Quantifying the Number of Hidden Han Buddhists in Contemporary China

Abstract This article addresses the problem of quantifying Han Buddhists who do not self-identify as Buddhists when responding to survey questions about religious belief and thus remain “hidden Buddhists.” Drawing on the results of various religious surveys and field observations, as well as taking...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Review of Religion and Chinese Society
Main Author: Tseng, Ampere A. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2021
In: Review of Religion and Chinese Society
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B China / People of a state / Buddhist / Seclusion
RelBib Classification:BL Buddhism
KBM Asia
Further subjects:B hidden Buddhists
B quantifying
B Buddhism
B self-identified Buddhists
B Contemporary China
B Han Buddhists
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Description
Summary:Abstract This article addresses the problem of quantifying Han Buddhists who do not self-identify as Buddhists when responding to survey questions about religious belief and thus remain “hidden Buddhists.” Drawing on the results of various religious surveys and field observations, as well as taking into account the nonexclusive feature of Han Buddhists, the article develops a formula to quantify the hidden Han Buddhists. Data from one national survey and one regional survey are used to tune the parameters of the formula, while additional data from five religious surveys using different schemes are employed to establish the reliability and applicability of the formula. Compared to the five sets of survey data on hidden Han Buddhists, the results predicted by the formula range from less than 1% to 21% lower. This range of disagreement is considered adequate and reliable, given the uncertainty inherent in estimating religious phenomena in a spiritual world. Furthermore, the comparison also reveals that the number of hidden Buddhists may be much higher than that of self-identified Buddhists.
ISSN:2214-3955
Contains:Enthalten in: Review of Religion and Chinese Society
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/22143955-20200003