Publication of the book "Buddhist nuns in post-Maoist China: Discipline, education, philanthropy at Mount Wutai".

Ifrae is pleased to announce the publication of the book: "Buddhist nuns in post-Maoist China: Discipline, education, philanthropy at Mount Wutai".

The book

At the end of the Maoist era, Chinese society faced numerous mutations, which did not spare Buddhism. Opened in 1991 on Mount Wutai, the young Pushou Temple is part of this process. A model temple, it is home to the largest community of Chinese Buddhist nuns in mainland China. It has chosen to specialize in the fields of monastic discipline, education and philanthropy, in order to meet the demands of both political authorities and post-Maoist Chinese society.

With this temple, but also with the opening of an institute of Buddhist studies, a second affiliated temple, and a charity association, the nuns testify to their capacity for negotiation, creativity, and diversification of Chinese institutional Buddhism, and assert themselves as influential players in the religious, cultural, social and political spheres.

Taken from an ethnographic angle, this work looks more broadly at the survival of contemporary Buddhism in the face of secularist policies, and at the future of nuns in an environment still institutionally and ritually dominated by monks.

The author

A PhD in anthropology and sociology, Amandine Péronnet taught the religions of China at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco). A post-doctoral fellow at the Centre d'études interdisciplinaires sur le bouddhisme (CEIB), she is also affiliated with the Institut français de recherche sur l'Asie de l'Est (IFRAE), and the Institut de recherches asiatiques (IrAsia).