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2022-2023 Colloquium Series
The Tourism Studies Working Group is pleased to present
Neoliberalism, Religion, and Tourism:
A Study on the Hierarchical Construction of
Sacred Spaces
in Dalada Maligawa
(the Temple of the Tooth), Sri Lanka
Yuanyuan Yu
Associate Professor and Head of the Tourism Management
Yunnan Normal University, Kunming
Friday, April 28, 4PM-6PM PST
Hybrid Presentation:
In Person: Gifford Room, 221 Anthropology and Art Practice Bldg.
University of California, Berkeley
Also hosted on Zoom: join here*
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About the Presentation:
Nowadays, there is a tendency for consumerism and neoliberalism to combine and converge, thereby eroding the traditional boundaries between the religious/secular domains which are becoming blurred and more difficult to maintain. As we know,Sri Lanka, which advocates neoliberalism, declared bankruptcy during Covid19. As one of the most famous holy temples of Buddhism, a world heritage site and a major tourism destination, how does Dalada Maligawa (the Temple of the Tooth) maintain its traditions and sanctity under consumerism and neoliberalism? We will discuss the inner transition mechanism of the holy space from two perspectives. One is to show the order and power of the sacred space, that is the division mechanisms of the sacred space of the Dalada Maligawa. The other is the relation of temples to festivals, that is shifting boundaries and the principle of balance between the sacred and the secular. The topic attempts to respond to the problem of economic influences blurring the boundaries between the religious and secular spheres in order to make a positive case and a new paradigm in which the religious/secular distinction is not completely becoming impotent.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Yuanyuan Yu earned her PhD in Cultural Anthropology at Xiamen University in 2014. She is now Associate professor and Head of the Tourism Management Department of Yunnan Normal University, Kunming and a visiting scholar in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley in 2022-23. She is Director of the China Society of World Ethnology; Deputy Director of the Bay of Bengal Regional Research Center, National and Regional Research Center, Ministry of Education, China; and Distinguished Professor of South Asia Tourism Strategy Research Center, Guilin Tourism University. She has carried out field research in Sri Lanka for more than ten years, and her academic research specializes in tourism anthropology and South Asian studies.
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