Buddhism in Taiwan Under Globalization: Diversity and Hybridity

Taiwan’s Buddhism has undergone significant transformations since late 1980s. Globalization has played an important role on the new constellation of Buddhism in Taiwan. In addition to the mainstream and local Chinese Buddhism, other traditions of Buddhism from the Tibet, Southeast Asian countries, and Japan have also established numerous centers and attracted many Taiwanese followers. Globalization has thus brought diversity and hybridity to Taiwan’s Buddhism. In my paper, I will explore this phenomenon of Buddhism in contemporary Taiwan. I will adopt Nattier’s (1998) classification of religious cross-country transmission as the analytical framework to identify how foreign traditions of Buddhism have been transported to and practiced in Taiwan. Then, I will investigate how these foreign traditions of Buddhism have influenced the landscaping of Taiwan’s Buddhism. Finally, I will inspect how Taiwanese monks and nuns respond to these newly coming traditions of Buddhism, which shares some common teachings and practices with the local tradition but differ from one another in certain teachings and practices. In sum, Taiwan’s recent transformations of Buddhism provide an interesting case for understanding the interactions among different traditions of Buddhism and its effects on the behavior of local tradition as well as local believers in the age of globalization.