A RECORDING IS AVAILABLE FOR THIS TALK. PLEASE CONTACT MIASU-ADMIN@SOCANTH.CAM.AC.UK FOR THE LINK
Tuesday 3 May
Vilnius University & Visiting Scholar, MIASU
“Payment But Not Quite”: Buddhist Giving and Sangha-Lay Relations in Urban Buryat Buddhism
The paper will explore remuneration of religious services in post-Soviet Buryat Buddhism in Ulan-Ude. Recent anthropology of religious giving has paid attention to a multiplicity of participants and influences in acts of giving, complicating the picture of a reciprocal relationship between two actors, the giver and the receiver. Some have highlighted nonhumans including deities as important participants in religious giving (Mittermaier 2013, Mills 2021), others have drawn attention to political and social context (Humphrey & Ujeed 2013, Erie 2016). At the same time, and specifically in Buddhism, scholars have pointed to the complexity in the meanings and effects of Buddhist giving, questioning the prevalence of the ideology of dana (Abrahms-Kavunenko 2015) and pointing to other kinds of transfers, such as remuneration of religious services, as socially influential and meaningful (Sihle 2015). This paper will explore such remunerations of Buddhist services in Ulan-Ude, paying attention to the ways in which they reframe sangha-lay relations, at the same time engendering broader social, economic, and political implications.