This study seeks to contribute knowledge of the Zen retreat experience unique to Buddhist tourism. The research setting is the Zen retreats found at the Donghua Zen Temple in China. This study examined feedback obtained from 520 tourists who stayed at Zen retreats. Zen retreat organizer insights were obtained through online discussions. This study identified four motivations for, and three outcomes of, staying at Zen retreats. Within the Zen retreat experience, this study clarified four themes in knowledge growth (
mingxin
), three themes in spiritual growth (
jianxing
), and two mechanisms to foster knowledge and spiritual growth. This study further proposed a figure demonstrating Zen practitioners’ lifelong journey, and a figure categorizing tourists in Buddhist tourism into Zen tourism, Zen lifestyle, and Zen retreat by level of involvement.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.