Old Wisdom in the New World: Americanization in
Two Immigrant Theravada Buddhist Temples

Reviewed by Thomas A. Tweed

The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Vol.36 No.1 (March 1997)
pp.124-125

COPYRIGHT 1997 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion


            The study of Buddhism in the United States has focused 
            disproportionately on American converts, especially those who have 
            turned to the tradition since the 1960s. In this revised 
            dissertation, Paul Numrich makes an important contribution by 
            providing a book-length study of Theravada Buddhism at two immigrant 
            temples in the United States. He does not neglect the American 
            converts who affiliate with the temples he studies - Wat Dhammaram 
            of Chicago and Dharma Vijaya of Los Angeles - and so students of new 
            religious movements will find much here to interest them. At the 
            same time - and here is the main source of the book's significance - 
            Numrich offers a careful analysis of the Buddhist practice of the 
            Thai and Sri Lankan immigrants who organized these religious 
            communities. 
            Numrich draws on four kinds of sources in this sociological study - 
            observation, interviews, texts, and surveys - as he explores 
            accommodation and resistance to American culture in these two 
            communities. He introduces the temples in Chapter 1 and then 
            considers the history of schisms (Chapter 2) and the role of the 
            monks (Chapter 3). (Chapters 2 and 3 might be a bit dry for 
            students, but most readers of this journal will welcome the 
            background they provide.) 
            Numrich gets to the heart of his intriguing argument in Chapter 4. 
            He suggests that a relatively new pattern has made the process of 
            Americanization more complex for these immigrants: "parallel 
            congregations" have emerged at both temples. By that he means that 
            "ethnic-Asians and non-Asian converts follow separate forms of 
            Theravada Buddhism under a single temple roof and at the direction 
            of a shared monastic leadership" (63). In the two chapters that 
            follow, Numrich supports his claim by noting, for example, that the 
            American converts at the two temples are more inclined toward 
            Vipassana meditation and Buddhist philosophy whereas Asian followers 
            continue to focus on the more traditional ritual practices they 
            brought with them from their homelands - venerating the Buddha 
            (Buddha puja), donating necessities to the monks (sanghika dana), 
            and attending annual festivals. In the brief concluding chapter, 
            Numrich returns to the Americanization theme, suggesting that the 
            immigrants' stories in Chicago and Los Angeles repeat familiar 
            motifs in American immigrant history, while the emergence of 
            parallel congregations complicates that narrative in important ways. 
            
            The book might have been improved in minor respects. While Numrich 
            provides helpful biographical profiles of ten American converts in 
            Chapter 6, similar accounts are missing from the chapter on 
            immigrants. Although there are some brief quotations from Thai and 
            Sri Lankan lay Buddhists, it might have added vividness and depth to 
            the analysis if Numrich had included even more of the voices of the 
            immigrants themselves. The author also seems to assume an 
            Americanization model as he analyzes the immigrants' practices; some 
            participants in the recent conversations about ethnic studies and 
            immigrant history might wish there was some acknowledgment of other 
            ways to frame the study. Readers who incline toward postmodern 
            ethnography might wonder why the author did not refer even more 
            often to his own relation to the topic and the participants. The 
            authorial voice here is, for the most part, that of the distanced 
            observer. Those who are unfamiliar with Buddhism might have 
            benefited from a glossary, much as readers of varying backgrounds 
            will welcome the author's additions of photographs, charts, and a 
            list of Theravada Buddhist Temples in the United States (149-153). 
            Although some minor revisions might have improved the book, there is 
            much to celebrate here. Even though the author was trained primarily 
            in Buddhist Studies, not North American religions, the book 
            contributes to the study of U.S. religion, and not only because it 
            adds new information on another group. Numrich makes efforts to link 
            their story with that of others, emphasizing how the new immigrants 
            are continuous and discontinuous with those who preceded them. The 
            book also contributes to our understanding of new religious 
            movements by interpreting the religious lives of the American 
            converts in the context of the complex immigrant temples they 
            attend. Perhaps most important, Numrich enriches the emerging 
            scholarship on the post-1965 "new immigrants" from Latin America and 
            Asia by providing an in-depth study of two immigrant temples. 
            Finally, Numrich's thesis about "parallel congregations" might help 
            researchers theorize about immigrant religious communities, 
            sensitizing them to similar patterns in other contexts. 
            This, then, is an important book. It is indispensable for those who 
            study the religious life of the new immigrants and is highly 
            recommended for others who specialize in U.S. religion. 
            THOMAS A. TWEED University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, North 
            Carolina