Lecture: Repositioning Women in the History of Chinese Buddhism: Case studies from the Late Qing and Republican Sichuan
9. Apr 2026 @ 16:00 - 18:00
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Dr. Stefania Travagnin
Repositioning Women in the History of Chinese Buddhism: Case studies from the Late Qing and Republican Sichuan
Location: KWZ. 0.609
Time: 09. April (Thursday) 2026, 16:00-18:00 CET
Zoom Link: https://uni-goettingen.zoom-x.de/j/65461522559?pwd=xFzg0W5tTRse8dDjbHK92ga9HrHD2t.1
Abstract
The history of Chinese Buddhism has too often been told as a story of male monks, with particular emphasis on a select group of “eminent” figures. I propose a different approach by centering female communities—especially small nunneries—and attending to the so-far unheard voices of Buddhist women. As my findings show, Buddhist women have not simply witnessed the unfolding of history; they have been active agents in making it.
My research is based on archival research and multi-year fieldwork conducted in both urban and rural areas of Sichuan, encompassing one hundred temples and their resident nuns, as well as several institutes of Buddhist studies that had been established for lay Buddhist women and nuns’ education. In this talk, I will highlight the leadership roles nuns played in the religious sphere and in local communities from the late Qing and Republican periods to the present day. Based on recurring patterns and areas of excellence in my data, I have so far identified seven main themes that best illustrate Buddhist women in late Qing and Republican Sichuan: (1) entrepreneurship in education and culture; (2) inner-Sangha relations and networks; (3) involvement in wars; (4) the building or revival of Buddhist sites; (5) historiography and memorialization strategies; (6) life on sacred mountains; and (7) spiritual and societal authority. I will also offer methodological and theoretical reflections that formed the foundations of my work and that may serve as models for similar future studies.
This study aims to advance an alternative history in which nuns are protagonists, the marginal becomes exemplary, and the very notion of “eminence” is redefined; it unfolds a page of history that both complements and challenges the official (male) narrative of modern Chinese Buddhism, while illuminating the distinctive local features of Sichuan Buddhism.
Short Bio
Stefania Travagnin is a Reader in Chinese Buddhism at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where she also chairs the Centre of Buddhist Studies. Her interdisciplinary work focuses on Buddhism and Buddhist communities in modern China and Taiwan, from the late nineteenth century to the present. As co-director of the project “Mapping Religious Diversity in Modern Sichuan,” initially supported by a Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange Research Grant (2017–2023), she has examined Buddhist communities in Sichuan, with particular attention to nuns and nunneries in the late Qing and Republican eras. She has recently completed a British Academy–funded project (2024–2025) on Tzu Chi humanitarianism beyond Asia. Travagnin has edited and co-edited several volumes, including Religion and Media in China: Insights and Case Studies from the Mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong (Routledge 2016), the three-volume publication Concepts and Methods for the Study of Chinese Religions (De Gruyter 2019–2020), and Buddhism and International Humanitarian Law (Routledge 2023); she is editor-in-chief of Review of Religion and Chinese Society.