When the first wave of Burmese immigrant Buddhists set foot on American soil in the late 1960s, they came into contact with a variety of forms of Buddhism not found in their native Burma. One of these forms was a white or convert Buddhism, whose legacy includes the specter of an Orientalist and racist past, often hardly acknowledged, yet rarely if ever entirely absent from the discourse within Euro-American Buddhism. The legacy of Orientalism in convert Buddhism can be traced to the works of Western Orientalists in the middle and late Victorian era. Stemming in part from Orientalist racial projects, vestiges of white supremacy ideology can still be detected today in the controversy surrounding who represents "American Buddhism" and the smorgasbord of approaches in Buddhist practices that are taken for granted in many meditation centers, hospitals, and other institutions. The prevailing ideology of white supremacy operative in these and other contexts influences the ways in which Buddhist practices have been adapted by both convert and ethnic Buddhist communities. Within the scope of Buddhism as both a religion and a practice, focusing primarily on the Theravada tradition, Joseph Cheah examines in Race and Religion in American Buddhism rearticulations of Asian Buddhist practices through the lens of race and racialization.

About the Author
Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Saint Joseph College

Reviews
Race and Religion in American Buddhism is an excellent contribution to the fields of religious studies, Asian American Studies, ethnic studies, immigrant religions, and studies of American Buddhism that lays bare the white supremacist assumptions of privilege in the defition of what makes a real Buddhist... Such a book-length study as this stands to transform the discourse on American Buddhism and Asian American religions in significant and much needed ways. * Amerasia Journal *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199756285
Author Joseph Cheah
Format Hardback
Page Count 192
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 431g
Dimensions(mm) 160mm * 236mm * 23mm