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...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Society for the Study of Global Buddhism
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of Global Buddhism |
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| Online Access: | https://www.globalbuddhism.org/article/view/1998 |
| _version_ | 1811184732173500416 |
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| author | Juewei Shi Sioh Yang Tan |
| author_facet | Juewei Shi Sioh Yang Tan |
| author_sort | Juewei Shi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
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.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T13:17:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c3da48f9af814075a3631b28ecde321b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1527-6457 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T13:17:28Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | Society for the Study of Global Buddhism |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Global Buddhism |
| spelling | doaj.art-c3da48f9af814075a3631b28ecde321b2022-12-22T04:22:21ZengSociety for the Study of Global BuddhismJournal of Global Buddhism1527-64572022-12-0123210.26034/lu.jgb.2022.1998Flows of Innovation in Fo Guang Shan Oceania: Transregional dynamics behind the Buddha’s Birthday FestivalJuewei Shi0Sioh Yang Tan1Nan Tien InstituteNan Tien Institute 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. https://www.globalbuddhism.org/article/view/1998Fo Guang ShanMahayana BuddhismAustraliaNew ZealandTaiwan |
| spellingShingle | Juewei Shi Sioh Yang Tan Flows of Innovation in Fo Guang Shan Oceania: Transregional dynamics behind the Buddha’s Birthday Festival Journal of Global Buddhism Fo Guang Shan Mahayana Buddhism Australia New Zealand Taiwan |
| title | Flows of Innovation in Fo Guang Shan Oceania: Transregional dynamics behind the Buddha’s Birthday Festival |
| title_full | Flows of Innovation in Fo Guang Shan Oceania: Transregional dynamics behind the Buddha’s Birthday Festival |
| title_fullStr | Flows of Innovation in Fo Guang Shan Oceania: Transregional dynamics behind the Buddha’s Birthday Festival |
| title_full_unstemmed | Flows of Innovation in Fo Guang Shan Oceania: Transregional dynamics behind the Buddha’s Birthday Festival |
| title_short | Flows of Innovation in Fo Guang Shan Oceania: Transregional dynamics behind the Buddha’s Birthday Festival |
| title_sort | flows of innovation in fo guang shan oceania transregional dynamics behind the buddha s birthday festival |
| topic | Fo Guang Shan Mahayana Buddhism Australia New Zealand Taiwan |
| url | https://www.globalbuddhism.org/article/view/1998 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jueweishi flowsofinnovationinfoguangshanoceaniatransregionaldynamicsbehindthebuddhasbirthdayfestival AT siohyangtan flowsofinnovationinfoguangshanoceaniatransregionaldynamicsbehindthebuddhasbirthdayfestival |