Several years ago, I had a conversation with a Buddhist Westerner. In the course of our discussion, he expressed a firm belief that Christians should refrain from proselytizing among Tibetans. Curious, I asked him about his own journey to Buddhism, considering he was of European descent. He explained how he had attended a local Buddhist center in Australia. Finding Buddhism attractive, he embraced it. In light of his own opportunity to learn from Tibetan teachers who brought their faith to a region historically unfamiliar with Buddhism, I questioned why he opposed Christians sharing their faith with Tibetans. Shouldn’t everyone have the chance to explore and make informed choices about their spiritual path? He responded that, while this principle generally held true, Tibetans were particularly vulnerable and their culture needed special protection. His reasoning caught me off guard, sounding more like the cultural imperialism I think he meant to avoid.
A Biblical resistance to cultural conversion
The major world religions have spread through a variety of channels including missionaries, priests, teachers, merchants, immigrants, and emperors who transmitted their faiths to new regions. Yet, critics have often targeted Christian missionaries in particular for imposing cultural change on local populations. Indeed, some missionaries have been guilty of cultural imperialism, asserting their own cultural norms as inseparable from Christian doctrine. However, numerous other missionaries have promoted indigenous expressions of Christianity, encouraging and empowering local adherents who embrace the faith.
The Christian tradition has long wrestled with how to incorporate people into the faith, yet the New Testament sets a clear precedent for welcoming diverse tribes, nations, and languages without demanding cultural assimilation. At Pentecost (Acts 2), the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus’ disciples, birthing the early church and enabling people from across the known world to hear the gospel in their own languages. Language is a dynamic component of culture. It is significant that unlike many world religions which mandate learning a sacred language, Christianity has historically prioritized the vernacular of different peoples. The New Testament writers modeled this practice. By translating Jesus’ Aramaic teachings into Greek, the lingua franca of their time, they enabled and affirmed the integration of Hellenistic cultures abroad.
Furthermore, in the formative decades of the early Church, the Apostle Paul contended for the incorporation of non-Jewish people without imposing on them cultural conversion to Judaism (Acts 15). Instead, Paul took it upon himself to become like the non-Jews of what is now Turkey; his desire was that they remain in whatever state they were when they came to faith. He emphasized inner transformation of heart and mind while preserving cultural cohesion within their families, communities, and professions.
The dual dynamics of indigenization and pilgrimage
Andrew Walls (1996) described this cultural continuity and transformation as the twin impulses of indigenization and pilgrimage. Walls recognized that individuals cannot (and should not) be separated from their social relationships and societies. He termed the commitment to cultural continuity the “indigenization principle”: seeking “to live as a Christian and yet as a member of one’s own society, to make the Church . . . [a place to feel at home]” (p. 7). At the same time, Walls continued,
“Not only does God in Christ take people as they are: He takes them in order to transform them into what He wants them to be. Along with the indigenizing principle which makes his faith a place to feel at home, the Christian inherits the pilgrim principle, which whispers to him that he has no abiding city and warns him that to be faithful to Christ will put him out of step with his society; for that society never existed, in East or West, ancient time or modern, which could absorb the word of Christ painlessly into its system” (p. 8).
Cultural change with agency
An encounter with Christianity will bring a degree of cultural shift to any community who embraces it. But we should recognize that even without interaction with Christianity, no culture remains static. To borrow a theme from both Buddhist doctrine and the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, change is an enduring constant. An encounter with any religion, as with a myriad of other influences, will catalyze a degree of cultural change. Sometimes peoples and cultures find themselves acted upon by these influences, either unwillingly, or unwittingly, while at other times they respond proactively and lay out their own cultural course.
Tibetan culture has undeniably gone through many changes to become what it is today. Some of these permutations came through encounters with non-native religions, including both Buddhism and Bon (see Miner, 2024). Other changes came through intentional innovation from people like King Songzen Gampo, who united the various clans and lands of Tibetans, established Buddhism in Tibet, imported and developed a written script, and restructured institutions and laws (Thurman, 1997). Additionally, Tibetan culture has been shaped by internal conflicts, external imperial conquests like those of the Mongols, trade interactions, education, technological advancements, globalization, and the advent of social media.
Well-intentioned outsiders are misguided when they attempt to ‘protect’ Tibetans from cultural changes. Such efforts often reveal underlying biases, presuming that Tibetans require guidance on what to accept or reject. Cultural protectionism risks yet another manifestation of cultural imperialism. Instead, why not desire for Tibetans to have the same freedom to investigate and shape their culture in ways that seem good to them. Why not advocate for them to have the same agency that we so readily bequeath to ourselves?
A Christian perspective of cultures: creative capacity and human depravity
Tibetan culture is a rich and multi-stranded heritage, rooted in robust intellectual, spiritual, aesthetic, and social traditions. Like all cultures, it is an amalgamation of splendor and goodness, and the flaws and failings of human nature. A Christian perspective values the diversity and dignity of cultures as expressions of God-given creativity in his image bearers (Nehrbass, 2016).
Christians simultaneously recognize a fallen humanity, disconnected from their Creator. Every culture, despite its most positive manifestations, is also broken and corrupted because the people who shape it are out of sync with the one they are meant to reflect. It is not difficult to see the ways our own cultures are subject to virtue distorted by depravity, generosity intertwined with greed, and humility overshadowed by domination. We would be wise to recognize that no culture escapes such an endemic human nature. Christ’s mission is to reconcile us to our Creator, to heal, and to restore to wholeness our culturative capacity in him. But such transformation cannot be forced—it must involve invitation and acceptance.
Concluding thoughts
As a Christian, my intent is not to impose or coerce my religious beliefs onto Tibetans, or any other group of people. Rather, I seek to share the profound love, abundant life, healing, and redemption of the Lord of Compassion, the Prince of Peace. It is for Tibetans to grapple with the teachings of Jesus, and to decide for themselves whether they will receive and take refuge in him.
Of course, my deep desire is to enjoy the company of Tibetans as brothers and sisters in the family of faith, and to witness the Spirit’s transforming work refine and enhance the beauty and brilliance in Tibetan culture. In embracing Jesus, I believe that Tibetans do not stop being Tibetan but rather become their most authentic and true selves. I eagerly anticipate and celebrate the already emerging indigenous expressions of Tibetan Christianity. I also welcome the invaluable insights and the deepening of the Christian understanding of God that our Tibetan brothers and sisters offer through their unique cultural vantage points and the wisdom of the Spirit at work in them.
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References
Miner, T. (2024, August 8). The three religious streams of Tibet | Tea House Conversations. ButterTea.World. https://sarasotamarketingdesign.com/2024/08/08/the-three-religious-streams-of-tibet/
Thurman, R. A. F. (1997). Essential Tibetan Buddhism. Castle Books.
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