Religiosity, Productivity, and Community-Building

Abstract Productive capacity of religious rituals is essential for production in historical and contemporary Buddhist economies, and ritualized and collectivized consumption of resources is essential for reproduction of such economies. By taking an ethnographic approach to a contemporary Buddhist community, this article contributes toward critically examining the overreliance on scriptural sources in the study of Buddhist economics. The predominant use of textual principles for describing and theorizing Buddhist economic principles and practices has led to the erroneous labeling of Buddhism as an ‘uneconomic’ religion. By examining a diasporic Bhutanese Buddhist community and its community-building processes, one can identify productive tensions between doctrinal principles and quotidian economic imperatives. The article unpacks how these tensions are resolved in generative and pragmatic ways through discursive solidarity practices between charismatic Buddhist figures and their faithful adherents. In doing so, this article heuristically theorizes new ways of describing Buddhist economy, and the people's pragmatic everyday strategies and outcomes.