A Chan Female Temple Network in the Context of Religious Transmission: the Dajinshan Network in Jiangxi Province

Dajinshansi 大金山寺 (the Great Monastery of the Golden Mountain) is a Chan female monastic complex located near the prefecture-level city of Fuzhou in Jiangxi Province. Built in 2000 as an expansion of the Jinshan 金山 Monastery, it accommodates about 300 nuns and novices, including the students of the Buddhist academy. This article considers the network of about seven temples that have been built or rebuilt in the last twenty years as sub-temples of, or as monasteries informally affiliated to, Dajinshansi. By analyzing the main patterns and features connecting this constellation of temples to their parent monastery, this case study sheds light on the social, geographical, and institutional logics and dynamics behind the formation of a local Buddhist temple network and assesses the meaning and function of this female network, at both the local and the national level, as a form and a means of religious transmission.