Dharma and Difference in Dar es Salaam: the first Chinese Buddhist mission in Tanzania

Tanhua Temple, founded in 2018, is the first Chinese Buddhist mission in Tanzania, and part of a broader expansion of Chinese Buddhist institutions across the continent. This dissertation describes the development of this Buddhist mission based on data gathered over one year of participant observation as a Chinese-English-Swahili interpreter and driver living in the temple (2023-24). At Tanhua Temple people of different religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Islam), languages (Chinese, Swahili, English), ethnicities (Tanzanian & Chinese), socio-economic statuses and other positionalities created what a highly pluralistic space. Applying a thick comparative approach to the problem of pluralism, this thesis extends discussions of comparison in anthropology to this mission space, with each chapter analysing a particular set of engagements that unfolded in social life. The thesis starts by describing the system at the core of Tanhua Temple, and then goes on to analyse the various groups that came into its orbit. Each chapter asks how people dealt with the problem of pluralism as they mapped out their differences, communicated across them, negotiated competing interests, and sometimes found new ways to live together. Chapter 1 traces the historical development of lay and monastic networks that led to Tanhua Temple’s founding and allowed it to develop independently after the collapse of its Beijing headquarters in 2018. By describing the Longquan and Tanhua System (tixi), I argue that the Buddhist System can serve as a new analytic category in the anthropology of Buddhism, and help us understand the driving forces behind Tanhua Temple. Chapter 2 describes the collaboration between the Abbot of Tanhua Temple and a charismatic local, arguing that the latter’s engagements constituted a cosmopolitan response to the problem of pluralism. Chapter 3 describes the growth of local Buddhist studies groups and their eventual decline, from the thickening of material, embodied and supernatural engagements grounded in polyontological pluralism, to their eventual thinning as expectations of patron-client relations lead to fractures in the relationship. Chapter 4 analyses the way the ‘merit model’ frames exchange relations between Tanhua Temple and its volunteers, employees, and recipients of its charitable donations. I describe the tensions, conflicts and compromises that result from a monist value framework coming into contact with a value plural context. Chapter 5 describes Tanhua Temple’s relationships with the Chinese diaspora, introducing the business people who acted as mediators between the temple and local actors throughout the process of land acquisition, the opening of an orphanage and a school. I also describe the temple’s redistributive function within the diaspora, as it received support from powerful institutions and redirected resources toward Chinese migrant labourers, traders, and children. Chapter 6 introduces the aspiring Tanzanian interpreters who volunteer at the temple to improve their Chinese and network with potential employers and partners, engaging with debates about language acquisition and power dynamics in Sino-Tanzanian spaces. Chapter 7 describes the Chinese backpackers who stay at Tanhua Temple, arguing that their pursuits of ‘civic intimacy’ (Ning & Palmer 2024) through travel and volunteering are attempts at reclaiming the present, and at rejecting the future-orientated values of the state, family and market. In conclusion, I synthesise three themes that emerge from this thesis, asking how engagements across religious, economic and linguistic differences shaped social life at Tanhua Temple and the other Chinese Buddhist institutions on the continent. I argue that mission spaces are structured by contested comparisons. This means they can be sites of friction, fracture and fusion, as social life is framed and reframed by the diverse people and institutions that come into their orbit.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Stapleton, Theodore

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Laidlaw, James

• Anthropology
• Buddhism
• China
• Tanzania

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/28574f79-f02e-407d-8725-24a31db73837/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

Author Identifier

0009-0004-1788-871X

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/397069