Research Updates

Katriina Hulkkonen and Linda Annunen, Åbo Akademi University

In the Recovira project, we examine the effects of the pandemic in three distinct types of religious communities: in a large, majority, or institutional community with extensive resources, in a firmly established minority community, and in a less established, often newer, community. In Finland, we chose the local Vietnamese Buddhist community for the project to represent the latter, i.e. newer, community. The Vietnamese Buddhist community is a rather small and rather recently established religious community with a quite modest level of organization. The community has been active in Finland since the 1980s (especially since the 90s) and at present host three temples in different parts of Southern Finland. Its estimated number of members is ca 6,400. (See Härkönen and Cairns 2023.)

For the research project, we interviewed members of the Vietnamese Buddhist community, such as the monk, and elderly members, and conducted participant observation at their most important annual celebrations. The community members emphasized the importance of their local temple. In the community, the activities focused specifically on gathering in the temple for prayer or annual celebrations. The construction of the temple in Finland was already significant for the community, as its purpose was to preserve the Vietnamese tradition for younger generations. Based on interview and observation data, the pandemic particularly affected the organization of community events.  

Due to the pandemic, many religious communities examined by the Recovira project moved their rituals and social events to digital platforms. Instead, the local Vietnamese Buddhist community organized small-scale events face-to-face, in connection with some activities and within the limits of gathering restrictions at the temple. According to our interviewees, the community did not have unambiguous rules for who could participate in these events, but it was restricted to the active members of the community at the time. In addition to social effects, the restrictions on gatherings had negative economic impact for the temple community, which the other two communities in our project – The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and Jehovah's Witnesses, did not experience to the same extent. Similar economic differences between mainstream and minority religions have also been observed in previous pandemic research. The temple we examined collected donations during large celebrations, so the decrease in the number of people participating in the temple events directly affected the community's finances. For the community, this meant, for example, postponing some investments. After the pandemic, the community had sought to organize larger annual celebrations (e.g., the central Vu Lan festival) by investing in marketing and programming.

Sources:
Härkonen, Mitra, and Johannes Cairns (eds.) 2023. Buddhalaisuus Suomessa. Helsinki: Suomen Itämainen Seura.