SINHAS Vol 28 No 1 Seika Sato

Women Read Scriptures: Changing Religious Practice in Hyolmo, Before and After the 2015 Earthquake

Seika Sato

Abstract
This article attempts to explicate the change in religious practice in Hyolmo observed in the aftermath of the 2015 Earthquake, which devastated most physical constructions of their focal religious institution (Buddhist temple) and brought their traditional communal religious practice to a near halt. In the aftermath, with sharp contrast to the demise, if temporal, of the traditional practice presided by male religious specialists (lamas), religious scripture reading by lay village women became visibly vibrant there. By situating this women’s reading practice into broader context, the article finds out how it gained momentum: It did in the face of growing difficulties to uphold village religious tradition as was practiced until the earthquake (with its growing depopulation, with dwindling prospects to recruit young boys for lamas, and with erosion of village lamas’ authority under the exposure to greater Tibetan Buddhist tradition beyond Hyolmo, etc.), on one hand, and of multi-faceted changes concerning women themselves (their rise in socio-economic status with their visible monetary contribution via migrant work, their newly found leisure amidst their continued exclusion from the secular public sphere, and a changing view of women on the part of Hyolmo men including lamas, etc.), on the other.

Keywords: Buddhism, Gender, Disaster, Religion, Social Change