Paper short abstract:

Taking inspiration from the anthropology of ethics, this paper suggests that friendship may be studied in both everyday and extraordinary contexts. Focusing on Han Chinese practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, it explores the poignancy and limitations of 'Dharma friendship' at an extraordinary time.

Paper long abstract:

This paper engages the methodological question of how we study friendship by drawing inspiration from the anthropology of ethics, which explores moral life in ordinary and extraordinary contexts. I ground my discussion in my long-term ethnographic research on Han Chinese engagement with Tibetan Buddhism in China, where ‘Dharma friendship’ serves as a principal institution and organising principle within Buddhist communities, particularly in the absence of robust formal institutions.

Dharma friendship, as lived in these settings, typically involves mutual support, spiritual camaraderie, and shared moral commitments. Yet these relationships can also be marked by partiality and limitations. While Dharma friendships often foster profound interconnectedness and care, they can also obscure the full human complexity of those involved, limiting the ability to recognise and respond to deep personal struggles.

To explore this tension, I focus on an extraordinary case: the suicide of a mutual Dharma friend and the processes of meaning-making that followed among her friends and fellow practitioners. Seen from a certain perspective, this event revealed both the poignancy and limitations of Dharma friendships. While we reflected on our shared experiences with, and commitments to, our deceased friend, we also grappled with the ways our relationships had failed to apprehend or address the nature of her situation fully.

Through this case, I highlight how extraordinary circumstances amplify and expose dynamics latent in everyday contexts. This approach advances the anthropology of friendship by advocating attention to how friendships are lived, understood, and contested in their routine unfolding and moments of rupture.