Flows of Innovation in Fo Guang Shan Oceania: Transregional dynamics behind the Buddha’s Birthday Festival

Fo Guang Shan (FGS), a transnational Buddhist movement in the Chinese Mahāyāna tradition, has grown rapidly in the last fifty years to become a global network of close to 180 branch temples. For almost thirty years, FGS Oceania has invested heavily in the Buddha’s Birthday Festival annually in the f...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Shi, Juewei (Author) ; Tan, Sioh Yang (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: [publisher not identified] 2022
In: Journal of global buddhism
Year: 2022, Volume: 23, Issue: 2, Pages: 185-202
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Australia / New Zealand / Fo Guang Shan / Innovation / Religious festival / Spread of
RelBib Classification:AF Geography of religion
AG Religious life; material religion
BL Buddhism
KBS Australia; Oceania
RB Church office; congregation
RC Liturgy
RJ Mission; missiology
Further subjects:B New Zealand
B Taiwan
B Australia
B Mahayana Buddhism
B Fo Guang Shan
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Summary:Fo Guang Shan (FGS), a transnational Buddhist movement in the Chinese Mahāyāna tradition, has grown rapidly in the last fifty years to become a global network of close to 180 branch temples. For almost thirty years, FGS Oceania has invested heavily in the Buddha’s Birthday Festival annually in the form of weekend-long festivals in public spaces across Australia and New Zealand, involving months of planning and thousands of volunteers to welcome tens of thousands of visitors. FGS Oceania served as an incubator, exporter, and importer of innovations to make the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha accessible to the public through these festivals. Here, we map the flows of such innovations among the headquarters in Taiwan, the Oceanic branches, and other regional headquarters to examine the dynamics of organisational learning that drive these innovations. Using a system of systems model, we argue that such flows were enabled by FGS’ culture of innovation and the independent yet collaborative nature of its transregional network.
ISSN:1527-6457
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of global buddhism
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.26034/lu.jgb.2022.1998