CO-SPONSORED SESSION: Buddhism in the West Unit and Buddhism Unit

Digital Space, Virtual Sangha, and Globally Networked Asian (Chinese) American Buddhist Communities (Xiao Han, Université du Québec à Montréal, han.xiao@courrier.uqam.ca) — 

Until recently, most scholarship on Buddhism in North America privileged the study of institutionalized Buddhist organizations. Few attempts have been made to study the lived experiences of ordinary North American Chinese Buddhists and, more importantly, their lived religious practices in digital environments. Scholars have highlighted the idea of “global Buddhism” in the past decade, arguing that Buddhism in the West must be viewed as part of a worldwide transformational process. With the exponential development of digital technology, a global Buddhism approach has expanded and now encompasses the digital world, along with many issues such as digital Buddhist community and identity formation, digital rituals, digital Buddhist education, and the authenticity of digital Buddhist practices. Was the digital Buddhist community just a short-lived necessity, or is this the general direction of the future of Buddhist communities in North America? What does it mean to be globally networked Chinese Buddhist communities in a digital world?