Stefania Travagnin

This map is related to my project on the hidden history of Buddhist women in Sichuan. In response to the tendency of historical narrative whose texture is made of male actors, I propose to also write about women and their agency in the making of Buddhist history. Women do not just witness the unfolding of history, they are active subjects that make history, and my research aims to reveal how these Buddhist women engage with authoritative narratives and contribute their leadership in various spheres, from local community building to the creation or revival of Buddhist temples, from education to war relief.

My research on Buddhist women in Sichuan started in 2015 during my visiting professorship at Sichuan University, and has continued with regular fieldwork visits. Data have been retrieved from field visits and interviews with nuns and lay devotees (oral history), stelae and pagodas, gazetteers and journals, documents found in temples, and official material from local and provincial archives.

This map locates sites that I have visited and details of Buddhist women leaders in their communities. Main attention is given to the late Qing and the Republican era, although cases from the premodern period and today are also highlighted. While the majority of sites are temples, some others are schools created for improving nuns’ education. A brief overview of the history of the sites and their conditions today is integrated with names of resident nuns and images.

The project, and the research used to create this map, has been kindly sponsored by EU funding (2015) and the CCKF (2017-2023).

The information was gathered and processed by myself, while the map is developed and maintained by Yuwei Zhou

This project is still ongoing, and more data on sites and nuns will be uploaded as the research progresses. Zoom in to see the full names of the sites. Click on the sites to see more information.