Dan Smyer Yü's book The Spread of Tibetan Buddhism in China: Charisma, Money, Enlightenment is a welcome addition to the growing scholarly literature on the revival of religion in the People's Republic of China and the appropriation of non-Chinese religions and cultural expressions by Han Chinese. Although the study of Han Chinese devotees interested in Tibetan Buddhism is not new to the academic community, this is the first monograph that studies this phenomenon in present-day China.

Yü communicates his findings in eight chapters in which he lays out his arguments in an articulate and sophisticated manner. Yü offers insights into the reasons why, on the one hand, many Han Chinese are interested in Tibetan Buddhism, and on the other, the new Han Chinese Buddhist communities are not just “communitas” in Victor Turner's sense but also virtual communities in the cyberspace imagination. Yü offers an innovative analysis of Tibetan Buddhism as it is embedded in the modern Chinese state, placing his analyses within the interpretative framework of a broader and transnational phenomenon.

One of Yü's major concerns is the world of tulkus or “reincarnate lamas” (which, as in innumerable other instances, he spells incorrectly as spral sga [p. 7] instead of sprul sku). He analyses the renewed role of tulkus as charismatic leaders representative of “a collective religio-spiritual phenomenon in Tibet” (p. 30). Although commendable, Yü's revision of Weberian charisma is soon overshadowed by the less successful attempt to characterize the Tibetan notion of tulku through the lens of various “supernatural forces” and linguistic and culture-specific concepts such as the Melanesian mana (p. 33). Thus for Yü “charisma is collective in nature while incarnated in a human body and manifested in the physical surrounding of its incarnation” (p. 33). But particularly insightful are Yü's interpretations of tulkus and charismatic religious figures as interacting in a world where both humans and divinities such as mountain spirits coexist and thus engage in an exchange between “the power of the land and the power of the people” (p. 55).

Another important contribution that this book brings to the understanding of contemporary Tibet is the author's analysis of the growing interest of Han Chinese devotees' in Tibetan Buddhism and his elaboration on the “cacophony of communitas” (p. 86) both as physical communities (pp. 86–98) and virtual entities gathering “Buddhist netizens” in the creation of new “cyber sects” (p. 118). Since the 1980s reforms, and encouraged by the Chinese state's approved constitutional rights of religious belief and revival of religious practice, Chinese Buddhism has become a “worldly Buddhism” increasingly conforming itself to a “market of religion” (p. 104), leading many Chinese temples and monasteries to experience internal corruption and growing criticisms (p. 105). Such a phenomenon has triggered a “Dharma crisis” among Han Chinese Buddhists (pp. 107, 126) spurring in many of them a turn towards Tibet in search of spiritual fulfilment. The author examines how communication technology has facilitated such a transition vis-à-vis the growing commercialization, development and corruption of Chinese Buddhism in relation to the market economy (pp. 105–106). However, while Yü's arguments about the centrality of patronage, financial support through donations, and economic exchange in the revival of both monastic and non-monastic Buddhist institutions are valid, the phenomena he observes are not as new a feature of Tibetan or Chinese Buddhism as the author believes. Capitalizing on the image of Chinese Buddhists offering their “humility” in the service of Tibetan “Living Buddhas” (p. 107, Yü's English translation of the Chinese term huofo, which he incorrectly uses to render the Tibetan notion of tulku or “reincarnate master”), Yü announces that “Tibetan Buddhism is not immune from this money-environment of China” (p. 16). Yü elaborates that “the monastic system is currently being invaded by the forces of money from a market economy” (p. 16), and concludes that “Tibetan Buddhism is simultaneously a vehicle of Buddhist enlightenment, a commercial tool, and a political instrument” (p. 173). Not only have religion and politics gone hand in hand in Tibet until very recently, but Buddhist monastic patronage, politics and economics have been tightly tied for centuries.

Yü succeeds in making the reader aware of the intricacies of the relationship between Tibetan master and Han Chinese disciple, especially considering the new dynamics that generate this rapport in contemporary China. He points out that “Tibetan Buddhism in contemporary China is unprecedentedly in demand” (p. 120) but he also boldly claims that “money remains the most effective means towards Buddhist enlightenment because it allows for greater access to teachers and their teachings” (p. 121). Additionally, while the study addresses Tibetan Buddhism in general, throughout the book the Nyingma school (“at least 300 years older than its contemporary counterparts, such as the Gelukpa, Sakyapa, and Kagyupa”? [p. 21]) claims more attention. Yü employs ethnographic data gathered in the field about several individuals from the well-known and already discussed Buddhist figures such as the late Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok, Khenpo Sonam Darje (“currently the Tantric Dharma star in China,” p. 123), to less known charismatic masters such as the “Tantric yogi” Lungdok Rinpoche from Rachekyi in Qinghai, who leads a small community of local yogis and who is also Yü's main informant. Examining the conversation between “territorial charisma” emanated by “spirit mountains” (gnas ri, p. 53) and “soul mountains” (bla ri, p. 53) that manifest themselves through “eco-theophany” in the local landscape (p. 61) and the human participation in the sacred performance of the ritualized order (p. 66), the author concludes that humans achieve “a regulatory role in their ecological environment” while “the territorial charisma of the community becomes an integral part of the tulku's charisma” (p. 71).

Overall, the study succeeds in depicting the complex dynamics of Tibetan Buddhism in present-day China. However, the considerable number of historical inaccuracies, Buddhism-related errors, the lack of a standardized system of Tibetan spelling, and over-theoretical jargon would make it difficult to approach for non-specialized students.