Religious leisure, heritage and identity construction- A case of Tibetan college students

ABSTRACT

Engagement with heritage is a potential site for the exploration, creation and re-creation of identity. Leisure, a cultural manifestation, provides a path to the better understanding of heritage and identity construction. The purpose of this paper is to explore how religious leisure, particularly circumambulation and pilgrimage, contributes to the building of identity. Nine Tibetan students in a key university in eastern China were selected for interview by snowball sampling. Results show that their religious leisure is not only a way to experience and keep their heritage, but it also plays an essential role in their identity formation, which fell into three stages, i.e. identity development, identity maintenance and identity moderation/reconstruction. This research reflects the call for interdisciplinary studies between leisure and heritage studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Religious leisure
• heritage
• identity
• Tibetans

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to extend their sincere gratitude to Ms. Yao Yuanyuan, a doctoral candidate at School of International Studies, Zhejiang University, for her generous contributions and comments on the first draft of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/928346.shtml.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation [LY19D010013]; Zhejiang Provincial Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project [18NDJC16YB].

Notes on contributors

Huimei Liu

Huimei Liu Ph.D, is a professor of the Department of Philosophy, the Asia Pacific Centre for the Education and Study of Leisure, Zhejiang University, and School of International, Zhejiang University, China. Her major research interest is leisure studies.

Jiawen Fu

Jiawen Fu, is a MA graduate from School of International Studies, Zhejiang University. She is currently a project manager at China Chamber of International Commerce Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce, Hangzhou, China. Her research interest is leisure studies.