Buddhist Missionaries in the Era of Globalization / / ed. by Linda Learman.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Asian Studies Backlist (2000-2014) eBook Package
• MitwirkendeR: Chandler, Stuart,; Clarke, Peter B.,; Huang, C. Julia,; Kemper, Steven,; LeVine, Sarah,; Learman, Linda,; Payne, Richard K.,; Rocha, Cristina,; Tanabe, Jr,; Tanabe, Jr.,; Tuttle, Gray,
• HerausgeberIn: Learman, Linda,
• Place / Publishing House: Honolulu : : University of Hawaii Press, , [2004]; ©2004
• Year of Publication: 2004
• Language: English
• Series: Topics in Contemporary Buddhism ; 3
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 p.)

This insightful volume dispels the common notion that Buddhism is not a missionary religion by revealing Asian Buddhists as active agents in the propagation of their faith. It presents at the same time a new framework with which to study missionary activity in both Buddhist and other religious traditions. Included are case studies of Theravada, Chinese, and Tibetan Buddhist teachers and congregations, as well as the Pure Land, Shingon, Zen, and Soka Gakkai traditions of Japan. Contributors examine both foreign and domestic missions and the activities of emigrant communities, showing the resources and strategies garnered by late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century Buddhists who worked to uphold and further their respective traditions, often under difficult circumstances. Based on anthropological fieldwork and historical research, the essays break new ground and provide better analytical tools for studying mission activity than previously available. They provide instructive comparisons with Anglo-American Protestant missionary thinking and offer insights into the internal dynamics of Sri Lankan and Japanese missions as they make their way in Protestant and Catholic societies. Also included are nuanced studies of two major missionary figures in late twentieth-century Chinese Buddhism and a fascinating look at the present Dalai Lama's relationships with his devotees and the American government, viewed through an exposition of the abiding tradition within Tibetan Buddhism that combines mission activity with the political goals of exiled lamas. Contributors: Stuart Chandler; Peter B. Clarke; C. Julia Huang; Steven Kemper; Linda Learman; Sarah LeVine; Richard K. Payne; Cristina Rocha; George J. Tanabe, Jr.; Gray Tuttle.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Series Editor's Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Dharmapala's Dharmaduta and the Buddhist Ethnoscape -- 2. The Theravada Domestic Mission in Twentieth-Century Nepal -- 3. Grafting Identity: The Hawaiian Branches of the Bodhi Tree -- 4. Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invisibility of the Shingon Mission to the United States -- 5. Globalization and the Pursuit of a Shared Understanding of the Absolute: The Case of Soka Gakkai in Brazil -- 6. Being a Zen Buddhist Brazilian: Juggling Multiple Religious Identities in The Land of Catholicism -- 7. Spreading Buddha's Light: The Internationalization of Foguang Shan -- 8. The Compassion Relief Diaspora -- 9. Uniting Religion and Politics in a Bid for Autonomy: Lamas in Exile in China and America -- List of Contributors -- Index