Kai Shmushko, "Multiple Liminalities of Lay Buddhism in Contemporary China: Modalities, Material Culture, and Politics" (Leiden UP, 2024)

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May 19, 2025

Kai Shmushko, a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, dives into the fascinating world of lay Buddhism in contemporary China. She discusses how modern practitioners navigate societal changes and the evolving landscape of Buddhist practices outside monastic settings. The conversation explores the integration of commerce with spirituality, the rise of community spaces for Tibetan Buddhism, and the innovations brought about by technology and the COVID-19 pandemic. Shmushko argues for the concept of multiple liminalities to understand these dynamics.

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INSIGHT

Defining Lay Buddhists

Lay Buddhists practice Buddhism outside monasteries without monastic vows.
Their engagement varies from devoted identification to informal practice without explicit religious affiliation.

INSIGHT

Multiple Liminalities Framework

Contemporary Buddhist practices occupy liminal spaces between legal and illegal, digital and physical.
Liminality reveals how Buddhism negotiates boundaries amid societal and political challenges.

ANECDOTE

Living Halls: Hybrid Religious Spaces

Living halls blend Tibetan Buddhist practice with market economy through selling commodities.
These spaces function both as religious practice sites and business enterprises under legal ambiguity.

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In the past decades, various forms of Buddhism have emerged in-between, above, and beyond conventional conceptions of religious and spiritual life in China. Multiple Liminalities of Lay Buddhism in Contemporary China: Modalities, Material Culture, and Politics (Leiden UP, 2024) is a qualitative study exploring manifestations of the massive revival of Buddhism among non-monastic people and communities. The book wishes to answer the central question: How do Chinese groups and individuals practice Buddhism under the socio-political and cultural circumstances of contemporary China?

This inquiry is based on a sample of case studies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (Taiwan, ROC), exploring Buddhist communities, individual practitioners, materials, spaces, practice modalities and relationships. Each chapter examines a significant paradigm that plays a role in the revival of Buddhism in China, highlighting how lay practitioners negotiate their spaces, resources, moral and ethical beliefs, and values, in the face of rapid societal changes. The research reveals how state policies, economic shifts, local trends, and global developments, such as environmental concerns and technological advances impact and transform older Buddhist traditions. Overall, the author argues for the concept of multiple liminalities as a framework to describe the contemporary predicament of lay Buddhism in Chinese societies. Accordingly, lay Buddhist actors occupy liminal positions or operate across ambiguous boundaries where realms of in-betweenness, serve as avenues for religious responses to the complex challenges Buddhism in China faces.

Dr. Tiatemsu Longkumer is a faculty in the Dept. of Anthropology at Royal Thimphu College, Bhutan. His academic pursuits center on the fields of Anthropology and the Philosophy of Religion.

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