Awards

• Winner of Winner of the 2021 EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize.
• Winner of Winner, 2021 EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize Shortlisted, 2023 Friedrich Weller Prize.

Overview

Chinese Buddhists have never remained stationary. They have always been on the move. In Monks in Motion, Jack Meng-Tat Chia explores why Buddhist monks migrated from China to Southeast Asia, and how they participated in transregional Buddhist networks across the South China Sea. This book tells the story of three prominent monks Chuk Mor (1913-2002), Yen Pei (1917-1996), and Ashin Jinarakkhita (1923-2002) and examines the connected history of Buddhist communities in China and maritime Southeast Asia in the twentieth century.Monks in Motion is the first book to offer a history of what Chia terms ""South China Sea Buddhism,"" referring to a Buddhism that emerged from a swirl of correspondence networks, forced exiles, voluntary visits, evangelizing missions, institution-building campaigns, and the organizational efforts of countless Chinese and Chinese diasporic Buddhist monks. Drawing on multilingual research conducted in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, Chia challenges the conventional categories of ""Chinese Buddhism"" and ""Southeast Asian Buddhism"" by focusing on the lesser-known--yet no less significant--Chinese Buddhist communities of maritime Southeast Asia. By crossing the artificial spatial frontier between China and Southeast Asia, Monks in Motion breaks new ground, bringing Southeast Asia into the study of Chinese Buddhism and Chinese Buddhism into the study of Southeast Asia.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jack Meng-Tat Chia (Assistant Professor of History and Religious Studies, Assistant Professor of History and Religious Studies, National University of Singapore)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 23.60cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 15.60cm
Weight:   0.435kg
ISBN:  

9780197613672

ISBN 10:   0197613675
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   01 April 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements List of Illustrations List of Tables List of Abbreviations A Note on Translation and Transliteration Introduction: Toward a History of South China Sea Buddhism 1. Migrants, Monks, and Monasteries 2. Chuk Mor: Scripting Malaysia's Chinese Buddhism 3. Yen Pei: Humanistic Buddhism in the Chinese Diaspora 4. Ashin Jinarakkhita: Neither Mahayana Nor Theravada Coda: Monks in Motion Appendix A: List of Interviewees Appendix B: Complete Works from the Fragrance Incense Studio (Zhuanxiang huashi wenji) Appendix C: Collected Works of Mindful Observation (Diguan quanji) Appendix D: A Sequel to the [Collected Works of] Mindful Observation (Diguan xuji) Appendix E: Sacred Scriptures of Indonesian Buddhism (Kitab-Kitab Suci Agama Buddha Indonesia) Glossary of Chinese Characters Bibliography Index

Reviews

In my view, this is compulsory reading for scholars with an interest in modern Chinese Buddhism and in the modern religious landscape of Southeast Asia. * Ester Bianchi, H-Buddhism * There is so much in this pioneering book that corrects earlier generalizations. I hope it won't be long before our textbooks will reflect the overseas Chinese contribution to Buddhism, especially in our region. * Wang Gungwu, Tang Prize Laureate in Sinology * I rarely read a first book that is as clearly argued, seamlessly organized, and elegantly written as Monks in Motion. Chia offers us a close-up perspective on the nineteenth- and twentieth-century development of what he terms 'South China Sea Buddhism,' which emerged out of the circulations, networks, missionary efforts, forced and voluntary exiles, institutional-building, and organizing of Chinese and Chinese diasporic Buddhist monks. Without question a significant contribution. I could hardly set it down. * Anne Hansen, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin Madison * Monks in Motion is a clearly written, well-researched, and well-organized book that is novel in its subject, fascinating in its content, and professional in its execution. This is not a straight-forward linear history of immigrant communities told with a disingenuous narrative arc artificially placed on it. It is a 'connected history' of Buddhist communities in China and maritime Southeast Asia that provides the first real study of three of the most important 'Chinese' monks in Southeast Asia: Chuk Mor, Yen Pei, and Ashin Jinarakkhita. Through these three biographies he ends up telling the much broader story of the Chinese migration and spread of Chinese Buddhism to Southeast Asia * Justin McDaniel, Professor of Buddhist and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania *

Author Information

Jack Meng-Tat Chia is Assistant Professor of History and Religious Studies at the National University of Singapore.

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