TY - JOUR
T1 - Constructing a Buddhist Infrastructure
T2 - Nationalist Politics and the Transformation of Buddhism in Contemporary Vietnam
AU - Nguyen, Dat Manh
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Dat Manh Nguyen.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Since the late 2000s, anti-China sentiments have increased across Vietnam, with large public protests against China’s encroachment in the ‘South China Sea’ or the ‘East Sea’. Such sentiments have raised important questions about Vietnamese sovereignty and cultural identity. Among Buddhists, the ‘China’ question has motivated endeavours to construct a ‘Vietnamese’ Buddhism that maintains a critical distance from ‘Chinese’ religious influences. Based on extensive fieldwork in Vietnam, this paper examines Vietnamese Buddhism as a form of soft power, particularly its ability to shape public understanding of Vietnamese identity and geopolitics. In analysing a few initiatives linked to a prominent Buddhist temple in Ho Chi Minh City, including a Buddhist public health campaign to promote organ donations and the organisation of the United Nations Day of Vesak, I explicate the intense efforts by Buddhists to create a religious infrastructure aimed at broadening the scope of Buddhist influence on Vietnam’s public life and international diplomatic relationships. I argue that this emerging Buddhist infrastructure signals transformations within Vietnamese Buddhism as it becomes increasingly entangled with local and transnational socio-political concerns.
AB - Since the late 2000s, anti-China sentiments have increased across Vietnam, with large public protests against China’s encroachment in the ‘South China Sea’ or the ‘East Sea’. Such sentiments have raised important questions about Vietnamese sovereignty and cultural identity. Among Buddhists, the ‘China’ question has motivated endeavours to construct a ‘Vietnamese’ Buddhism that maintains a critical distance from ‘Chinese’ religious influences. Based on extensive fieldwork in Vietnam, this paper examines Vietnamese Buddhism as a form of soft power, particularly its ability to shape public understanding of Vietnamese identity and geopolitics. In analysing a few initiatives linked to a prominent Buddhist temple in Ho Chi Minh City, including a Buddhist public health campaign to promote organ donations and the organisation of the United Nations Day of Vesak, I explicate the intense efforts by Buddhists to create a religious infrastructure aimed at broadening the scope of Buddhist influence on Vietnam’s public life and international diplomatic relationships. I argue that this emerging Buddhist infrastructure signals transformations within Vietnamese Buddhism as it becomes increasingly entangled with local and transnational socio-political concerns.
KW - Engaged Buddhism
KW - geopolitics
KW - nationalism
KW - public health
KW - Vietnam
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85213558185&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.22439/cjas.v42i1.7331
DO - 10.22439/cjas.v42i1.7331
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85213558185
SN - 1395-4199
VL - 42
SP - 11
EP - 34
JO - Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies
JF - Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies
IS - 1
ER -