Reconfiguring Buddhism for Youth in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Abstract

Abstract Across Vietnam, since the mid-2000s, there has been a proliferation of Buddhist programs for youth. These programs, organized by monastics and/or lay Buddhists, often collaboratively, have taken place both inside and outside of temple spaces, with the aim of educating young Vietnamese in Buddhist teachings, practices, and ethics. This chapter, based on extensive fieldwork, examines Buddhist youth programs at two Buddhist temples in Ho Chi Minh City, one promoting a strong modernist interpretation of Buddhism and the other a combination of Buddhist devotionalism and modernism. These two case studies highlight the diversity of Buddhist youth programs in contemporary Vietnam, in their forms, contents, and pedagogies. More importantly, they demonstrate how in responding to the interests and lived experiences of lay youth, monastics need to reconfigure relationships and boundaries between monastics and lay followers, between devotional and modernist Buddhisms, and between tradition and modernity.