The spiritual or secular tourist? The experience of Zen meditation in Chinese temples

Tourism Management 65 (2018) 187e199

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The spiritual or secular tourist? The experience of Zen meditation in Chinese temples Ting Jiang a, Chris Ryan b, Chaozhi Zhang a, c, * a

School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China China-New Zealand Tourism Research Unit, The University of Waikato Management School, Waikato, New Zealand c UIUC-SYSU International Joint Lab for National Park Research (Zhangjiajie), Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China b

h i g h l i g h t s  Participant observation of Chinese tourists at a Zen mediation camp.  Analyses the experience of tourists classified as inward or outward directed.  Examines the role of temple, rituals and landscape in the formation of tourist experience.  Assesses the flows between secular and sacred understandings by tourists at the mediation camp.

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Received 17 July 2017 Received in revised form 2 October 2017 Accepted 10 October 2017

By exploring the meditation camps in Nuonatayuan and Hongfa Temples, the paper examines what motivates tourists to experience Zen meditation in Chinese temples, and how they shape those experiences. The study is based on participant observation and thus includes material drawn from observation, informal and formal interviews, personal experiences and secondary documentation. From the analysis, it can be seen that the meditative experience includes sacred and secular experiences, while in the commercial setting the experience shifts to and fro between secularism and sacredness. It is noted that the tourist context of separation from daily life, the landscape values of the locations, the temple atmosphere, the sharing of experiences with like-minded individuals, contact with monks and mentors all contribute to the senses of personal wellness that participants obtain. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Zen meditation Experience Tourism context Sacred Secular

1. Introduction Within China, and more globally, Zen Meditation has gained recognition as a tourism product in recent years, thereby adding to the range of tourism experiences that promise spiritual, psychological and potential health benefits. According to statistics cited on the Buddhism Channel of the Chinese web services of Tencent, over one hundred Chinese temples have been holding themed meditation camps since 2014. Tourists come to the temples, eating, working, meditating and living with the monks during the period of the ‘meditation camps’, hoping to find solutions to personal problems, to simply add to their experiences of life, or alternatively

* Corresponding author. School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (T. Jiang), [email protected]. nz (C. Ryan), [email protected] (C. Zhang). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2017.10.008 0261-5177/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

to escape daily pressures (Cooper, 1991; Sadhra, Shaver, & Brown, 2010). Certainly, in a wider context, evidence exists that Vipassana, a form of meditation derived from Theravada Buddhism (Gunaratana, 2002; Young, 1997), has provided significant benefits in stress release (Davis & Hayes, 2011) and therefore possesses a potential for achieving these objectives. Therefore, in some instances the experience might be cathartic and while the initial purchase of such an experience may be motivated by a wish to relax, some may be converted to Buddhism (Tweed, 1999). This type of potential result raises interesting questions such as, what motivates tourists to engage in Zen mediation camps, what did those tourists experience and how was this transformation produced? And are these experiences entirely physiological in nature, or do the tourists attain some sense of the spiritual? The purpose of this paper is three-fold. First it seeks to examine the concepts of the Zen mediation camp within the wider literature

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of religious tourism, and in doing so seek to locate the discussion in a Chinese contemporary and historical context. Second, it then examines the process of participation in a Zen Meditation camp from two perspectives. The first is based on a research method of participatory observation, while a second perspective is premised on the shared statements made by other participants at two meditation centers. The final section of the paper seeks to draw out themes, and so contribute to the literature on tourism and spirituality by this examination of the hitherto little researched phenomenon of Zen Meditation camps in China.

differs from that described in the west (Zhang, Huang, and Wang, 2007). For example, Zen meditation in Chinese temples is often organized with fixed activities and strict rules, and tourists wishing to participate may well be required to complete questionnaires before being permitted to join the rituals of Zen meditation. This therefore differs from the practices associated Buddhist or Taoist sites for festivals as described for example by Ryan and Gu (2010) or Wong, McIntosh, and Ryan (2016).

2. Literature review

3.1. Sacred and secular in religious tourism

Current studies on meditation, pilgrimage and religious tourism primarily adopt perspectives derived from psychology, medical science or religious studies in an attempt to measure the effect of pray and meditation on an individual's sense of well-being and behavior (Wu & Lin, 2001). Hence researchers have sought to explain the experiences in terms of addressing anomie generated by a consumerist, secular society (e.g. Smith & Kelly, 2006) while Opdebeeck and Habisch (2011), in the Chinese context, talk of the need to rediscover the ‘soul’ of Chinese classical culture. Sharf (1995), however, suggests that some care needs to be taken when seeking to define meditative experiences, arguing the latter term is over-used due to a western influence on Vipassana, and that one should pay more heed to the “key technical terms relating to Buddhist praxis, including Samatha (concentration), vipasjand ~
a (insight), samddhi (trance), samdpatti (higher attainment), prajin (wisdom), smrti (mindfulness), srotadpatti (stream-entry), kensho (seeing one's nature), satori (understanding), and even makyo (realm of illusion)” (Sharf, 1995, p.231). He suggests that conventionally these are “interpreted phenomenologically: (and) are assumed to designate discrete “states of consciousness” experienced by Buddhist practitioners in the midst of their meditative practice” (Sharf, 1995, p.231). He also suggests that traditionally the meditative was not a key part of monastic life, but was a twentieth century invention (or reform), and this awareness of the reform movement is significant when seeking to understand the current “product” or “service” being offered in meditation “camps”. For its part, the tourism literature represents a focus on tourists (Eade & Sallnow, 1991), which requires researchers to care more about what tourists actually say. As Collins-Kreiner (2010, p. 451) notes, “the visitor experience, whether we refer to it as pilgrimage or tourism, is in fact not homogeneous and comprises different types. The motivations of visitors are also highly diverse, ranging from curiosity to a search for meaning” and thereby implies the need to closely examine the discourse used by pilgrims (or the meditative) to better understand the nature of their experiences. Currently much of the English language academic literature originates from studies of pilgrimage and visitation to churches and examines to what degree visits to such sites are prompted by a “pilgrimage motivation”. It would appear that for many visitors, meditation may well be only a part of the whole visit. While such visitors can share time in pray and meditation with clergy and so obtain an experience of sharing practices related to the spiritual that may lead to belief, (e.g. Andriotis, 2009; Sharpley & Sundaram, 2005), other motives (in this research context) may impinge based upon levels of understanding of Buddhism (Wong, McIntosh, & Ryan, 2013a; Wong, Ryan, & McIntosh, 2013b; Yeh, Ryan, & Liu, 2009). Thus another issue is the context of belief systems. Zen Buddhism is a practice that is aware of the role of landscape, ritual activity and factors other than simply the self in this emphasis on an awareness of the “here and now”. Consequently other factors can be of great importance in the Zen meditative experience. Additionally, in the Chinese cases studied here, religious tourism

