Propagating Digital Dharma: The Possibilities and Politics of Reinventing Buddhist Meaning in a Digital Age

Shee, Siew Ying

Abstract

This chapter explores digital media as a vital site for facilitating religious growth in this digital age. Facing a “declining” number of Buddhists in recent years, many young Buddhists in Singapore are increasingly turning to propagating religion to non-Buddhists through digital media platforms. For many Buddhist youths, engaging with digital media not only opened up new avenues in negotiating the tensions of propagating religion in a multireligious society. Such mediatized spaces can also facilitate the expression and remaking of new religious meaning and pieties beyond traditional religious institutions and other urban spaces. Beyond these possibilities, propagating dharma through digital media is also often fraught with politics, most notably the politics of translating languages and cultures of East Asian origins into simplified memes, stickers, and English texts. By attending to both the possibilities and politics of “reinventing” religious meaning through everyday digital practices, this chapter problematises the dualism between religion and the (secular) digital, emphasising how religions are and have always been ‘mediatised’. It also provides a useful counterbalance to dominant accounts of religious engagement efforts often narrated from perspectives of leaders and organizations.

Citation

Shee, S. Y. (2025). Propagating Digital Dharma: The Possibilities and Politics of Reinventing Buddhist Meaning in a Digital Age. In Handbook of the Geographies of Religion (1011-1029). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-64811-3_55

• Online Publication Date: Sep 27, 2024
• Publication Date: 2025
• Deposit Date: Dec 9, 2024
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 1011-1029
• Series Title: Springer International Handbooks of Human Geography
• Book Title: Handbook of the Geographies of Religion
• ISBN: 9783031648106; 9783031648113
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-64811-3_55
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3211722
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1007/978-3-031-64811-3
• Additional Information: First Online: 27 September 2024