Religious and Ethnic Revival in a Chinese Minority

This book, based on extensive original research among the Bai people considers how majority-minority ethnic relations have evolved over time. It discusses amongst many other issues how local religions emphasise ancestor cults which reinforce minorities’ sense of their separate ethnicity, and concludes by assessing how these important issues are likely to develop.

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This book is based on anthropological fieldwork among the Bai, an ethnic minority with a population of two million in Dali, southwest China. It explores the religious and ethnic revival in the last two decades against a historical background. It explains why and how religions and ethnic identity are revived in contemporary China, with the revived analytical concept of "alterity", which suggests a world beyond here and now. The book focuses on the particular institutions and ritual technologies that seek for access to the invisible, transcendental other—both spatial and temporal. It covers a variety of topics, including pre-modern kingship, modern utopia, religious alterity, ethnic identity, religious associations, the Intangible Cultural Heritage, and temple restorations.