Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

No description available.

Drawing upon a wide range of previously neglected English- and Chinese-language sources, this dissertation offers a history and ethnography of a group of devotional yogis in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) popularly known as Hare Krishnas. As the first major work on either Hinduism or yoga in the country, it challenges previously held assumptions concerning these yogis and the institution to which they belong—the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)—while contributing to a more comprehensive picture of religion in the PRC, which, to date, is based primarily on ethnographic data collected before the Xi Era and from a limited number of religious traditions: so-called popular religion and the five officially recognized by the Chinese state (Buddhism, Daoism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam). After providing a brief history of ISKCON, the work explores the ways in which devotional yoga transforms as it encounters the Chinese state. It proposes that the PRC government, while oppressive and self-serving, is, for some devotees, an unlikely source of inspiration. Next, it identifies strategies ISKCON leaders use to position their tradition within the Chinese cultural environment and looks at the various techniques which members use proselytize in the country. It then considers how and why some Chinese have embraced devotional yoga and uncovers the ways in which they are able to maintain and strengthen their faiths despite the PRC’s often hostile conditions. It finds that faith is, in part, bolstered when feelings of certainty spread from one practitioner to another via unconscious affective synchronization. Finally, it argues that current economic and demographic conditions in China offer a chance for ISKCON’s Chinese membership to grow substantially and suggests certain changes which ISKCON might introduce if it wishes to capitalize on the opportunity. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Religious diversity is the inevitable corollary of globalization and with it comes the challenge and opportunities of greatly increased interaction with religious Others. The United States was founded on an Anglo-Saxon Protestant basis but has now become "the world’s most religiously diverse nation" according to one Harvard religious studies scholar. To deal with this development, American thinkers, mainly Christians, have devoted a good deal of scholarship in the past three to four decades construing strategies how to meet and interact with the religious Other. During the 70’s and 80’s, a typology of exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism was developed by Christians as a response to religious diversity. Many see today that it is a necessity to find an alternative to hostility and violence and therefore dialogue is the order of the day. Since Christians are still by far the largest faith-group, and the US has economic resources, US Christians have a natural predominance in dialogue. Is that good or bad from the stand point of the minority Other? One such minority is a major sub-division of Hinduism, namely Vaishnavism. Christian-Vaishnava dialogue in the US is a new phenomenon in the past two decades and an emerging minority representative is a globalized Vaishnava organization ISKCON, popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement, which has its Western roots in the counter-culture of the 1960’s. While ISKCON struggled for legitimacy in the 70’s and ‘80’s, it has in recent decades become a major factor in Hindu and especially Vaisnava representation. How American Christians respond today to Vaishnava dialogue and how this typology arose and functions as a theoretical basis for the on-going development of Christian-Vaishnava dialogue is the subject of this action-research minor field study.

This essay explores ISKCON’s religious text A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, as an American scripture. This commentary expressed a philosophy which attracted ISKCON’s American converts and gave voice to the protest they had against the larger American culture. Using Thomas Tweed’s theory of dissent, I show how the Bhagavad Gita As It Is gave the American converts of the 1960s and 1970s a language of dissent in the larger American conversation and allowed them to create an alternative American identity. In this way, the Bhagavad Gita is an American text.

The thesis called Education in the Hare Krishna movement aims primarily to gather information about the purpose, principles and methods of education in gurukulas of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) abroad and open research problems of education in Czech Hare Krishna movement. At first the text describes the background and theoretical concepts of education in the movement and its comparison with the original method of education vaisnava tradition. Further, the text describes a specific historical development and education form of ISKCON΄s gurukulas, the issue of child abuse and provides available information about the current form of education in the world gurukulas. The last part is focused on the project Gurukula Krishna΄s court in Czech Republic and reconstruction of failed efforts of Czech devotees dedicated to its inclusion in the network of schools and educational institutions of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic in the period 1995-1997 on the basis of unpublished archival materials. Key words Guru, gurukula, education, ISKCON, Krishna΄s court, Prabhupada, Rochford, The Hare Krishna movement, The International Society for Krishna Consciousness, training

<p>Söder om Goas partystränder ligger den ganska fridfulla staden Gokarna. Gokarna har sedan början på 1980-talet varit en träffpunkt för både religiöst sökande västerlänningar och indier som insett att de kan tjäna pengar på de nyfikna turisterna. Turister som söker sig utanför sina trygga hem för att fylla andliga hål som den västerländska kulturen lämnat öppna. Jag fascinerades av den andlighet som uppstår bland turister som lever lata dagar på stränder där allt är serverat för en billig penning. Den andlighet som kommer av introspektion i en religiös omgivning.</p><p>Jag har själv sedan början av 2000-talet då jag genomförde min första resa till Indien varit en del av den växande ungdomskultur som kan kallas backpacker. Det är med mina egna erfarenheter av resande och religiös nyfikenhet jag nu har påbörjat min tredje resa i Indien som ska resultera i en uppsats om andligt sökande västerlänningar i Gokarna, Indien.</p><p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att försöka kartlägga några av de tankar och handlingar rörande religion och ritual som mina informanter, backpackers i Gokarna, Indien har.</p>

Söder om Goas partystränder ligger den ganska fridfulla staden Gokarna. Gokarna har sedan början på 1980-talet varit en träffpunkt för både religiöst sökande västerlänningar och indier som insett att de kan tjäna pengar på de nyfikna turisterna. Turister som söker sig utanför sina trygga hem för att fylla andliga hål som den västerländska kulturen lämnat öppna. Jag fascinerades av den andlighet som uppstår bland turister som lever lata dagar på stränder där allt är serverat för en billig penning. Den andlighet som kommer av introspektion i en religiös omgivning. Jag har själv sedan början av 2000-talet då jag genomförde min första resa till Indien varit en del av den växande ungdomskultur som kan kallas backpacker. Det är med mina egna erfarenheter av resande och religiös nyfikenhet jag nu har påbörjat min tredje resa i Indien som ska resultera i en uppsats om andligt sökande västerlänningar i Gokarna, Indien. Syftet med denna uppsats är att försöka kartlägga några av de tankar och handlingar rörande religion och ritual som mina informanter, backpackers i Gokarna, Indien har.

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