This dissertation looks at the political behavior of three Taiwanese Buddhist
organizations since 1989: the Buddhist Association of the Republic of China (BAROC), the
Buddha Light Mountain monastic order (or Foguangshan) and the Buddhist Compassion
Relief Tzu Chi Association (or Ciji). It concentrates on trying to understand the rationale
behind the different strategies that each of them has adopted in its interaction with the
government. The BAROC has adopted a strategy of lobbying in an attempt to remedy the
steady decline of its status throughout the 1990s: it has tried to sway the government to
adopt a law that would restore the authority over Buddhists the association held before
1989. Foguangshan has resorted to a strategy of remonstrance to advance its religious
ideals between 1995 and 1997: its founder Xingyun supported the bid of his lay disciple
Chen Lii'an for the presidency of the Republic of China (ROC) and launched large public
demonstrations critical of the government that followed that election. During the same
period of time, Ciji has steered away from the controversies over the law on religion and
conspicuously avoided supporting Chen, while continuing to grow to become the largest
organization of its kind in Taiwan. The theological views of the three organizations'
leaders are examined as key factors explaining the rationale behind the political strategies
these organizations have adopted. Other factors such as availability of material resources,
lay support, congruence between leaders and their followers on the dimension of ethnicity
and gender are explored as possible sources of constraints on the leaders. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/10146 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Laliberte, Andre |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 14029357 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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