Diaspora’s Dharma: Buddhist Connections across the South China Sea,1900–1949 Jack Meng-Tat Chia Department of History, National University of Singapore, Singapore ABSTRACT The restoration of Nanputuo Monastery (Nanputuo si 南普陀寺) in Xiamen and the revival of its South China Sea Buddhist networks in recent decades are significant factors in the religious resurgence in southeast China since the reform and open-door period. This article looks at an earlier role of such net- works in this region, using Nanputuo Monastery as a case study, to explore the transregional Buddhist connections between southeast China and the Chinese diaspora from the turn of the twentieth century to 1949. It argues that new patterns of Buddhist mobility contributed to the circulation of people, ideas, and resources across the South China Sea. I show that, on the one hand, Buddhist monks and religious knowledge moved along these networks from China to Southeast Asia, while money from wealthy overseas Chinese was channelled along the networks for temple building in China; on the other hand, Buddhist monks relied on the networks to support China’s war effort and facilitate their relocation to Southeast Asia during the Sino–Japanese War. Examining these networks also explains the emergence of modernist Chinese Buddhism throughout Southeast Asia in the early to mid-twentieth century. Introduction In 1982, Venerable Miaozhan (妙湛, 1910–1995) was appointed director of the monastery management committee of Nanputuo Monastery (Nanputuo si 南 普陀寺). 1 Six years after the destructive Cultural Revolution that lasted from 1966 to 1976, Miaozhan was determined to restore the monastery to its former glory as a major Buddhist intellectual centre in southeast China. He immediately began to revive the Buddhist networks connecting the city of Xiamen (廈門) and the Chinese diaspora. The monk was successful in receiv- ing overseas Chinese financial support, particularly donations from monks and devotees in Southeast Asia. By the late 1980s, the monastery’s original compound had been restored (see Figure 1), and there was an ambitious project underway to expand Minnan Buddhist Institute (Minnan foxue yuan 閩 南佛學院), and build a new mediation hall, library, abbot’s residence and guest facilities (Wank 2009, 134–135). The restoration of Nanputuo Monastery CONTACT Jack Meng-Tat Chia jackchia@nus.edu.sg CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM 2020, VOL. 21, NOS. 1–2, 33–50 https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2020.1723285 © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group