Women, Space and a Dynamic Diversity: Han Buddhist Intra-Religious Network(s) in Sichuan and Inter-religious Network(s) in urban Chengdu

Stefania Travagnin

My research will follow the core idea of this overall team project, and therefore employs a shift from the understanding religious diversity as a static reality to the acknowledgment of a more dynamic framework of diversity via the category of religious networks.

I will research Han Buddhist intra-religious networks, especially education-related networks, with attention to Chengdu but also other areas in Sichuan. My work will focus specifically on Buddhist women’s communities by looking at ordained nuns as well as lay practitioners, and with attention to how space/territory contributed to the formation and shaping of those networks. I will consider the historical period that goes from the late Qing throughout the Republican period, but I will devote also some attention to if, and eventually how, some dynamics of those decades are still present in the contemporary time.

Secondly, I will map inter-religious networks through the case-study of a religiously diverse micro-area (Qingyang district) in Chengdu.