From jewelry to meditation pillows to tourist retreats, religious traditionsâespecially those of the Eastâare being commodified as never before. Imitated and rebranded as ânew ageâ or âspiritual,â they are marketed to secular Westerners as an answer to suffering in the modern world, the âmysticalâ and âexoticâ East promising a path to enlightenment and inner peace.
In Buying Buddha, Selling Rumi, Sophia Rose Arjana examines the appropriation and sale of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam in the West today, the role of mysticism and Orientalism in the religious marketplace, and how the commodification of religion impacts peopleâs lives.