In the English language literature about pilgrimage and the use of sacred places for tourism, reference may well be made to continua such as the “sacred and secular”, and “pilgrimage and tourism” (Smith, 1992). As a branch of religious tourism, Zen meditation in temples can also be measured by those concepts, but encompasses further notions associated with physical and psychological well-being, and senses of identity with self, others, god and the universe. This is not to state that these latter questions do not arise in the case of pilgrimage, whether of the West or Asia, but the process of time spent in meditation camps, the temporary retreat from the world that is involved, the living of an alternative life for a time in the company of monks and nuns and sharing in rituals e all these encourage more introspection. In the West the parallel would be the ‘retreat’ practiced by primarily the Catholic and High Anglican Church. Certainly pilgrimage and tourism are two concepts that are historically entwined as evidenced by the Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and it is said pilgrimage is the earliest form of tourism (Cohen, 2003; Singh, 2005). Traditionally (despite the evidence of Chaucer's work) pilgrimage is thought to be pious, and pilgrims are said to believe in religious laws as they set on the journey to fulfill some sacred dreams (Smith, 1992). Compared to the secular, superficial and playful nature of tourism (Boorstin, 1964; Turner, 1975), pilgrimage is presented as being sacred because of its religious essence (Durkheim, 1995). Pilgrimage to tourism is juxtapositioned as is the sacred to the secular, both representing two extremes of tourism, that is, the religious versus the hedonistic. Given the complexities and nuances involved in visitation to sacred places, the differing disciplines of history, sociology, anthropology and other sciences have been brought to bear upon the subject (Sopher, 1967; Vukoni, 1996) in attempts to rethink the relationship between pilgrimage and tourism. Morinis (1992) coined the term ‘centre of the world’ when re-conceptualizing the geographical destination as not only a place far away in physical distance (Eliade, 1969), but also as a place full of values and the spiritual center of a belief system. Equally Turner's concept of the liminal (Turner, 1987) has also been paradoxically applied to such centers (Turner & Turner, 1969). The remoteness of the center not only means geographical distance (such as places located in otherwise vacant desert), but also a distance in cultural terms (the center surrounded by a busy commercial society) (Turner & Turner, 1978; Turner, 1973). Cohen (1979) proposed a division of five modes of tourist experience according to the tourists' demand for ‘the center’ and the distance from it, and the potential existential mode of pilgrimage. The center in Cohen's research is more akin to a spiritual center beyond native society and culture than is simply the traditional center of pilgrimage, for it is place where both pilgrims and tourists are pursuing an internal center of their own and searching for the ‘extra-ordinary’ that provides a meaning. It appeals because it possesses an ‘authenticity’ that satisfies the demand for a reality outside the experience of daily (normal) life. In MacCannell's words, the tourist experience appeals to authenticity

3. Zen meditation: sacred or secular?

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(MacCannell, 1973) and tourism is the pilgrimage of a secular society. Graburn (1989) holds to a similar opinion, regarding tourism to be a ‘sacred secular’ journey where meaning is sought and exists in a world parallel with both pilgrimage and secular motives. The relationship between tourism and pilgrimage thus has the potential of becoming closer, and perhaps the pilgrim is half a tourist and the tourist is half a pilgrim (Turner & Turner, 1978). For her part Smith (1992) proposed a continuum between the pilgrimage (as the sacred) and tourism (the secular), and thereby located varying stages of religious tourism between the poles. Each individual has the potential to be a pilgrim or a tourist, and he or she can select a role, perhaps unconsciously, and thereby possess a fluid identity within one trip. Similarly Smith (1992) cites Jackowski's (1992) concept of knowledge-based tourism where the tourist specifically seeks meanings premised on a search for identity with place, an identity that may be personal, familial, philosophical and not necessarily religious in the sense of organized religion, but which may possess aspects of spirituality in the sense that the tourist seeks to go beyond self. In other research influenced by constructionist and interpretative understandings of the world (e.g. Dann & Philips, 2001), concepts of pilgrimage have developed without traditional religious content but retain the sense of a ‘spiritual center’ temporarily removed from a secular world. Yet it has been claimed that tourists often seek experiences of identification rather than those of piety (Nolan & Nolan, 1989). Examples of the former motive would include visiting Anzac Cove in Gallipoli, which presents a pilgrimage of identification for young New Zealanders and Australians (Hall, 2002) and the appearance of Huangxi Puti Hotel themed by Zen in Shenzhen (Hung, Got, and Zhang, 2013). When turning to the motives of religious tourism, it can also be noted that non-religious motivations can co-exist as the visitation to religious sites can be encompassed within visits to sites of heritage and culture importance (Yeh, Ryan, & Liu, 2009). Indeed, it has been suggested that such visits to temples and monasteries in China are more congruent with this latter form of motivation under policies enacted by the Chinese Communist Party. These policies seek to inculcate a sense of being ‘Chinese’ while reinforcing a classical culture of a hierarchy of mutual sets of relationships that nonetheless stress a respect for authority (Ryan, 2011, pp. 110e123). Hence the Chinese government is still seeking additional UNWTO world heritage accreditations for various sites, including those of religious significance, to sustain a Chinese national identity while enhancing the status of China internationally. Consequently, from a Han perspective, the temple is not wholly a holy place, but a place of Chinese heritage, culture and identity (Yeh, Ryan, & Liu, 2009; Zhang et al., 2007). Given this perspective, the temple becomes a hybrid and fluid site where tourists can recoup body and mind just as religious pilgrims do, but where the experience of tourism differs from that of pilgrimage (Cui, Xu, & Yang, 2014). Nonetheless inner demands for spirituality exist in both models, and may be met (Li, 2014; Zhang, 2003). For their part, Collins-Kreiner and Kliot (2000) added the dimension of the sacred and secular to Smith's continuum of pilgrimage and tourism to create a four cell matrix. This absorbed Smith's classification of types of tourists and pilgrims, but more clearly demarcated each on a perceptual space while adding a pilgrim-tourist centrist position at the cross-over point of the two continua. Tourism has therefore been conceived as a secular pilgrimage wherein the tourist experiences a “re-creation of life” and becomes a new person (Singh, 2005). Indeed, Graburn (1989) implies that without a sense of renewal, tourism loses its meaning. Equally it might be said that often the secular pilgrimage is associated with motivations of not only seeking self, but also seeking cultural and aesthetic understandings of (often iconic)

