Project news: Chair for Buddhist Studies in the Modern and Contemporary Chinese World

The Tzu Chi Buddhist Foundation is an international humanitarian NGO in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Founded by Dharma master Cheng Yen, it works in the fields of charity, medicine, education and culture. Its headquarters are in Hualien, in eastern Taiwan. The Foundation is funded by public donations. Today, more than 55 years after its creation, the Tzu Chi Foundation has tens of thousands of certified volunteers in over 66 countries and regions.

The Tzu-Chi Foundation is currently in partnership with six international universities: Harvard University, Peking University, Princeton University, the University of British Columbia, Cambridge University and Oxford University.

Since 2021, initially launched thanks to the support of the Sheng Yen Education Foundation, the chair has been conducting research around four main themes:

• The globalization of Chinese Buddhism
• Buddhism and the religious policies of the Communist Party
• The interaction between Chinese Buddhism and other Buddhist translations
• The construction and network model of Chinese Buddhism

This research work has led to academic collaborations and the organization of conferences and study days, notably as part of the CEIB Spring.

The creation of the chair has also made it possible to perpetuate and strengthen the CEIB and to establish a 36-month doctoral scholarship for a doctoral student enrolled at Inalco and associated with the chair. The winner is Stefan Kukowka, whose research focuses on the origin, evolution, organizational structure and social impacts of one of China's largest transnational Buddhist groups, the Amitābha Buddhist Society Jingzong xuehui.