Old Wisdom in the New World: Americanization in Two Immigrant
Theravada Buddhist Temples
Reviewd by Jan Nattier
Journal of American Ethnic History
Vol.17 No.4
Summer 1998
Pp.136-137
COPYRIGHT 1998 Immigration History Society
By Paul David Numrich. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press,
1996. xxiv + 181 pp. Illustrations, diagrams, tables, notes,
bibliography and index. $22.50.
This book breaks new ground in a number of ways. Most previous
studies of the experience of Asian immigrants have ignored (or at
least minimized) the religious factor, due in large part to the
Marxist-oriented and socially activist context within which the
field of Asian American Studies was born. Previous publications on
Buddhism in North America, by contrast, have largely elided the
experience of Asian Americans, privileging instead the
meditation-centered Buddhism of first-generation, mostly Caucasian,
converts. Finally, there have been no studies at all of the
interactions between Asian and non-Asian Buddhists. In all of these
respects this book moves well beyond the bounds of previous
scholarship; it is a timely and welcome contribution.
Based on field studies carried out in 1987-1991, Numrich chronicles
the attempts of a Thai temple in Chicago (Wat Dhammaram) and a Sri
Lankan temple in Los Angeles (Dharma Vijaya) to put down roots in
North America. Both have been involved in schisms, resulting in part
from differences of opinion about the desirability of
"Americanization." An additional factor in both schisms was clearly
the presence of class differences among the membership, which
Numrich alludes to (but does not pursue) when he reports that
"medical doctors from the suburbs" were instrumental in founding
breakaway temples in both cities (p. 30).
Numrich offers a rich description of the history of these two
temples and the challenges they have faced in attempting to adapt
Theravada Buddhist traditions to the North American environment.
Students of other immigrant religions will find much that is
familiar, as these Thai and Sri Lankan Buddhists debate whether to
conduct services in English or an Asian vernacular, deal with
potentially hostile neighbors, and worry about whether the second
generation will carry on the traditions of its parents. Other
challenges, however, are specific to Buddhism. Above all, the fact
that a celibate monastic clergy plays a central role in all Buddhist
countries but Japan, while most North Americans - whether Asian or
non-Asian in ancestry - find little attraction in the celibate life,
poses a serious obstacle to the recruitment of an American-born
leadership.
The most novel contribution in Numrich's study is his documentation
of the phenomenon of "parallel congregations." While many Buddhist
groups in the United States consist exclusively of Asian immigrants
or of non-Asian converts, both Dharma Vijaya and Wat Dhammaram have
drawn a dual clientele that includes members of both constituencies.
These two groups have not, however, merged to form a single
community; traditional rituals are attended almost exclusively by
Asian members, while non-Asians predominate at meditation sessions
and lectures on doctrine. The result is an anomalous situation in
which two distinct congregations meet at separate times, albeit
under the same roof.
In the complex religious landscape of post-1960s America, Numrich
suggests, such anomalies are simply to be expected. But the fact
remains that - with rare exceptions - such dual communities have
emerged only within Buddhist organizations. Numrich opines that the
presence of resident Asian monks willing and able to offer an
attractive alternative to non-Asian seekers "provides the
explanation for why the parallel congregations phenomenon has not
surfaced in other immigrant religious institutions" (p. 146). But,
surely, there are clergy in other immigrant religious groups who
would also welcome American converts. To explain why a potential
convert might drive past a mosque but stop to visit a Buddhist
temple, it is necessary to take into account the status of Buddhism
as a "prestige tradition" among many college-educated members of the
baby-boom generation. Indeed, one wonders if succeeding age cohorts
will take any interest in Theravada Buddhism at all, for Numrich
notes (but does not elaborate upon) the striking fact that virtually
all non-Asian members of both temples are over the age of
thirty-five (p. 109).
The implications of this skewed demographic profile for future
non-Asian participation, the possibility that shared socio-economic
status will bridge the ethnic gap between upper-middle class Asian
and non-Asian members, and the impact of class differences within
the Asian membership of the two temples are all issues that would
have benefited from more detailed analysis. But these minor
shortcomings aside, this an important and groundbreaking work that
offers much food for thought to students of immigration history,
Asian American Studies, and the history of Buddhism in North
America.
Jan Nattier Indiana University
Jan Nattier is Associate Professor of Buddhist Studies in the
Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University. Her research
interests are wide-ranging, including all aspects of the
transmission of Buddhism across cultural boundaries. Particular
areas of specialization are the origins of the Mahayana or "Greater
Vehicle" tradition of Buddhism in India (c. 1st century BCE), the
transmission of Buddhism from India to China via the so-called Silk
Road (1st millennium CE), and the transmission of Buddhism to North
America (19th-20th centuries CE). Her major publications include
"Church Language and Vernacular Language in Central Asian Buddhism"
(Numen, 1990), "The Heart Sutra, A Chinese Apocryphal Text?"
(Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
(1992), "Visible and Invisible: The Politics of Representation in
Buddhist America