Nichibunken Evening Seminar

This lecture is based on fieldwork data collected from 2019-25 that I am now writing up as a book-length manuscript. It explores various modes of Japanese engagement with the Tibetan diaspora and diasporic Tibetan Buddhism -- roughly categorized into two discrete but overlapping polarities. To one side, Japanese (primarily women) seek healing and self-transformation by travelling to Tibet and Tibetan areas of South Asia, having interpersonal and romantic relationships with Tibetans, studying Tibetan Buddhism and language, volunteering in Tibet support groups, and overall participating in the preservation of Tibetan culture in multifarious ways. Their self-narratives reveal an overall teleology of brokenness to belonging and restored health; and their support of the Tibetan diaspora intersects with Japanese subcultures of healing, spiritual business, new religiosity, and progressive multiculturalism. To analyze these dynamics, I focus on manga and ethnographic case studies from Japan and India. To the other side, the Tibetan diaspora in Japan has, from its core inception in 1965, received ideological and financial backing from conservative, anti-CCP, pan-Asianist organizations and individuals. Their support raises questions about the politics of refugee support and the downstream consequences of refugee pragmatism. By analyzing these two poles of Tibetan support, this lecture situates the Tibetan diaspora in the unique sociopolitics of Japan, which contrasts with Euro-America in important ways. While focused on Japan, data is put in conversation with dynamics in South and Southeast Asia. The lecture is structured as an overview of these themes and I encourage discussion that can inform the final manuscript.