BURYAT TRADITIONAL BUDDHISM IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Abstract

At the beginning of the 21st century, the traditional Buryat sangha faces a new challenge, which is connected to processes of increasing globalization that concern all the greater territories of Russia. This paper examines Buryat Buddhism in the light of a variety of global tendencies that are characteristic of contemporary religious processes. How does Buddhism in the form of the traditional Buryat sangha react to its entry into the ‘condition of globality’? The author argues that, as a reaction to globalization, Buddhism supports the formation of a ‘glocal’ religiocultural meta-narrative that is easy to understand, transparent for the whole populace of the Buryat Republic, and thus provides a structure for its poly-ethnic community. Simultaneously, the logic of the development of Buryat Buddhism allows the conclusion that its embedment in global trends of religiousness is more likely to be a consequence of necessity, characterized by protective adaptation, than of a progressive developmental strategy of the Buddhist Sangha.