Research Article: Worship and Devotional Life

Buddhist practice in East Asia extends across almost two millennia and several different religious cultures and languages. This means that there is a rich and complex set of practices to consider—far too many to attempt a comprehensive presentation within the scope of this article. The character of East Asian Buddhist practice differs both from that of the Western traditions, which have informed the way in which ritual and practice are understood in religious studies, and from many of the popular representations of Buddhism. These differences constitute a series of theoretical issues, which include the relation between the categories of ritual and meditation, the relation between local and translocal traditions of practice, the complex relation between practice and ideology, the social dimensions of East Asian Buddhist practice, the multivalence of practices, and the emic categories for types and structures of ritual practice. The following will discuss specific instances of East Asian...
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