Buddhism and Authority in China after the Cultural Revolution: Ideological Stability and Regional Mobility

This research is dedicated to the problem of relations between the official authorities and Buddhist organizations in PRC after the Cultural Revolution. The relevance of the study is determined, firstly, by the growing interest of both the government and people in religion in general and in Buddhism in particular, and, secondly, by insufficiently developed legislation in the religious sphere, and, consequentially, the ambiguous nature of these relations. It is important to understand how the government sees the future of its relations with Buddhist organizations, what steps the authorities are ready to take in order to give more autonomy to these organizations, and what Buddhist organizations themselves think of the government’s policy in the religious sphere. The main body of the work focuses on the analysis of the current legislation defining the relationship between the authorities of China and Buddhist organizations and on the examination of the current situation in several regions. This research covers political, economic and educational aspects of these relations. A separate chapter is dedicated to the relationship of PRC top officials with Buddhism and Buddhist diplomacy as a means of achieving goals of China in various spheres of international relations. The dissertation includes three appendices; appendix one is the translation of the Articles of Associations of the Buddhist Association of China into English. The research includes analysis of a significant number of primary sources in Chinese. Keywords: PRC, Buddhism, Buddhist Association of China (BAC), State Administration for Religious Affairs of China (SARA), Buddhist monasteries