding in this chapter is that Buddhism has consolidated its position as a key element of national identity—as measured through self- reported religiosity and attendance—among Buryats in the past two decades; this is specifically true in comparison to ethnic Russians. iii Theoretically, the contribution of the dissertation is to explore new paths of research in the discipline of geography along two lines: a quantitative geography of religion that does more than map spatial patterns in religious practice but rather is attendant to the variation in that practice within countries and considers this diversity at the sub-national scale through survey work; and a formalized methodological approach to the geographical idea of context, one which draws on and advocates for the use of multiple methods, specifically surveys, interviews, and focus groups. iv Acknowledgements Any dissertation is a collaborative effort—this is particularly true for my project. In Russia, I owe a sincere debt of gratitude to Zhargal Ayakova, Valery Badmaev, Eldar Eldarov, and Vladimir Kolossov. This project would not have been completed without their support and interest. I also appreciate the time that local scholars in Buryatia, Kalmykia, and Tuva took to meet with me, to discuss my project, and help point me in the right direction during the fieldwork stage. Thanks go to Darima Amogolonova, Vladimir Antonov, Mergen Dzhevakov, Mergen Ulanov, and scholars at the Tuvan Institute of Humanitarian Research, among many others. I am grateful for financial support for this research from a variety of organizations, including the National Science Foudnation, the Association of American Geographers, and the University of Colorado at Boulder. John O’Loughlin has been an outstanding advisor and mentor. I appreciate the support that he gave this project from the beginning through the final revisions. I am also grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with him on projects in the North Caucaus of Russia, a productive distraction from dissertation writing. Thanks also to my other committee members—Jani Little, Lynn Staeheli, Christoph Stefes, and Gerard Toal—whose thoughtful readings of this dissertation improved the final version. The Geography Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder has been an outstanding professional and intellectual home for the past seven years. Thanks to Marcia Signer, Darla Shatto, and Karen Weingarten for all that they do to help the Department run. The Department’s community of graduate students has provided a supportive environment in which to work. Thanks especially to Travis Klingberg, Adam Levy, Andrew Linke, and Frank Witmer for productive conversations and necessary distractions during hikes and orienteering meets and v over beers and Mexican food from a variety of establishments. I’ve enjoyed sharing the doctoral experience with many others, especially those who have had Johno as an advisor: Marco Antonsich, Meredith DeBoom, Natalie Koch, Clionadh Raleigh, and Meagan Todd. And long ago, when I was wet behind the ears, Jamie Gillen, Chris McMorran, Dan Trudeau, and Luke Ward all provide great advice and helpful guidance in navigating the Department and the discipline of geography. Lastly, I have to thank my family for their support during this process; it is exciting to be the first in my family to earn a PhD! I truly could not have completed this journey without the constant support and love of my wife, Mackenzie. She took a leap of faith to move to Boulder seven years ago when she had exciting opportunities to pursue elsewhere. She has made the most of our time here, and I am so thankful that she traveled this path with me. Though this journey has taken longer than we both anticipated, I’m excited to move on to see what the next chapter in our life brings. vi Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... v List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. x List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... xi Chapter One: Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 Research Questions ..................................................................................................................... 2 Introducing Two Theoretical-Empirical Foundations: Religion in Russia and Context as Methodological Concept ............................................................................................................. 3 Religion in Russia .................................................................................................................... 3 Geographic Context ............................................................................................................... 10 Russia’s Buddhist Republics: Introducing Kalmykia and Buryatia .......................................... 12 Outline of the Dissertation ........................................................................................................ 17 Chapter Two: Secularization and its Discontents, or a Geographic Approach to Evaluating Religious Practice and Belief ...................................................................................................... 22 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 22 Secularization and its Discontents............................................................................................. 24 Geographic Work on Religion: An Incomplete Oeuvre............................................................ 35 Evaluating Trends in Secularization Quantitatively.................................................................. 44 Beyond Quantification: A More Complete Picture of the Geography of Religion ................... 49 Consolidating the Position of Geography in the Social Scientific Study of Religion............... 53 Conclusion: Religious Practice and Belief in the Post-Secular Age ......................................... 56 Chapter Three: Opening the ‘Black Box’ of Context: Redefining a Term, and its Methodological Consequences ................................................................................................... 59 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 59 Context as Concept.................................................................................................................... 60 Context and its Uses in Contemporary Human Geography ...................................................... 65 Using Context for Knowledge Generation ...............................................................................