Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Note
- Introduction: Xers and Yers as Cohorts of the Post-1970s Generation
- Chapter 1 Religious Diversity and the Politics of Definition
- Chapter 2 Religion and Popular Culture
- Chapter 3 Religion and Modernity: Marx, Durkheim and Weber
- Chapter 4 Religion, Spirituality and the Post-Secularisation Approach
- Chapter 5 Religion and Postmodernity (Part A): Consumer Religions
- Chapter 6 Religion and Postmodernity (Part B): Hyper-reality and the Internet
- Chapter 7 Esotericism, Its McDonaldisation, and Its Re-enchantment Process
- Chapter 8 Monotheistic Fundamentalism(s) as an Outcome of Consumer Culture
- Chapter 9 Buddhism, Its Westernisation and the Easternisation of the West
- Chapter 10 Christianity: Churches and Sects in a Post-Christian World
- Chapter 11 The Multiple-Modernities of Islam?
- Chapter 12 New Religious Movements and the Death of the New Age
- Chapter 13 Witchcraft, the Internet, and Consumerism
- Conclusion: What Do Sociologists of Religion in Academia Do Apart from Teaching and Marking? Their Work as Intellectuals
- References
- Index
Chapter 9 - Buddhism, Its Westernisation and the Easternisation of the West
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Note
- Introduction: Xers and Yers as Cohorts of the Post-1970s Generation
- Chapter 1 Religious Diversity and the Politics of Definition
- Chapter 2 Religion and Popular Culture
- Chapter 3 Religion and Modernity: Marx, Durkheim and Weber
- Chapter 4 Religion, Spirituality and the Post-Secularisation Approach
- Chapter 5 Religion and Postmodernity (Part A): Consumer Religions
- Chapter 6 Religion and Postmodernity (Part B): Hyper-reality and the Internet
- Chapter 7 Esotericism, Its McDonaldisation, and Its Re-enchantment Process
- Chapter 8 Monotheistic Fundamentalism(s) as an Outcome of Consumer Culture
- Chapter 9 Buddhism, Its Westernisation and the Easternisation of the West
- Chapter 10 Christianity: Churches and Sects in a Post-Christian World
- Chapter 11 The Multiple-Modernities of Islam?
- Chapter 12 New Religious Movements and the Death of the New Age
- Chapter 13 Witchcraft, the Internet, and Consumerism
- Conclusion: What Do Sociologists of Religion in Academia Do Apart from Teaching and Marking? Their Work as Intellectuals
- References
- Index
Summary
Introduction
While I have been writing this book, the Olympic torch has travelled around the world to promote the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing. After leaving Paris, talks were emerging to end its journey because of the tension the flame generated wherever it went. Although this sporting event has been part of popular culture for more than a century and was conceived to promote peace among all countries of the world, it has been turned into a political event by some to put pressure on the Chinese government to stop human rights abuses in Tibet.
China entered Tibet in 1949 and took full control of the country in 1959. Since then, Tibet's leader, the Dalai Lama, has lived in exile in the north of India. For Tibetans, he is a ‘god-king’ who is the temporal leader of Tibet and the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. For many in the international community, he is seen as one of the great apostles of non-violence alongside Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi. Chinese officials, on the other hand have portrayed him as ‘a wolf in a monk's robe, a monster with a human face but the heart of a beast’ (Ramesh 2008).
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- Information
- Sociology of Religion for Generations X and Y , pp. 125 - 138Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2009