ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
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- All Subjects: Buddhist Images
- All Subjects: Rhetoric
- Creators: Chen, Huaiyu
Description
This dissertation analyzes the way in which leaders of certain Taiwanese Buddhist organizations associated with a strand of Buddhist modernism called "humanistic Buddhism" use discourse and rhetoric to make environmentalism meaningful to their members. It begins with an assessment of the field of religion and ecology, situating it in the context of secular environmental ethics. It identifies rhetoric and discourse as important but under acknowledged elements in literature on environmental ethics, both religious and secular, and relates this lack of attention to rhetoric to the presence of a problematic gap between environmental ethics theory and environmentalist practice. This dissertation develops a methodology of rhetorical analysis that seeks to assess how rhetoric contributes to alleviating this gap in religious environmentalism. In particular, this dissertation analyzes the development of environmentalism as a major element of humanistic Buddhist groups in Taiwan and seeks to show that a rhetorical analysis helps demonstrate how these organizations have sought to make environmentalism a meaningful subject of contemporary Buddhist religiosity. This dissertation will present an extended analysis of the concept of "spiritual environmentalism," a term developed and promoted by the late Ven. Shengyan (1930-2009), founder of the Taiwanese Buddhist organization Dharma Drum Mountain. Furthermore, this dissertation suggests that the rhetorical methodology proposed herein offers offers a direction for scholars to more effectively engage with religion and ecology in ways that address both descriptive/analytic approaches and constructive engagements with various forms of religious environmentalism.
ContributorsClippard, Seth (Author) / Chen, Huaiyu (Thesis advisor) / Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava (Committee member) / Bokenkamp, Stephen (Committee member) / Tillman, Hoyt (Committee member) / Minteer, Ben (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This study offers an ethnographic examination of the marble Buddhist image trade across the Myanmar-China border since the 1980s, a previously unexamined religious-economic entanglement that transcends conventional academic boundaries between Myanmar and China, Southeast and East Asia, and Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism. Fueled by the Buddhist revival in post-Mao China and the deepening economic integration between China and Southeast Asia over the past three decades, this transborder Buddhist economy has facilitated the circulation of not only raw materials and images but also people, with Chinese workshop owners venturing into Sagyin, Myanmar, for material sourcing and Burmese artisans migrating into Ruili, China, for Buddhist image production. My study argues that this marble Buddhist image trade serves as a compelling contemporary illustration of the enduring and productive interconnectedness between Buddhism and the economy. Employing the concept of “magnificence,” which is closely linked to the material and visual qualities of Buddhist images, my research analyzes the processes of material sourcing, artisan recruitment, image polishing, and transcultural marketing within this trade to explicate how a particular form of Buddhist magnificence, derived from the purity, translucency, and luster of white marble, or white jade (Ch. baiyu) in vernacular Chinese, is religiously and economically cultivated, crafted, and promoted simultaneously. It illuminates how business practices aligned with Buddhist moral principles foster cross-ethnic economic collaboration, how the ethics of Buddhist craftsmanship as a form of soteriologically and economically meaningful labor evolves amidst transborder economic precarity, and how the circulation and marketing of marble Buddhist icon evokes changing imaginaries about Myanmar as a “Buddhist Other” among Chinese Buddhists. This study challenges the Orientalist trope that depicts the economy as a detrimental secularizing force that undermines Buddhism’s ascetic and anti-materialist essence. I argue instead that a dual emphasis that recognizes the intertwined economic and religious dimensions of contemporary Buddhist craftsmanship and material exchanges is required to better capture Buddhism as a lived tradition continuously shaped by the religious values and economic practices of its adherents.
ContributorsDeng, Beiyin (Author) / Schober, Juliane (Thesis advisor) / Rush, James (Committee member) / Chen, Huaiyu (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024