雖然戰後台灣社會已進入二十一世紀－成為一個科技高度發展的工商業社會，但佛教信仰於社會中仍十分蓬勃發展，佛教儀式的舉行仍是社會中相當重要的活動。對於佛教僧俗信仰者而言，藉著不斷舉行的儀式活動與儀式音樂的展演，人們的宗教經驗得以累積，並使之代代相傳。然而，隨著時空的轉變，戰後台灣地區，特別是漢傳佛教的生存與發展形態與戰前、及大陸地區有著許多的不同，其儀式音樂展演與傳承行為也發生許多變化，種種變化背後更深層的社會文化意涵究竟為何？實在值得我們加以深究。本文筆者將借用 S.J.Tambiah 文化展演特性(performative characters of culture)的觀念，解析台灣佛教音樂展演與傳承的文化特徵，並將借用 P.Bourdieu 的“場域＂(field) 理論，嘗試以台灣寺院音樂生態作為分析的場域，首先聚焦於僧眾學習儀式音樂的方式、過程，以解析佛教儀式音樂展演文化之重點，再擴及對寺院中的經懺佛事的觀察，繼而將分析置於台灣佛教歷史與社會發展脈絡中，多層次地呈現宗教與世俗、地方與中央、現代與民粹等張力，如何形塑僧眾的文化身分認同感與修行觀。 As a traditional monastic activity, performing the ritual music is a meaning for Taiwanese monks to gain economic, social, and cultural capital. In addition, monastic musical practice shapes the spatial arrangement and temporal schedule of daily life at a monastery. It is in this institutional scheme that contemporary Taiwanese monks form their identity. This musical culture grounds itself in the authority politics of Buddhist institutions underlying the transmission of performing the ritual music at a monastery. This paper is organized to answer in return four questions. Firstly, why is musical practice considered a significant component of the monastic life? Secondly, how to Taiwanese monks formulate their religious experience and community identity through the transmission of performing the ritual music? Thirdly, how do different musical traditions’ monks strive for the legitimacy and authority of the Buddhist musical tradition in Taiwanese Buddhism ? And fourthly, how do contemporary Taiwanese monks redefine the meaning of performing the ritual music through an expended social network?