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places. Hence the traditional pilgrimage has been recontextualized, and new belief is constructed in the process of secular pilgrimage (Bixby, 2006). 3.2. Sacred experience and Zen meditation The meditation camp is therefore a combination of Zen meditation and tourism, and has become a recognized product in China. When examining the phenomenon, some Chinese researchers have defined it from the perspective of religious tourism. Researchers like Yu (2013) and Zhang (2014) point out that meditation tourism originated from normal religious rituals that help monks to higher degrees of self-awareness, and tourists achieve the effect of spiritual purification by following the same practices. Others, such as Zhu (2013), view “meditation tourism” as a commercialized behavior organized by enterprises for the purposes of gaining revenue (Zhu, 2013). Though Zen meditation may lose something of its piety when delivered as a tourism product, it nonetheless remains rooted in Buddhism and cannot be easily isolated from its religious conception. Outside of China, it appears that Zen meditation has been classified as being part of religious tourism (Smith, 1992), health tourism (Goodrich, 1993) or spiritual tourism (McKcrchcr, 2002). Zen meditation camps thus exist within the tourism lexicon. Current research on the meditative experience shows signs of dividing into different concerns. As just noted above, some Chinese researchers focus primarily on the meditative in such short term temple experiences, considering Zen meditation as a method of mental regulation. They therefore discuss the effect of meditation on an individual's psychology by exploring the ‘tourist experience’ (Yu, 2013; Zhang, 2014) or the organization of the meditation camp (Fan, 2006; Xu, 2011). Thus Zhao (2011), while noting the importance of inner feelings for meditation, divided the Vipassana experience into course evaluations, physical feelings, psychological feelings and life adaption, but she nonetheless emphasizes the spiritual experience while ignoring other essential elements in the meditative experience including the specific role of ritual or the temporary sharing of temple accommodation. When meditation was first introduced to China, it comprised two main streams: Samatha Bhavana and Vipassana Bhavana (Wei, 2011; Ma, 2013). The final object of Zen meditation is to search for the real self, and one can practice Zen meditation while walking, sitting, talking, even sleeping. Both meditation in general and Zen meditation in particular stem from Vipassana, which may be translated as “mindfulness.” Though there exist some distinctions between meditation in general and Zen meditation, they remain close to each other concerning history or dharma-mukha. Akin to Zen meditation tourism in China, Indian “Ashram tourism” functions as the institution of Buddhism temples in the secular world and tourists can visit religious sites while meditating with monks. As in China, Ashram tourists can be classed based on their length of stay and motive. Examples of groups identified on the basis of motivation could include the spiritual seekers, tourist trail followers and yoga/meditation practitioners according to their variety of spiritual and non-spiritual motives (Sharpley & Sundaram, 2005). Spiritual seekers can be seen as “real” pilgrims, despite many being initially attracted to Ashram tourism with nonreligious motivations, but potentially progressing to a “sacred spiritual experience”. Another similar but western example is provided by Andriotis (2009). He refers to Athos (Andriotis, 2009) which permits only male visitors, who live in the monastery and participate in religious activities with the monks. From his analysis, five core elements of authentic experience emerged, namely spiritual, cultural, environmental, secular and educational. In short, factors other than the purely spiritual are found to affect the visitor

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experience. In their study, Chen, Scott, and Benckendorff (2017) used 77 meditative mindful experience interviews to identify antecedents, episodes and benefits of meditative mindfulness. They subsequently identified three constructs of mindful experiences, namely paying attention to the experience, living in the present and non-elaborate awareness. These examples are also consistent with what Kujawa (2017) interprets as a discursive shift in both our understanding of what constitutes the religious search and the motivation of tourists, and what Heelas and Woodhead (2005, p. 150) call “tectonic shifts in the sacred landscape”. They suggest that the adoption of “spirituality” represents a move away from “denominational religions”. This, they argue, is a result of “the massive subjective turn of modern culture” (Heelas & Woodhead, 2005, p. 129) that focuses on an individual's subjective lifestyle. Consequently, for her part Kujawa (2017) notes that contemporary religious tourism is often associated with searches for personal and meaningful experiences not found in organised belief systems whose rituals are often held as representative of a modernity that creates anomie. The quest is thus motivated by both sociological and psychological understandings that the current order of things within and without one-self is a state of disorder. It is here suggested that Zen Meditation (holiday) camps, like many western spiritual retreats such as the Skyros Experience (https://www.skyros.com/about/our-story/skyros-soul) fit into these new ‘teutonic disruptions’ of a search for spirituality. Yet again, one can discern a difference between the more spiritual traditions and the secular. Within Chinese thought, pragmatism is often writ large. For example, the work, Instructions for Practical Living by the 15th century neo-Confucian scholar Wang Yangming (courtesy name Bo'an) has been compared to the work of the American pragmatists such as Peirce, James and Dewey (Smith, 1989, p. 30). So, many Chinese estimate the value of a belief system by its abilities to solve practical problems. The Chinese social situation of the early 21st century has come to be marked by a sense, sang, especially among the young (Zeng, 2017). This sense of not seeing value in contemporary Chinese society is contrary to jianku pusu (the path of hard work and plain living of the Maoist era) and also rejects an overt consumerism fostered by the Chinese Communist Party for its own ends. This sense of sang, coupled with the rediscovery of traditional Chinese culture, has led to a growth of interest in not only classical Chinese spiritual belief systems but also interest in Christianity e all of which phenomena reflect a search for personal meaning of which Zen Meditation is but one expression. Sang goes beyond a simple ‘dropping out of society’, and Zeng (2017) suggests it is an “evolved” form of xiaoquexing, namely a taking of fleeting pleasure in the small things of life. Another factor that drives an interest in Zen Meditation is the Chinese interest in holistic approaches to health. Physiological benefits have been found related to meditation (Goleman, 1976), as have psychological (Wu, 1993; Davis & Hayes, 2011). Cysarz and } ssing (2005) found distinct beneficial physiological effects from Bu reduced heart-rate and improved breathing from adopting the Zazen (the cross-legged lotus sitting position) commonly adopted in Zen meditative practices. Such findings also can appeal to those seeking meditation camps. Given both the growing interest in various forms of meditative practice, and the nature of the experience, it was felt appropriate to examine further the appeal of meditation camps in China. Zen meditation tourists may achieve an experience of spiritual purification and transformation, or alternatively, a state of relaxation and re-establishment of self away from their daily lives, or at worse, simply some forms of improvement in health through diet and exercise. The next section therefore describes the location of the study.

