The Hybridity of Buddhism

The articles published in this volume are the result of a three-year project entitled “Practices of Tibetan Bud-dhism in Taiwan” (2012–2015), funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Ex-changes. In an attempt to contribute to the field of the studies on the globalization of religions, this volume adopts the concept of hybridity as the principal model of investigation of the continuities and ruptures in the practices of Tibetan Buddhism, both on a global level and in interaction with the local religious traditions of Taiwanese and Chinese societies. Hybridity helps cul-tural traditions (the religious and material Tibetan ones) to recruit new adherents (mostly Han) and to be recognized locally, regionally, and globally, as new forms of distinct religiosity emerge. The volume fo-cuses on the agencies at the origin of these hybridities, i.e. the Chinese, Taiwanese or Tibetan masters in-volved, and examines the strategies they employ in order to position themselves as legitimate masters of Tibetan Buddhism.