MEDITATION FIRST... THEN COOKIES. An ethnographic study on a Tibetan Buddhism association in Göteborg, Sweden

Abstract

The paper investigates how Tibetan Buddhism is produced and interpreted in a Swedish association run by laypeople. Data has been collected through ethnographic fieldwork using participant observation, and formal and informal interviews as investigative methods. The essay's main focus is on how Tibetan Buddhism teachings are interpreted in a non-meditation culture (in this case, a Swedish culture) by Buddhist laypeople operating without a dedicated lama organizing the teachings. Theories of cultural transmission, down-and-up practices, the "making of place" to ease transmission of foreign cultural elements, hybridity, and languages' function in constructing cultural environments are used to analyze the data. Results show that transmission is facilitated by a combination of mix of language, a sense of fellowship within the group, and incorporation of domestic, Swedish elements alongside the Tibetan aspects. A sense of assisted cultural transmission aids in making foreign concepts comprehensible for Western Buddhist practitioners.