Labor and Money in Yachen Gar

The Role of Tibetan Buddhist Nuns in a Monastic Economy

Public lecture by Dr. Yasmin Cho concerning how the invisible labour and economic activities conducted by Tibetan nuns contribute to the contemporary Tibetan Buddhist revivalism in China.

Abstract

It is widely assumed that one of the primary economic drivers of revivalism has been the explosive growth in donations offered by middle-class Han Chinese disciples from urban centers.

Interestingly, however, Chinese donors often send their money directly to individual lamas (usually their Tibetan shangshi), rather than to the institutions with which these lamas are associated. Thus, such donations provide only a partial explanation for the enduring economic sustainability of the large monastic communities in Tibet. These communities, in fact, rely heavily on limitless free labor, both spiritual and physical, by the nuns, and the ongoing influx ofsmall remittances that the nuns bring in from their families.

I argue that the microeconomic activities of the nuns (consumption, circulations of goods and money, and small business practices, etc.) play a significant role in the success of the current Buddhist revivalism in China.

Please sign up for the lecture here

Short bio

Yasmin Cho is a postdoctoral research scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University, and received her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology at Duke University in 2015.

She is currently completing a book manuscript addressing the religious mobilities and material engagements of Tibetan Buddhist nuns in their building of a mega-sized monastic encampment called Yachen Gar in northwestern Sichuan province.