The study on hierarchies in Buddhist societies aims to analyze the principles of hierarchies in different societies and the role of Buddhism in them, so as to understand nature of the tension between Hierarchy and the demand for equality.
This Panel will promote a discussion under the following comparative research framework, with the purpose of exploring how the differences in social structure affect the relationship between Buddhism and society. In Theravada Buddhist society, the combination of individual's life and Four Asrama formed the age-group system with Buddhist characteristic, which further shaped the Buddhist kingship, village life and family intergenerational relationship. In Tibet, in general, Gelugpa Lamaism has transcended secular regime and achieved a dominant position, forming a developed Theocracy. But it has to respond to the structural needs of the society, and maintain the social hierarchy as priest and judge. In Han society, monks and monasteries are far away from the society, and believers have to leave the villages and cities they live and then gather around the monasteries to acquire religious knowledge. To sum up, it’ll be examined how and why the Buddhist monasteries, monks, knowledge and rituals involves in the construction of different hierarchies.
The panel’s theme is related to the different research perspectives and theories of anthropology on religion, politics, knowledge, law, etc. There’re rich Buddhist social researches that can be inherited, such as the works of Max Weber, Edmund Leach, Li Anzhai, Louis Dumont, Rolf Stein, Melford Spiro, Gananath Obeyesekere, David Gellner, etc. It’s hoped that we can provide concrete and enlightening understandings of the discord between hierarchies and the general trend such as freedom of religious belief, political egalitarianism and disenchantment of knowledge. So it’s expected to become a foot stone for finding feasible ways to balance the relationship and weaken the social crisis.
