TY - JOUR
T1 - Buddha as a god
T2 - An empirical assessment
AU - Purzycki, Benjamin Grant
AU - Holland, Edward C.
PY - 2019/10
Y1 - 2019/10
N2 - For at least a century, scholars have argued about whether or not Buddha is considered a god. We treat this question empirically by conducting two ethnographic studies among residents of the Tyva Republic, one of the Buddhist republics in the Russian Federation. Using a mixed methods approach to interrogate the question, this report concludes that Buddha is, in fact, popularly represented as a punitive and moralistic supernatural agent in the republic and demographic factors co-vary with such beliefs. The paper addresses longstanding concerns and situates the results in contemporary social scientific inquiry that addresses questions of when, where, to what degree, and why he is represented as a deity.
AB - For at least a century, scholars have argued about whether or not Buddha is considered a god. We treat this question empirically by conducting two ethnographic studies among residents of the Tyva Republic, one of the Buddhist republics in the Russian Federation. Using a mixed methods approach to interrogate the question, this report concludes that Buddha is, in fact, popularly represented as a punitive and moralistic supernatural agent in the republic and demographic factors co-vary with such beliefs. The paper addresses longstanding concerns and situates the results in contemporary social scientific inquiry that addresses questions of when, where, to what degree, and why he is represented as a deity.
KW - Buddhism
KW - ethnographic methods
KW - cognitive anthropology
KW - Tyva Republic
KW - gods
U2 - /10.1163/15700682-12341453
DO - /10.1163/15700682-12341453
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0943-3058
VL - 31
SP - 347
EP - 375
JO - Method and Theory in the Study of Religion
JF - Method and Theory in the Study of Religion
IS - 4-5
ER -