4. Study area: Nuonatayuan and Hongfa Temple In general, meditation camps vary based on different themes, type of temples, length of time and number of permitted participants. Participants often need to be chosen by questionnaire or interview and they meet age criteria (normally be below 35 years of age), education (have qualifications above those of a junior college degree), and in some cases even gender (often that of being a male). These limitations are not solely derived from the meditative practices per se, but may also reflect a monastery's or temple's physical capacities (for example, many are male only establishments). Such constraints obviously determine the nature of the target population (among elites), and hence the characteristics of the sample. In an attempt to allow for this the study was based at two different camps that permitted a comparison based on application requirements and degrees of traditional adherence to the remits of Zen Buddhism. Both temples are well known within China for their meditation camps. The first is the Nuonatayuan Centre and the second is the meditation camp hosted by Hongfa Temple. Nuonatayuan is located in Mount Lu, Jiangxi Province. Mount Lu is gazetted by UNESCO as a world cultural heritage based on its religious significance. Nuonatayuan is under the charge of Master Miaoxing, who in turn learnt from Master Jinghui at the Buddhist Academy of Hebei (Yang & Wei, 2005). Miaoxing is thus regarded as the forty-fifth successor to Rinzai Zen (the monk who brought Zen to China from Japan in the 12th Century AD). The meditation camp in Nuonatayuan has a history of over fifteen years and originated from the first Zen meditation summer camp held by Master Jinghui at the Bailin Temple. His philosophy emphasizes life consciousness, dedication and kindness. Master Miaoxing in turn built the meditation center, Nuonatayuan, with an image of “Zen in peace and quiet” based on traditions of Zen and tea to arrange Zen meditation for non-religious participants (see Fig. 1). The center is managed by volunteers and organizes meditation classes for not only individuals but also occasionally for companies. In Nuonatayuan, at least six meditation camps will be held annually and others may also be held at allied temples, including “Meet for Zen and Tea”, the “Free Style Meditation Camp in Cool Mount Lu” and also an “Enhancement Meditation Camp”. The research project was based on attendance at the seventh “Free Style Meditation Camp in Cool Mount Lu”. This camp is held mainly for tourists without meditation experience, and ran from 1st August to 6th August 2015, six days in total. Tourists who wanted to join the camp needed to be initially screened by questionnaire and the acceptance rate is about 10%. Eventually, 54 participants, 50 volunteers and masters took part in this meditation camp. Hongfa Temple is located in the Fairy Lake Botanical Garden of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. Shenzhen is a fast growing new city reflective of the “New China”, and the temple was inaugurated in 1982 during the period of social and economic atmosphere of fervent change prior to June 1989. Anecdotally this is said to lend to the Temple a sense of vibrancy and youth. Master Benhuan, the founder of Hongfa Temple, is highly respected within the Chan (Zen) sect. The meditation center at Hongfa Temple has been used for teaching and training many different groups that include meditation camps for undergraduates, a Sinology summer camp, junior classes for lay Buddhists, and has been operating since 2003. The meditation camp attended for this study was held from 15th January to 21st January 2016. It was mainly for skilled meditation practitioners, and significantly different in content to that of Nuonatayuan (see Figs. 1 and 2). Hongfa Temple therefore attracts devout Buddhists, including monks, as participants. Participants in this camp need to register by ID card and be interviewed by volunteers at a Monastic Reception. At the time of the study, the number of participants was over four hundred, including a handful

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Fig. 1. Nuonatayuan meditation centre.

Fig. 2. Participants queuing at Hongfa Temple.

of non-religious tourists and about eighty monks. Table 1 indicated the characteristics of the two camps. Before the main period of field work started, the first author visited Nanyue Temple in February 2015. She interviewed ten visitors and recorded their behaviors to compare the experience visitors obtained at such a site to those of meditation tourists. Then the first author applied to the two meditation camps mentioned above and behaved as an ordinary participant. She did not read too much information about meditation in order to start as a novice, albeit one with an interest in the subject. Participant observation,

interviews and secondhand materials were used for data collection. The relatively closed context of meditation camps means that participant observation is particularly appropriate as a research method. In this case the first author could feel, touch and smell the specific setting in addition to participating, talking and observing. During the camps, the author recorded details of the landscape, events and behaviors and interactions among meditators, volunteers and masters. At the same time, informal conversations were used to get to know the backgrounds of the participants to establish relationships between the author and other participants. In

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Table 1 Details of meditation camps in Nuonatayuan and Hongfa Temple. Nuonatayuan

Hongfa Temple

Time Previous camps Theme Number of participants Fee Slogan Qualification

1st to 8th August 2015 7 The culture of Zen and tea Participants 54, Volunteer 17 Donation Relaxation, pressure relief and to be away from daily life 20-40 years old, Bachelor Degree or above

The number of applicants Principles of selection

About 500 Non-Buddhist, higher education degree, young and unhappy person with “a kind face” Walk, meditation, chant, confession, labor, lectures and so on

15th to 21st January 2016 unknown Chan Session Participant 400 Donation Cultivate oneself according to the Buddha 18-65 years old, good health, able to obey the rules of the temple and have experience of meditation About 500 People with mental distresses or mixed motivations are not permitted. Evidence of Buddhist/spiritual belief Walk, meditation

Activities

addition formal interviews were also undertaken, and hence participants were aware of the first author's role as a researcher. Participants were aware that daily behaviors and words were often being recorded, and hence no deceit was involved. Semi-structured interviews were conducted based on models of tourist experience generation and past research on meditative and well-being tourism, and sought to explore the interaction among participants, landscape and activities. Forty-four interviews took place among thirty-nine participants and five organizers. Over 5000 lines of Mandarin text were noted, 414 photos were also collected and more than 200 separate observations of varying duration as to behaviors and activities were also collected; in many ways a testament to the Zen Buddhist tradition of tolerance. It should be added that such tolerance is nonetheless premised on a caveat; namely that any intrusion is not to the disturbance of the individual concerned. This caveat was respected during the data collection and indeed on occasions the researcher refrained from asking questions or taking photographs. Privacy was respected, but equally at other times potential respondents did approach the researcher indicating they were then ready to participate in the research. Both Centers did not object to the research subject to the above conditions being respected. A process of coding of observations based on procedures of open
a, 2009) led to the formation of the themes and axial coding (Saldan summarized in Table 2. Firstly, unrelated content to research was removed according to research questions. Then the remaining parts of the written material was read line by line from which to create an open coding. It was a process of preliminary conceptualization. The results of open coding were compared again and again to identify relevance of each other in logic and context, and 14 axial codes
a (2009, p.159) notes, axial coding relates to the appeared. As Saldan subdivisions of codes, each based on a categorization of the text, and is thought specifically appropriate for grounded research. The 14 codes were further grouped into two core categories d context and experience, and the context refers to the features of place or interaction where the experience was generated.

5. Tourism context in Zen meditation Contrary to traditional Zen meditation that pursues an abandoning of life and death to search for eternal truth based on the sense of being and of awareness (Dumoulin, 1976), today's Zen tourists' meditation experience is reconstructed containing diverse experience like body strengthening, senses of well-being and a “smoothing” of emotion (Brooks, 2011). The tourists' meditation experience is shaped by the contexts where they follow specific Buddhist rules in specific spaces. The specific context includes a tourist location and patterns of behavior. The tourist context

Table 2 Text coding. File

Open Coding

Meditation activities context Meditation activity experience

Copy Buddhist scriptures; Zazen; walk; meditate; lecture Difficult; slow; peace; relax; reflect; new; back to oneself; smart; happiness; delusion; eliminate karmic obstacles; smooth veins; terse; flexible arrangement; free Pray; sunrise; tall mountains covered with trees; mountain ranges; take photos Beautiful; amazing; precious; delicious

Landscape aesthetic context Landscape aesthetic experience Interaction context Interaction experience

