Current projects
Field research as part of the current projects in Bhutan, Okinawa, Cambodia and Macau was carried out between 2014 and 2019. Supplementary field trips were planned for each of the above areas, but were thwarted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Although the projects differ in thematic focus, their common denominator is the phenomenon of happiness and its achievement in life. In the cross-cultural perspective, significant differences appear in the conception of happiness. I will present some case studies illustrating the way in which members of the aforementioned cultures, in line with their prevailing traditional worldviews as well as their individual reflections, understand and experience happiness.
The Bhutanese view happiness within the scope of their monarchic structures, as part of evaluation of their GDP and their individual relationships within the community. The Okinawans strive toward the realization of their purpose of life, ikigai, through a lifestyle that puts emphasis on companionship (moai), work and healthy nutritional habits. The Buddhists in Cambodia follow the Theravada concept of happiness as a state brought about by transcendence of suffering and abolishment of the separate “self”. Finally, the Macau gamblers challenge happiness at the roulette table, believing it to be a divine moment of luck leading to material wealth. The latter opens up a broader context of these phenomena, in which we differentiate between various emotions such as happiness, luck, joy etc. A psychological inquiry on this topic will uncover numerous subtle layers.
The different conceptions and experiences of happiness, as well as the delineation between luck, happiness, joy and others, point to the complexity of this phenomenon and its intractability, its undefined nature within a single meta-notion, which aims to give a universal understanding of happiness and position it within a theoretical and practical “cultural multiverse”.
Along with the investigation of the cognitive landscape of happiness, in our field studies in Bhutan, Cambodia and Macau we intend to thematize examples of temple architecture at the first two localities, architectural forms connected to mythological narratives in the Kyichu Lhakhang and Paro Taktsang temples as well as the fertility cult in the Chimi Lhakhang temple and the Sopsokha village nearby, along with the tourist attraction of a phallic cult; Angkor Wat as an architectural synthesis of the Khmer reception of Buddhism and Hinduism and its expressions in Royal dance; modern architecture in Macau as a Chinese version of Las Vegas which features a replica of European centres such as Venice and Paris, and the utterly neglected residential part of the city with the only exception of the Historic Centre of Macau.
For the project description and more pictures please click on the image to look inside.
Temples in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
