Gongga Laoren (1903-1997): Her Role in the Spread of Tibetan Buddhism in Taiwan

Through the biography of an unusual Manchu Chinese female devotee who contributed to the spread of Tibetan Buddhism in Taiwan, the book provides a new angle at looking at Sino-Tibetan relations by bringing issues of gender, power, self-representation, and globalization. Gongga Laoren’s life, actions and achievements show the fundamental elements behind the successful implementation of Tibetan Buddhism in a Han cultural environment and highlights a process that has created new expectations within communities, either Tibetan or Taiwanese, working in political, economic, religious and social contexts that have evolved from martial law in the 1960s to democratic rule today.

Fabienne Jagou, Ph.D. with habilitation (1999, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris) is Senior Associate Professor at the École française d’Extrême-Orient. She has published widely on the modern Sino-Tibetan political and cultural history and is the author of The 9th Panchen Lama (1883-1937): A Life at the Crossroads of Sino-Tibetan Relations, Chiang Mai, Silkworm/EFEO, 2011 and the editor of The hybridity of Buddhism: Contemporary Encounters between Tibetan and Chinese traditions in Taiwan and the Mainland, Paris, EFEO (Coll. ＂Études thématiques no. 29＂), 2018.