Politics of Tranquility: Religious Mobilities and Material Engagements of Tibetan Buddhist Nuns in Post-Mao China by Yasmin Cho Department of Cultural Anthropology Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Ralph Litzinger, Supervisor ___________________________ Anne Allison ___________________________ Louise Meintjes ___________________________ Hwansoo Kim ___________________________ Karma Lekshe Tsomo Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Cultural Anthropology in the Graduate School of Duke University 2015 i v ABSTRACT Politics of Tranquility: Religious Mobilities and Material Engagements of Tibetan Buddhist Nuns in Post-Mao China by Yasmin Cho Department of Cultural Anthropology Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Ralph Litzinger, Supervisor ___________________________ Anne Allison ___________________________ Louise Meintjes ___________________________ Hwansoo Kim ___________________________ Karma Lekshe Tsomo An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Cultural Anthropology in the Graduate School of Duke University 2015 i v Copyright by Yasmin Cho 2015 Abstract This dissertation ethnographically examines the lives of Tibetan Buddhist nuns in Yachen, a mega-sized Tibetan Buddhist encampment in eastern Tibet that emerged in the 1980s and is now a leading center of Tibetan Buddhist revivalism in post-Mao China. Over 10,000 nuns make up the vast majority of the permanent residents in this community (approximately 2,000 monks live there as well), but few scholarly discussions have taken place regarding the lives and practices of the nuns in Yachen or in Tibetan Buddhist revivals in China in general. This dissertation, therefore, calls attention first to the lack of proper research on these nuns by providing ethnographic accounts of their everyday lives in “China’s Tibet.” By placing the nuns and their lives at the center of discussion, I was able to realize the significance of examining the material, sensory, and mobile events and occasions through which alternative political logics and possibilities appear in the practice of Buddhism and in Sino-Tibetan politics. This alternative politics—which I call the politics of tranquility—presents itself through the mobilities and material engagements of the nuns in Yachen, and offers a stark contrast to the existing dichotomous understanding of Sino-Tibet relationships. Therefore, second, I argue that mobilities, as well as material and sensory engagements, are essential to the practice of Buddhism and the lives of the nuns in Yachen, without whom the current Buddhist revivalism, in Yachen at least, would not be possible. Following my Introduction (Chapter 1), I begin my chapters by presenting the distinctive mobilities of the nuns. Most of the nuns whom I have known in Yachen are iv escapees, running away from their homes to become nuns in this remote region; their mobilities, against all odds—both physical and social—are what initially make Yachen possible (Chapter 2). Upon arrival, in the face of the harsh spatial regulations imposed by the Chinese state, they engage in building residential huts for themselves; these building activities are primarily responsible for Yachen’s accelerated expansion and thus for its potential political tension (Chapter 3). In Chapters 2 and 3, I also argue that the nuns’ mobilities and building practices, which have rarely been taken seriously within the Buddhist revival in China, in fact constitute the fundamental process of making Yachen, i.e., of making the sacred. In addition, by living with the nuns, I was able to observe their intimacies and secrets through the lens of their transgression and confession. I consider the act of transgression as one of the most political ways to give an account of the self as Buddhist practitioner, as nun, and as woman (Chapter 4). I argue that the nuns actively, provocatively, and riskily (re)shape Yachen’s norms and morality through their acts of transgression and confession. Finally, by drawing on food consumption and eating habits among the nuns in Yachen, I tackle the highly intertwined issues of ethnicity, money, religion, and ethics in Buddhist revivalism as well as in Sino-Tibetan relations (Chapter 5). v To the nuns of Yachen vi Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv List of Figures .................................................................................................................... xi Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………....xii A Note on Terminology………………………………………………………………….xv 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The Field ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1.1 A Small Nun on My Lap .................................................................................... 3 1.1.2 Mobility, Materiality, and Methodology ............................................................ 7 1.1.2.1 The Roads ................................................................................................... 7 1.1.2.2 Materiality, Rawness, and the Sacred ...................................................... .10 1.1.3 The Anthropology of Religion ........................................................................ 12 1.2 Locating Yachen within Tibetan Buddhist Revivalism in Post-Mao China…….15 1.2.1 Geopolitics and Forms of Knowledge about Tibet…….................................15 1.2.1.1 Mapping the Production of Knowledge about Tibet.................................15 1.2.1.2 Yachen—At the Margins and As the Margin .......................................... 20 1.2.2 Yachen in the Buddhist Transformation……………………………………..24 1.2.2.1 Architecture………………...…………………………………………. 25 2.2.1.1.1 A Brief Note on Individualsism in Yachen ……………….......….28 1.2.2.2 Relationships………………………………………………...…………32 1.3 Brief Summary of Chapters……………………………………………………..34 vii 2. Becoming a Buddhist Nun in Post-Mao China ............................................................. 36 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 36 2.1.1 Deshi ................................................................................................................ 38 2.2 A Risky Trip Home to the TAR ............................................................................ 47 2.2.1 An Arduous Journey to Home ......................................................................... 51 2.2.1.1 The Permit ................................................................................................. 54 2.2.1.2 Crossing Borders ....................................................................................... 58 2.2.1.3 Living the Flesh of Time........................................................................... 64 2.3 Half-nun Puthi ....................................................................................................... 67 2.3.1 Contextualizing Lay Female Renunciation in Tibet ........................................ 72 2.3.2 Blurring the Boundaries between Names and Robes ....................................... 76 2.3.3 Crossed Destinies—Puthi and Lochik ............................................................. 79 2.3.4 Spatio-Temporal Subjects ................................................................................ 82 2.4 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 86 3. A Problem of Architectural Thinking ........................................................................... 88 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 88 3.1.1 The Architectural Framework .......................................................................... 92 3.2 Materiality of Hut-Building .................................................................................. 96 3.2.1 Hut-Building .................................................................................................... 96 3.2.2 Thinging in Tibetan Matters .......................................................................... 104 3.3 Padmasambhava, Maleness, and Nuns ............................................................... 107 3.3.1 Buddhist Revival in Kham Tibet ................................................................... 107 3.3.2 Visionary Buddhism and Nuns ...................................................................... 113 viii 3.3.3 Yachen’s Monks, Nuns, and Female Lamas .................................................. 117 3.4 Unruly Space—Rethinking Tibetan Grasslands ................................................. 124 3.5 Improvisation and Encampment ......................................................................... 130 3.5.1 Politics of Naming—Is Yachen a Monastery? ............................................... 131 3.5.2 Tent-Building ................................................................................................. 134 3.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................