Self-interaction context Self-interaction experience Natural context Natural experience Silence context Silence experience Religious context Religious experience

fellow devotee; make friends; answer questions; Touch Nirvana Feel the mercy/tolerance of Buddhism; increase knowledge; devotion; be intimate; authentic; concentration; empathetic; negative emotions; absorbing monks; meaningless talk Body; mind Pain; health; the change of air; keep awareness; illusion; enlightenment Climate; wind; heavy fog; rain; cicada and birds singing; air quality Cool; clean; opposite to cities External quiet; the peace in self Get energy; away from anxiety; put heart in order; fluster of silence Rule; grandeur temple; masters; a white force, marks of Zen Solemn; mysterious; noble; harmony; kind; pious

comprises an atmosphere of withdrawal from daily life generated by a change of place to one of beautiful landscapes, silence and a religious culture; while the context of behavior is also composed of three behaviors: meditation activities, landscape and an aesthetic appreciation and third, interaction with place and people (see Fig. 3). To state the obvious, an important context for the tourist experience is the fact that they are not only removed from their place of daily residence, but have self-selected to exchange that place for a temple with its specific architecture, associated meanings, rituals, and geographical location. The very surroundings are conducive to reflection. Indeed nature itself reinforces this by embracing the temple with cool air, birds singing and misty mornings, sunrises and sunsets over mountains and creating a timeless sense of the natural. The associated religious meanings and practices of the temple and its monks blend into the surroundings and separate the sacred temple from the noisy secular society. Tourists come here to experience life away from the outside world, and the temple means the place of belief at that moment. Meditation tourists meditate in a fixed space, during which they

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Fig. 3. Factors influence Chinese meditation tourist experience: tourist context.

frequently sense feelings of connection with landscape, activities and others, and the meaning of Zen is delivered though these interactions. Nonetheless during the process of Zazen (the main activity of being at the temple), tourists try to extract themselves from the body and gaze at their inner thoughts from the perspective of a third person regardless of feelings of pain, discomfort (from the seating positions), or senses of mindful happiness (Brooks, 2011). This process is conducted with others who share similar aspirations e these being monks, volunteers, other meditation tourists and religious visitors. The tourists thus interact within their own concepts of abstraction from body and self, but acquire also an enhancement of their knowledge, friendship from the others and are aided in reflections on the nature of Buddhism. Consequently, it can be contended that within the totality of tourist experience, context and behaviors, both the secular and the spiritual exist simultaneously. The Temple context (as with many tourist experiences), is temporary, while the very ‘escape’ from daily life is itself based on a secularization of religion in the sense that the meditation camp is a commercial product that is advertised and promoted in a Chinese world. That world is complex. It is a world where Xi Jingping has several times exhorted Chinese academics and society to adhere to scientific Marxism (albeit some commentators such as Huang (2015) question the motives behind such exhortation), while also condoning the opening of monasteries and the role that classical Chinese belief systems play in contemporary society. The secularization of meditation camps is premised on several things, including (a) a rediscovery of religion by contemporary Chinese after the Maoist period when any religion was not tolerated by the Chinese Communist Party, (b) as a reaction to the overt consumerism that characterizes Chinese urban life and (c) as a means of trying to make sense of these complexities. However, to better market the mediation holiday as a tourism product, ancillary components such as the beauty of landscape, the taste of food and the potential gains of physical as well as mental well-being are all featured in advertising. Yet a sense of the religious remains a constant, and the monks and meditation organizers and volunteers know that a number of tourists may convert to Buddhism, acquire belief in the principles of Zen, and so progress toward Nirvana and the power it can bring.

6. The generation of a “sacred” experience The tourists in this sample came from all over China, and brought with them different backgrounds and motivations, which in turn make them see, feel and behave differently. So too is the generative process of the meditative experience. As noted previously, pilgrimage and tourism are the two dimensions of the tourists' motivation in this content (Smith, 1992), For his part Collins-Kreiner (2010) argues that so entwined are the two that the religious tourist finds it difficult to separate them, and a hybrid form may be said to occur in behaviors and even in dress (Dora,

2012). While this may be true of many western examples of religious tourism, Zen meditation reinforces notions of self-realization in the here and now, which means that the ways in which a meditative tourist understands Zen will influence his or her experience. Equally, the behaviors of meditative tourists may differ in their approaches to learning Zen, and thus the tourist helps to cocreate their experience. This was observed in situ where it was observed that one group tended to acquire an understanding of Zen by contacting others and reaching out to the external environment (whether natural or social), while others choose to interact only within themselves in a more introverted manner. Based on this observation and the division between the secular and the sacred as described above, it became possible to construct a simple visualization of the type of participants at the meditation camp, and this is illustrated in Fig. 4. Thus one set of reasons for participation (the motivational impulse) exist as a continuum between a search for spiritually oriented meaning at one end and on the other, a desire for escape from the stress of daily life. This is shown as the horizontal classification in Fig. 4. On the vertical axis there exists a continuum of meditative practice that is directed to an inner awareness of self, and on the other hand, an outer search directed toward appreciation of self and the moment in the context of relationships with the outer world, whether environmental or social. However, it is to be noted that within the Chinese concept of yin and yang these are not simple dichtomatic classifications but rather there is a flow within each that comes to define the whole, and inherent in the classification there exists a third dimension, which is that between the natural and human created worlds. More generally the concept is indicated by, for example, the inclusion of human figures in the Chinese classical art form of shan-shui painting, which inherently includes another dichotomy, that of the hardness of rock and the softness of water. Consequently in the descriptions of tourist/participant classifications the one can flow into the other as, of course, individuals may themselves cross from one cell to another in the matrix indicated by Fig. 4. Another example of the flow is that each tourist has voluntarily undertaken a separation from his or her daily world of work and family but within the confines of the camp may yet undertake another form of separation, or rejection of separation. This is the decision as to the preferred degree of interaction with other camp participants. In short one may also added a dimension of personality as some are drawn to the introverted and introspection while others, more extrovert, are drawn to more social interaction. Fig. 4 thus provides a simplified framework from which to begin an analysis, but such an analysis is based in a western tradition of particularism rather than the holistic patterns of Chinese thought. Consequently, having defined a framework of participant types to commence a discussion, the authors then turned back to the notes, observations and texts of the interviews to weave around these typologies a narrative of processes based on the text coding shown in Fig. 5.

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Fig. 4. Conceptualising the meditation camp participants.

Fig. 5. Conceptualising the Meditation Camp Participants e underlying processes.

In undertaking this an analysis of the text seemed to generate a series of such processes or narratives, and these are entitled: a) b) c) d) e) f)

The interactions of outward oriented tourists Separating and rendering The unity of heaven and man Zen found in activity Enlightenment and guidance found in and with others Sacred context

These processes are found in each of the four cells shown in Fig. 4, but in varying degrees and with differing emphases as the participant experiences the activities and ambience of the camp and Fig. 5 indicates where such themes tend to be more dominant. Each of these processes are now described in turn. 6.1. The interactions of outward oriented tourists Outward tourists behave like many other tourists and regard meditation tourism as akin to other normal holiday activities. They are attracted by motivations like sightseeing, increasing knowledge and a wish to experience unknown new things.

