Commoditization of the sacred: production and transaction of Buddhist statues in fifth- to tenth-century China

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article investigates the relationship between two seemingly opposite aspects of Buddhist statues: being both a sacred object and a commodity. By looking at their production and transaction processes, it examines how these medieval Buddhist statues were ‘singularized’ and ‘commoditized,’ as well as the activities of different social groups in relation to them. This article intends to shed some new light on the roles played by ‘sacred objects’ in medieval Chinese society, through studying how people actually perceived and interacted with them in diverse ways. It is suggested that the ambiguity of the nature of these statues – being both singular and common, sacred and commercial – entailed a host of new religious and economic practices which contributed to the wide spread of the religion in medieval China.