Description
Book SynopsisSoutheast China is a traditional stronghold of Buddhism, but little scholarly attention has been paid to this fact. Brian Nichols’s pioneering
Lotus Blossoms and Purple Clouds, centres on a large Buddhist monastery in Quanzhou and combines ethnographic detail with stimulating analysis to examine religion in post-Mao China.
Trade ReviewLotus Blossoms and Purple Clouds is a thoroughly innovative study of the revival of the Quanzhou Kaiyuan Monastery in southeast China. It builds on a significant period of ethnographic investigation, including follow-up longitudinal research, and exhibits sound historical scholarship that makes excellent use of both Chinese and English sources. Brian Nichols has produced by far the most comprehensive study of Han Buddhist monasticism in post-Mao China to date." —Gareth Fisher, Syracuse University
"Thanks to Brian Nichols we have at last a wide-ranging account of a local Buddhist temple in China, one that problematizes official and normative narratives of modern Buddhism and invites us to see what actually happens on the ground." —Stefania Travagnin, SOAS, University of London
