Douyin, with its English name TikTok, draws many Tibetan users. Among them, some instantly become “notorious ” online due to their critical attitude toward Buddhist Culture in Modern Tibetan society. Buddhist culture is not equivalent to profound religious philosophy or texts. It refers to rituals and behaviours which are practiced by the majority of people in everyday life. By adopting unobtrusive observation, this paper studies a vlogger’s story. What kind of videos does he make? What is the impact of his videos? Why does he make these videos?

His videos often draw many impolite comments since he courageously expresses his unhinged view of people’s religious practice. His understanding of some high-ranked monk’s words and behaviours draws much attention and hate. This paper explores the reason behind such a phenomenon. What are the key elements that lead to heated criticism and discussion? Why does the vlogger insist on creating these “unwelcomed” videos? This paper suggests that the key point of this story lies in the role of Buddhism in modern society. A drastic societal change brings many clashes between religious practice and everyday economic life. Thus, this research proposes that these “notorious” Tibetan vloggers are not opposing religion itself. Instead, they want to encourage ordinary people to be more with secular life so that people get more capital and agency in a modern society. One way of getting more involved with secular life, suggested by the vlogger, is reducing excessive donations and practicing time and rituals. As indicated by people’s hate comments, the vlogger’s criticism is unwelcomed, yet a portion of the voice still considers the vlogger as progressive and reasonable.

To Panel G11. Buddhism and its role Modernism in Asia

This paper plans to make a comparative reading of classical Chinese Buddhist text Lengyan jing (The Sūraṅgama Sūtra) and French philosopher Michel Serres (1930-2019)’s “philosophy of mingled bodies” as represented in his 1985 work Les Cinq Sens (The Five Senses: A Philosophy of Mingled Bodies (I) [2008]). Since the days of Freud, Bergeson and their contemporaries, a modern tradition has established itself which, aiming at the possible healing of the split between the empirical experience and abstract cognition, attempts a “return” to and reevaluation of human body. Contemporary French philosopher Michel Serres, by his simultaneously philosophical, scientific and poetic works, is a key speaker of this modern tradition. In The Five Senses, Serres refutes the conventional idea that treats senses as separate entities and takes senses as “exchangers” that are constantly subject to mutual interference. Moreover, the emphasis on bodily senses enables Serres to reestablish an immediate and concrete communication and contract between the modern self and the world, a tie that is freed from the tyranny of abstract reason, language, conception. As Serres maintains, through his review of bodily senses “we are re-establishing an equilibrium between what our predecessors called the empirical and the abstract, the sensible and the intellectual, data and synthesis even interference itself.”

A remote yet significant echo to Serres’s idea of senses can be found in classical Chinese Buddhist text Lengyan jing (The Sūraṅgama Sūtra). In volumes five and six of Lengyan jing, Buddha requires that his disciples illuminate on their various ways to enlightenment. Twenty-five disciples each make a statement, declaring that they either reach enlightenment through the concentration on six senses, six sensory organs, and the objects of the senses accordingly, or through a meditation on the seven basic elements. Different sensual organs, experiences and objects are distinct yet confluent at the same time, and there are essentially no differences between what ordinary people understand as subjective and objective, the self and the world. A revisit to the ancient Buddhist wisdom in the light of contemporary philosophy of Michel Serres may lead to the formation of an alternative pattern of modernization that draws on traditional Buddhist resource of East Asia and actively participates in the cross-cultural dialogues on the global intellectual and cultural frontier.

Keywords: body, senses, Lengyan jing (The Sūraṅgama Sūtra), Michel Serres

This paper shall try to explore the influence of Buddhist philosophy in modern Indian literature. I would also like to analyze Buddhism’s influence on Dalit literature.

Buddhist philosophy influenced modern Indian literature from two perspectives- (a) embracing the idea of peace and humanism in a violence-torn society and (b) presenting a counter-discourse against all social inequalities. Buddhism rejected the age-old oppressive caste system and advocated progressive values of life. Modern Indian authors including Rabindranath Tagore used Buddhist stories to compose poems and poetic dramas. Amalgamation of Buddhism, Upanishadic values and humanism strengthened the base of modern Indian poetry. Tagore’s idea of ‘dharma’ and ‘civilization’ surpassed the literal translation of these words. His poems based on ‘dhamma’ tales and buddhist legends portrayed a sharp criticism against all kind of religious dogmatism and the caste-system. Later other Bengali poets and authors took stoff from the Jataka stories and other Buddhist teachings and reshaped them to new literary texts to uphold the basic values of mankind. A few other modern Bengali writers authored literary texts based on Buddha’s life and his teachings.

One of the greatest Indian thinkers B. R. Ambedkar challenged the dogmatic Hidutvavadi structure and advocated to take refuge to Buddhism. Mahars and a few other Dalit communities spontaneously converted to Buddhism. Dalit literature and songs also became reshaped under the strong influence of Buddhist values. Dalit literature presented a counter-discourse to challenge the mainstream aesthetics and literary discourses. Rejecting Manusriti and other canonical texts dalit literature emerged as a new literary expression of the oppressed. To identify the problem of caste system and to challenge societal discriminations, Buddhist philosophy played a pivotal role in the modern Indian writings.

How did the stories and teachings of Buddha help to develop the literature of the ‘other’? How did the modern Indian authors present Buddhist philosophy as a subtly subversive text against the dominant cultural-religious discourse? I would like to answer these questions in my paper.

British Library manuscript S.3092, The Story of Daoming’s Return from the Dead,（道明還魂記） is a Buddhist miraculous tale （靈驗記）that recounts the protagonist’s journey through the underworld. Its primary purpose is to promote the image and faith of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva（地藏菩薩）. The story exemplifies how religion seeks to validate its authority by drawing on evidence from the Buddhist afterlife through miracle tales—one of the key characteristics of such narratives during that time. This paper introduces and transcribes The Story of Daoming’s Return from the Dead, analyzing its significance within the broader context of religious storytelling in the East Asian religious sphere.

Under the context of AI as compounded in the form of Large Language Models (hereinafter referred to as LLMs), there have resulted in the decreased translation rates and work volumes in respect to the consequences of issues related to translation ethics. In the age of AI, translation ethics have re-emerged as an issue that is worthy of researching in order to improve the performance and effectiveness of the industry. Now with the convergence of AI and LLMs, as well as the exceedingly and ever-increasingly fierce competition amongst all translation companies and linguists, those professionals and entities in the translation industry cannot compromise the issue of the new translation ethics. The paper discusses the aforesaid issues and provides solutions to the problem of the new translation ethics in the age of AI and LLMs. The new translation ethics comprises integrity; originality, efficiency, and the respect for IP protection, which are considered as the effective translation training and practice for a win-win situation accomplished amongst translators, the translation companies, and clients.