Faith; Tibetan; Buddhists; China; Nationalism; Qing dynasty; Philosophy; religion and theology; Social sciences
摘要
In the present work, I analyze one aspect of how the dynastic Qing empire became the modern Chinese nation-state through the effort to include Tibet as part of the new China. In so doing, I offer insights into the impact of the global forces of nationalism, race, and religion on social organization in East Asia. The territory of East Asia's largest empire, the Qing dynasty, has largely been preserved in the nation-state of the People's Republic of China. In the case of Tibet, the rhetoric of nationalism and racial unity proved largely powerless to effect this transition. Instead, religion served as the pan-Asian link between the social organization of the dynastic empire and the nationstate.
I examine Tibet's inclusion as part of how contemporary China defines itself in order to demonstrate the crucial role that Buddhists played in China's transition from a dynastic empire to a nation-state. I also explore the nexus of religion and nation and argue that religion cannot merely be associated with “tradition” that is ultimately displaced by “modernity” in the form of the nation. My findings demonstrate that within the context of the modern nation-state religious traditions are readily adopted and adapted by both state actors and members of religious institutions to advance their respective interests.
The central thesis of my dissertation is that Buddhism was the key factor in maintaining a tenuous link between China and Tibet during the Republican period (1912–1949), a link that the Communists preserved when exerting control over Tibet by force in the 1950s. For this reason, I argue that Buddhist religious culture played an essential role in the formation of the modern Chinese nation-state. The majority of this dissertation is devoted to understanding the efforts of Buddhists and politicians to integrate Buddhist culture and modern Chinese politics. I have combined the methodologies of historical analysis of specific cases of religious, educational, and political interaction with a comparison across time of the changing or continuing nature of these relations. These methodologies have allowed me to demonstrate the effect of nationalist and racial ideology and new conceptions of what it meant to be Buddhist on twentieth century Sino-Tibetan interaction.
