Between the Buddha and the New Tsar: Urban Religion and Minority Politics at the Asian Borderlands of Russia - Paperback

by Kristina Jonutyte (Author)

Between the Buddha and the New Tsar is an ethnography of contemporary urban Buddhism in Buryatia, a republic within the Russian Federation. Kristina Jonutyte shows how--in this ethnically and religiously diverse borderland region--Buryat Buddhists are caught between an oppressive, militant Russian regime and the tenacity of local religious and cultural forms. As Jonutyte narrates, historically Buryat Buddhism has been tightly linked with the Russian state ever since the imperial period, a relationship with mutual interest and benefits. Yet everyday Buddhist practices point to a more complex picture, shedding light on precarity, minoritization, struggles for cultural sovereignty, and infrapolitical religious forms. Between the Buddha and the New Tsar reveals the important ways in which the urban setting is not just a backdrop to Buddhism, but that religion and the city are intertwined and mutually impactful.

Author Biography

Kristina Jonutyte is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies, Vilnius University. She is a social anthropologist with research interests in political anthropology, ethnicity and religion.