For many of these “Outward tourists”, their experiences moves from the secular to the sacred. At the beginning, they care more about the beauty of scenery, the nature of the accommodation and the novelty of the religion. Nonetheless many are open to a spiritual experience to some extent and tend to show more respect towards Buddhism at the end of their meditations, even if retaining doubt about Zen and its principles. Their changes of views may be said to be due to tourist context of atmosphere and observed behaviors of others. On the one hand, the tourist context of atmosphere functions as a “bubble” full of Zen (Cohen, 1979) which separates their temporary condition from the secular world both in distance and perceptions, making them more reflective of self and the human condition in a context of meditation. This is complemented by the use of landscape and participation in Buddhist activities and life patterns that help achieve a sense of the unity of heaven and man, thereby delivering the truth of Zen through activities and changed perception of Buddhist through the guidance of others. 6.1.1. Separation and rendering Here the tourist context of atmosphere is as a bubble without fixed form. It embraces the entire meditation space and thus separates Zen meditation from daily life, almost unconsciously as it

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functions by separation and rendering. The moment the tourist steps into the temple and its rituals, he or she comes into a space that is far from routine work and relationships. The separation from familiar life requires the tourist to commence a process of adjustment that generally seeks a rapprochement to Buddhism in an open manner. Respondent A13, a 29 year old male sales manager was a liquor distributor in Shandong Province and told of his busy work schedule and his eagerness to set aside his work routine. He commented “I turned off my mobile phone the minute I boarded the aircraft, and have kept it off until now.” He primarily regarded meditation in the temple as a means to relax, and he spent much of his time reading classical works of literature and contemplating the beauty of mountains. However, as time passed, he found himself seeking the company of the monks to question them on Buddhism. He continued, “I have nothing meaningful to think or to do in the temple, you can see Zen in every inch of the place, and I can't help thinking about it. Zen is a very interesting thing, and I feel I would like to be an immortal after spending so long time here.” Like many others, he flew to Mount Lu, and like most of the pilgrimage-tourists had to take both a train and a plane to get to the temple. The very distance from the tourists' homes and their familiar surroundings offer a chance to tourists to be reborn, to be anyone and restart, if only for a time, their lives. The silence of the temple also helps them to release themselves, so ignoring the complicated world with its false concerns that cause worry and stress. Breathing the “air of Buddhism” and absorbing knowledge of Zen, the tourists seemingly come to an understanding of at least some of the basic tenets of Buddhism. Such understandings include statements such as “First, one lives in the moment and must know what you are doing right now; second, be kind; the third principle, understand that the world is ruthless and learn to put it aside and not be trapped by helplessness, be stubborn as the monks said”. It was in this manner that respondent A14 (a 26 year old male with a master's degree) recounted his thinking and evaluation of the experiences. He initially felt the meditation camp was a product of commercialization undoubtedly, but he gradually he reached a conclusion that he was wrong and what he received while being at the camp was a process of guidance rather than commerce. He went on to say, “One temple has its own magnetic field, you can't think of other unrelated things. Um, how can I say, I feel it is the thing that can guide me to be kind at least.” 6.1.2. Landscape expressing unity of heaven and man Human beings evolve into social beings through the constraining mechanisms of consensual laws and rules, but Buddhists suggest that the inherent nature of humans cannot be erased. In order to better create a harmony between the natural world and that of human nature, many Buddhist temples are located in mountains, seeking to blend into nature and convey the concept of harmony. Respondent A8 (a 21 year old undergraduate female student) is typical of many when talking about nature. She told us that she did not believe in any religion in the past, and she was motivated to attend the meditation camp to appreciate landscape to seek an unusual experience. She was resistant to obeying the temple's rules. She would fall asleep when reading Buddhism scriptures and muse about how handsome some young monks looked. Nonetheless, being bored with the monks she took to going to the stupa and almost out of boredom started to chant to kill time. The Wuzhu Pavilion in Nuonatayuan became her favorite place, and to her own surprise she found herself practicing chanting and meditation day after day. Slowly she adopted the wearing of Buddha beads and found her own acceptance of Buddha, to the point where she could not wait to tell others of her transformation. She said, “I was waiting for the sunrise in Wuzhu Pavilion one morning. Suddenly, the sun is shining over the land. It is a moment striking me that I feel it is the

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brightness of God. The unity of heaven and man? That is what I want to say. I feel I am in the harmony of the nature, I even become part of it. It is said by Zen that we need to find the real self, and we can find it only when we forget secular wishes. Now I feel I have found the real self, it's in the sunrise.” 6.1.3. The concept of Zen in activity Meditation camps always have fixed schedules. There are arranged activities including Zazen, chanting and walking from five in the morning to eleven in the evening. It is during these times that the major concepts of Buddhism are explained and pondered. For many tourists Zen is so mysterious that it almost seems to impel them to think about what Zen is, and for many this pattern of thought combined with landscapes, schedules and the comparison between their own daily lives and what they now experience creates memorable and potentially life changing scenarios. For another respondent, B10, a 21 year old female who had been converted to Buddhism by her aunt, but nonetheless it was her first experience of temple meditation. She came, she said, for a life experience, to better know an unknown world. She compared the Zen mediation in Hongfa Temple to an internship in a company, saying that maybe she could “become smarter in meditation”. Though she complained about the uncomfortable room, the damp quilt and simple food, she felt she was obtaining a new understanding of Zen by eventually learning how to meditate. For her the key to practice Zen in Hongfa Temple is to keep the sentence “who is praying to Buddha?” in mind. She carefully considered the teacher's instructions (which included paradoxical statements) and recited the words all the time through periods of meditation, and as she put it, through times of dining and even sleeping. Finally, after several days of practice she came to an understanding that: “I meditated in Hongfa Temple for seven days, and I figured out what who is praying to Buddha means. I feel that I can separate spirit and body in meditation, and vividly see the spirit extracting from the body. Who is praying to Buddha means I am not myself and you are also not yourself, we are looking at the self from the outside”. Every activity organized by temples is continually delivering the concept of Zen; it compels the tourists to think about it over and over again so that something of wisdom will be brought about. 6.1.4. Enlightenment and guiding from others “Outward tourists” like to interact with others out of their inner demand. They enrich their understanding of Zen and Buddhism through discussion with others. The triad of the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha (the monastic orders) is the essence of Buddhism. And the sangha is the only one that can be touched. So the instruction of Masters contributes much to Zen meditation and tourists follow the masters' enlightenment to improve themselves. Respondent A6 described himself as being “in the obsession of secular things”, to the point he felt himself to be “so passive and disappointed that he cannot see and hear the beauty and even the future of life.” With the help of Masters' enlightenment, he found his new life by thinking in another way. It seemed now that worries he had in the past are so meaningless, that he no longer needed to care about it anymore. Besides the puzzle of the secular, tourists also wondered about how to understand Zen through the Masters' words, and more prosaically how to relieve the pain in the legs caused by maintaining a lotus position. Respondent B9 described herself as being questioning all the time. She asked about everything she did not understand, including the bodily pains she experienced and how to breathe during meditation. She spoke of a dawning comprehension of Zen: “When I was meditating in the temple, I was always running after the masters to ask questions, totally ignoring the rule of no-talking. In fact, meditation's goal in Buddhism is to get rid of the Anatman. Masters ask who am I? Am I myself? I am not myself. If I am called by a

