Gifts and the Selfless Work Ethic in Tibetan Buddhist Centres in France.

Tibetan Buddhism has gained ground in France since it arrived there in the 1970s. As the most publicized form and the one most practised by Westerners, Tibetan Buddhism is embodied in France in many places of worship-some of which are of monumental proportions-run by Tibetan and Western masters (lamas). In France, ' dharma centres', as places of worship, cannot be subsidized by the State like other faiths (with some exceptions): their main source of income comes from the donations (in various forms) from disciples and other sympathizers. The Buddhist meritorious gift takes very different forms here, depending on French cultural, institutional and legal constraints. Moreover, donation practices have adapted to the masters' new public: a Western audience from a Christian background, which is unfamiliar with Buddhism and the meritorious gift, and which on the whole has to pay for Buddhist teachings. Dharma centres also offer a wide variety of religious services in exchange for payments-in effect, market exchanges that are dissimulated behind a euphemized discourse of the 'gift'. Bourdieu's analysis therefore proves relevant to our understanding of the giving practices recorded during our fieldwork. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]