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Dan Smyer Yü's book The Spread of Tibetan Buddhism in China: Charisma, Money, Enlightenment is a welcome addition to the growing scholarly literature on the revival of religion in the People's Republic of China and the appropriation of non-Chinese religions and cultural expressions by Han Chinese. Although the study of Han Chinese devotees interested in Tibetan Buddhism is not new to the academic community, this is the first monograph that studies this phenomenon in present-day China.
Yü communicates his findings in eight chapters in which he lays out his arguments in an articulate and sophisticated manner. Yü offers insights into the reasons why, on the one hand, many Han Chinese are interested in Tibetan Buddhism, and on the other, the new Han Chinese Buddhist communities are not just "communitas" in Victor Turner's sense but also virtual communities in the cyberspace imagination. Yü offers an innovative analysis of Tibetan Buddhism as it is embedded in the modern Chinese state, placing his analyses within the interpretative framework of a broader and transnational phenomenon.
One of Yü's major concerns is the world of tulkus or "reincarnate lamas" (which, as in innumerable other instances, he spells incorrectly as spral sga [p. 7] instead of sprul sku). He analyses the renewed role of tulkus as charismatic leaders representative of "a collective religio-spiritual phenomenon in Tibet" (p. 30). Although commendable, Yü's revision of Weberian charisma is soon overshadowed by the less successful attempt...