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name, the name will represent the real me? If I exchange a name with you, I am not myself? If you want to go to Anatman, you will forget the abuse from others. You don't need to worry any more. The time you come into Anatman, you can get the real happiness”. Anatman may be briefly defined as awareness of the impermance of being. In other instances, younger participants would seek some time to think about what it is they wish to do, and would use the time to consider such issues. Participant A2, a 21 year old female with little understanding of Buddhist rituals and complete with many of the things such young females surround themselves including a set of five different clothes for the few days, and concerns about being bitten by mosquitos described her motivation for participation thus, having first indicated that friends had recommended the camp to her. “I do not want to be a teacher, I would hate to be a teacher, perhaps a doctor? In fact, these two professions are the best paid and most respected … but I do not like the service industry. I came here is to think about what to do in the end. It depends on the opportunity, not necessarily to return to the grassroots level. … [Yet] in the community we ask how kind are people, and what the community is not. When you come here you encounter some wonderful people, but after [at work] it will be more horrible I think, infighting. To want money is never enough, but people's greed is infinite”. 6.2. Inward tourists: separation In comparison, “Inward tourists” spend little time contacting the outside. They are motivated to come to get rid of the annoyance and helplessness which, to them, is driving them crazy in daily life. What they need is a space from which they can shut out external disturbance. There is also a sense of transformation reported by these “inward tourists”. Inward tourists describe a sense of release from the reality of an external world and feel the eternal through the breathing practices of inhalation and expiration. It might be said they feel the ‘qi’ e the breath of life. It is said that religion is a good way to pacify a person (tourist A16 e see below). In the transformation of the “inward tourists”, two barriers are built up to separate the self of meditation tourist and the outside world. One is the tourist context of atmosphere that separates the temple from usual secular life. The other is the bubble between the tourist self and the environment which gives inward tourists a space where only the self can exist. With the help of the two barriers, he or she can talk to him or herself freely. The “inward tourist” seeks to concentrate on the sense of ‘now’; ignoring the senses of annoyance or helplessness and maintains a focus on the meditative with the help of landscape, activity and others, notably the Masters. Eventually, they change their attitude toward the secular and secure a sense of peace wherein they can embrace the secular lifestyle through a better understanding of the meditative world. Many of the “inward tourists” provided evidence of more introverted dispositions, wanting, it seemed, to shut themselves in a nothingness space without disturbance. They seemed less willing to talk to others, but wanted time to “talk to themselves”, just like A3 did. Respondent A3 (a female in her 50s) works as a civil servant, describing it as “a stable job with complex interpersonal relationships.” “I feel so tired”, she once said. She has a daughter who will graduate from college soon, but has yet to find a job. A3 described her feelings saying “Alas, I really don't know what I live for and I feel I have no excuse to move on”. A3 always stayed up late and talks little, and showed little sign of wanting to contact others. She tended to be intolerant of others, complained of not feeling well and felt little need to take part in the activities, and thus had several opportunities to be alone. On the last day of the camp, however, she was smiling and seemed like a totally different person. She explained: “Delusion was filling my mind, my daughter's job has

been worrying me for so long a time. I really want her to take the exam to be a civil servant, but she didn't obey what I said. I was disappointed. I was thinking for a very long time during the last days in Nuonatayuan. Finally, I found I took everything so seriously, and it's called persisting in ego by Buddhism. I did so many wrong things to my daughter and myself.” In the separation of the two bubbles, A3 attempted to create an internalized conversation of thought. She found that through a focus on the current moment she achieved clarity of thought. Just as respondent A16 (a female in her late 20s/early 30s from Guangdong with no previous experience of Buddhism) said, “Religion can be as salvation for the bleeding heart” when speaking of the meditative process. 6.3. Pilgrims: sacred context Pilgrims, no matter whether “inward” or “outward”, come to the meditation camps in temples for motivations like getting close to Triratna (a Buddhist symbol representing the jewels of Buddhist teaching), praying to the Buddha, or for finding self. At the very least they sought a temporary escape from their daily realities to “take time out.” They generally regard meditation as a way to cultivate themselves, possibly to better appreciate Buddhism, and felt they can achieve greater improvement by meditating together. “Outward” pilgrims practice Buddhism by discussing with others while inward pilgrims insist in understanding Zen as individuals under a dharma of silence. Such pilgrims are usually Buddhist, or are predisposed to learn about Buddhist patterns of life, and regard everything related to Buddhism as the presence of the holy and they wish to generate a sacred experience the minute they step into a context of meditation. Consequently for them the rituals of pray and chanting are of importance to them. For these participants natural and human landscape are symbolic of the godhead. Respondent B6 (a male from Guangdong in his early 40s who has his own business) was found taking pictures during break until his mobile phone battery was exhausted. He was staring at the sky and telling his stories. He said used to dream of a place that he could see very clearly in his mind. When he arrived at Hongfa Temple, he finally found the scenery of his dream. The mountains, buildings, even the shape and color of clouds were exactly as in his dreams. “It must the calling of God”, B6 could not hide his excited feelings and stop talking. He had converted to Buddhism some two years earlier. For these tourists every activity is devoted to delivering the idea of Zen. It is not unknown for fantastical notions to occasionally appear while meditating, and how to overcome such notions was a common subject of discussion. Respondents B11 and B12 are both nearly seventy and came from Jiangxi Province. They were as twin sisters, and both insisted on crossing their legs and adopting the Zazen Lotus position when meditating. Both mentioned the appearances of illusion in meditation: “I see so many ghosts, Buddha and other beings, then I feel dazed.” They practice “Pure Land Buddhism”, and resorted to chanting when unable resist illusions. They repeatedly chanted “Namo amida butsu, Namo amida butsu, Namo amida butsu.” B11 recalled that the beings disappeared and it began to shine. “I can't move and I see the light shining from the top of my head, blending in my blood to circle around my body. So do the channels and collaterals. It seems that I am sitting on the lotus and I feel like floating.” For some participants, having such illusions is not regarded as a bad thing. Rather it is perceived as a chance to eliminate karmic obstacles. B19 is a female estate agent in her late 30s-early 40s and had converted to Buddhism seven years earlier. B19's husband is also working in real estate, but at the time of the interviews he was experiencing a difficult period and each yuan he earned was being used to repay a debt. B19 herself was immersed in continued pain with very little relief. But after meditation she felt calmer, less pressure and more relieved. She

