Why Is There a Museum Under a Buddha? The Tsz Shan Buddhist Monastery in Hong Kong

The Tsz Shan Monastery Buddhist Art Museum in Hong Kong, which opened in 2019, is one of the world’s largest Buddhist mega-projects with a state-of-the-art museum underneath a colossal Guanyin statue. The proliferation of Buddhist museums in Asia reflects a trend in contemporary Buddhism that has been neglected in academia. My PhD study seeks to understand this phenomenon in Greater China and what it can reveal about Chinese Buddhism through four cases, including the Tsz Shan Monastery Buddhist Art Museum. I will be visiting this museum in summer 2023 to gather archival materials and conduct pre-field research using ethnographic methods.