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recalled feeling as if in a fire which was the calling of God to eliminate karmic obstacles. “Maybe”, she explained, “there was so many bad things around me in the past, so much Karma, and I also felt burning in the fire. It's real. I was enveloped in fire, no matter the chanting, meditating and walking, such a big fire. Then the soma disappeared and I became lucent.” The role of the instructors is to convey the wisdom and doctrines of the past masters. As an ordinary meditator, the instructor may not be able to define the nature of Zen, to fully understand or possess “the great wisdom”, but through the interaction with masters, monks, volunteers and other meditators, instructors come to a deeper understanding of Zen. Just as B14 (a male in his late 30s who was a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine and a Buddhist) said, “Everything in the meditation camp aims at practicing Zen. The most happiness I had in this camp is that I learned something I didn't know in the past. I got some answers, and the answers are related to each other. They can easily match.” B17 (a female of much the same age as B14 and also a convert to Buddhism) is an “inward” pilgrim and a committed follower of the Zen sect. She perceived meditation as an amazing act to cultivate oneself rather than a means of solving “secular annoyance”. For her the final goal of meditation is to reach the origin of the world. She mused and agreed with what her husband (also a follower to Zen) said: “You know what the center is at last? It's the anubudhi (a term meaning spiritual experience that is beyond the mind, beyond logic), and your anubudhi (switches) on and off. For example, I say it is a chair, and you will see the chair, then you know it is a chair. What you see is in your mind, so the things in your mind are always changing. So is your anubudhi, and the anubudhi is changing from on to off all the time. You don't find the thing that cannot be on and off, and the thing is the origin of the universe, the reality of life. It is just in you, but you can't realize it.” 7. Conclusion and discussion This paper explored Zen meditation in Chinese temples as experienced by tourists attending meditation camps that are a small but growing part of the portfolio of tourism products in China. Two cases were used to discuss the generation of tourists' sacred experiences though the field work based on participant observation and readings from Buddhist texts. From the findings, it is suggested that two main forms of experience occur through meditation tourism. One is a secular experience that enhances the senses and generates an added appreciation of landscape, culture and the richness of human achievement; the other is a sacred experience, as if reaching a sense of the divine and being able to better understand the purpose of life. The experience of Chinese meditation tourists varies in the process of its realization, albeit tending to shift from secularism to sacredness. It does appear that the Chinese tourists' meditative experience is partly constructed by the temple context. The specific context includes an atmosphere of religious practice by monks who daily adhere to Buddhist ritual, within which chanting and meditation are key practices. Based on meditative tourist motivation (that of a search for meaning or escape) and an interactive mode (inward or outward), four types of meditative tourists were identified within which a number of themes of varying importance were identified. The context of temple, landscape, teaching and practice worked differently for each category of tourists as to how they obtain an experience of the sacred, but processes of separation and interaction play a key role. Outward tourists build an acceptance of Buddhism by interacting with the monks, which helps them to better understand Buddhist doctrines and to reflect on secular life; inward tourists create a space isolated from the secular to interact with the self, which relieves from senses of depression and helplessness; outward pilgrims and inward pilgrims consider temples and monks (the sangha) as representatives of a divine spirit attainable by people, and

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both groups gain a sacred experience through participation in meditative practices. According to Cohen (2003), pilgrims (especially inward pilgrims) tend to be close to the existential mode. Many meditation tourists acknowledge and appreciate the Zen tradition, but they experience it as an outsider seeking to be a temporary insider in that they return to a life outside the temple. Meditation tourists generate experience by interacting with others, but the experience delivered is not that of the daily, continuing routine of the original in that it is a product marketed for tourists. As Cohen (1979) said, tourism will not become the center of personal daily plan, it functions as a tool to moderate anxiety and dissatisfaction. In this case the mediation tourist may take the principles and techniques of meditation learnt during the camp into their everyday life. From the spiritual perspective it is a means to get closer to their center where the ‘real’ self exists. From a pragmatic perspective, meditation is a way of coping with stress. Tourism is a process to find oneself (Smith, 2003), a self which may be buried by the roles imposed in an ‘unreal’ world influenced by modernity. These tourists are inclined to the experiential mode in Cohen's five classifications, but when they imitate the ‘holy’ behaviors and immerse into the context, something spiritual appeared. For many of the respondents, they touch the edge of pure religious experience. As a product which packaged and shaped to permit an understanding of Zen within a specified period of time, the Zen Meditation Camp intensifies experiences that in the past were achieved through different and perhaps more individual processes over longer periods of time. But does this reduce the authenticity of the experience? In seeking an answer to this question one needs to appreciate the nature of Buddhism, which differs from Abrahamic religions. Lin (2011) states that Christianity and Buddhism represent two poles of sacred and secular. The utilitarian in traditional Chinese cultural belief systems compels believers to abandon sufferings in reality and achieve happiness in this life, which leads to the multiple belief systems and secularization of belief. Cui, Xu, and Yang (2014) pointed out that the experience of Tibetan tourism is a secular pilgrimage, belief has become a landscape and the tourists do not believe in God. Yet they achieve a spiritual experience, but Cui, Xu, and Yang (2014) suggests the spiritual experience is more secular rather than pious. That is to say, the sacred experience in meditation tourism may not be pure, but it is considered to be sacred when compared to other more secular behaviors. From the Buddhist perspective, these are secular arguments, for all current life is built on illusion, and the journeys to the dispelling of illusion and achievement of nirvana are many, different, and through rebirth and karma, either short or long. For the Buddhist, the mode of the journey is of secondary importance. It can be a commercialized product of the 21st century, or the religiously inspired journey of an earlier century e it matters not. What is important is that it is a reflective journey that each person pursues to better understanding of the divine that is nirvana. Thus one can become a better Buddhist within the confines of the commercialized meditation camp, and each individual has the infinity of time to gain the state of nirvana. References Andriotis, K. (2009). Sacred site experience. Annals of Tourism Research, 36(1), 64e84. Bixby, B. (2006). Consuming simple gifts: shakers, visitors, goods//Scranton P, Davidson J F. The business of tourism: Place, faith and history. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Boorstin, D. (1964). The image: A guide to pseudo-events in America. New York: Harper& Row. Brooks, R. (2011). Blowing Zen: Finding an authentic life. Boulder, Colorado: Sentient Publications. Cohen, E. (1979). A phenomenology of tourist experiences. Sociology, 13(2),

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Ting Jiang is a PhD student in School of Tourism Management at Sun Yat-sen University, China. Her research interests include religious tourism, heritage and immigration.

T. Jiang et al. / Tourism Management 65 (2018) 187e199 Chris Ryan is Professor of Tourism and Director of the University of Waikato Management School's China-New Zealand Tourism Research Unit. He has been visiting China for many years and among his book are two on tourism in China, the first co-edited with Gu Huimin and the second with Sam Huang.

199 Chaozhi Zhang is professor of tourism and the Associate Dean, School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University, and co-director of the UIUC-SYSU International Joint Lab for National Park Research Zhangjiajie). He completed his doctoral degree at Sun Yat-sen University and has a long established interested in heritage, culture, environment and tourism development.