Download Buddhism in America From The Pluralism Project – Harvard

Buddhism in America
From The Pluralism Project – Harvard University
1853 CE The First Chinese Temple in “Gold Mountain”
Chinese workers and miners, bringing Buddhist and Taoist traditions with them, were
attracted by the Gold Rush to California, which they called Gold Mountain. They built
their first temple in San Francisco’s Chinatown. By 1875, Chinatown was home to eight
temples; and by the end of the century, there were hundreds of Chinese temples and
shrines on the West Coast.
1869 CE Weaverville Joss House
The oldest Chinese temple still standing is today maintained by the Weaverville Historical
Society in Weaverville, California. Among the images of various Taoist and folk deities is
also one of Kuan-yin, the bodhisattva of compassion. It was rebuilt in 1874 after the
original structure burned down.
1875 CE The Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society was formed in New York under the direction of Henry Steel
Olcott and Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, both of whom took the five precepts of a
lay Buddhist in Sri Lanka. The Society promoted the study of Buddhism along with other
spiritual traditions. Olcott’s Buddhist Catechism, published in 1881, became popular
throughout the Buddhist world.
1878 CE Kuan-yin in Hawaii
The monk Leong Dick Ying brought gold-leaf images of the Taoist sage Kuan Kung, and
Kuan-yin, the bodhisattva of compassion, to Honolulu. The Kuan-yin Temple is the oldest
Chinese organization in Hawaii. It has been located on Vineland Avenue in Honolulu since
1921.
1879 CE The Light of Asia Comes West
Sir Edwin Arnold’s The Light of Asia, a biography of the Buddha in verse, was published.
This immensely popular book, which went through eighty editions and sold over half a
million copies, gave many Americans their first introduction to the Buddha.
1882 CE Chinese Exclusion Act
Two decades of growing anti-Chinese sentiment led to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion
Act. The act barred new Chinese immigration for ten years, including that by women
trying to join their husbands who were already in the U.S., and prohibited the
naturalization of Chinese people.
1889 CE First Japanese Buddhist Temple in Hawaii
A temple of the Jodo Shinshu lineage was established for Japanese immigrants on the
island of Hawaii. This lineage later became known as the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of
Hawaii (Hawaii was not annexed to the United States until 1898), and the mission continues
to serve Hawaiian Buddhists today.
1890 CE The Boston Buddhists
Ernest Fenollosa, a Harvard graduate and philosophy professor at the Tokyo Imperial
University, and William Bigelow, a Harvard Medical School doctor, returned to Boston
after several years in Japan. While there, both of them took the precepts as Tendai
Buddhists. Their collection of Asian art, now part of the collection of the Museum of Fine
Arts in Boston, afforded Americans an appreciation of Buddhism and eastern aesthetics.
After their deaths, Fenollosa and Bigelow had a part of their ashes sent to Miidera, the
Tendai temple in Japan where they had studied.
1893 CE World’s Parliament of Religions
The Parliament, held in Chicago in conjunction with the World Columbian Exposition,
included representatives of many strands of the Buddhist tradition: Anagarika
Dharmapala (Sri Lankan Maha Bodhi Society), Shaku Soyen (Japanese Rinzai Zen), Toki
Horyu (Shingon), Ashitsu Jitsunen (Tendai), Yatsubuchi Banryu (Jodo Shin), and Hirai
Kinzo (a Japanese lay Buddhist). Days after the Parliament, in a ceremony conducted by
Anagarika Dharmapala, Charles T. Strauss of New York City became the first person to be
ordained into the Buddhist Sangha on American soil.
1894 CE The Gospel of Buddha
This influential book, published by Paul Carus, brought a selection of Buddhist texts
together in readable fashion for a popular audience. It had been through 13 editions by
1910.
1898 CE Jodo Shinshu Buddhism in San Francisco
The Rev. Dr. Shuya Sonoda and the Rev. Kakuryo Nishijima arrived in San Francisco, as
missionaries of Jodo Shinshu. The Young Men’s Buddhist Association (Bukkyo Seinenkai),
the first Japanese Buddhist organization on the U.S. mainland, was then founded in 1899
under their guidance. The following years saw temples established in Sacramento (1899),
Fresno (1900), Seattle (1901), Oakland (1901), San Jose (1902), Portland (1903), and
Stockton (1906). This organization, initially called the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Mission of
North America, went on to become the Buddhist Churches of America, today the largest
Buddhist organization serving Japanese-Americans.
1900 CE First Non-Asian Buddhist Association
A group of Euro-Americans attracted to the Buddhist teachings of the Jodo Shinshu
organized the Dharma Sangha of the Buddha, in San Francisco.
1906 CE Separate Education for Asians in California
The California State Board of Education enacted legislation calling for “separate but
equal” public schools for Asians and Asian Americans.
1912 CE Shingon Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles
Shingon Koyasan was established in Los Angeles by a community of Japanese Buddhist
immigrants who followed this Japanese form of Vajrayana Buddhism. A small segment of
the American Buddhist community, there are said to be five Shingon temples in the United
States today.
c. 1913 CE Soto Zen Mission of Hawaii
The Soto Zen Mission of Hawaii, called Shoboji, was established in Honolulu to serve
Japanese Americans.
1915 CE World Buddhist Conference
Buddhists from throughout the world gathered in San Francisco, from August 2 to 8, at a
meeting convened by the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Mission of North America. Resolutions
from the conference were taken to President Woodrow Wilson.
1927 CE Soto Zen Mission in Los Angeles
The Soto Zen Mission of Los Angeles, called Zenshuji, was established as the headquarters
of the North American Soto Zen Buddhist order, to serve Japanese Americans and others
in Los Angeles interested in Zen meditation.
1931 CE Nyogen Senzaki Opens Zendo in Los Angeles
In 1905, Nyogen Senzaki, accompanied by Soyen Shaku, a monk who had attended the
Chicago Parliament, came to live in California. The elder monk instructed Senzaki not to
teach for twenty years, and so he worked until 1925, holding a variety of odd jobs including
houseboy, laundryman, and clerk. Finally Senzaki settled in Los Angeles and began
teaching, which he continued until his death, in 1958. One of Senzaki’s students, Robert
Aitken, later founded the Diamond Sangha in Hawaii.
1931 CE Zen in New York
The Buddhist Society of America was incorporated in New York under the guidance of
Rinzai Zen teacher Sokei-an. Sokei-an had first come to the U.S. from 1906 to 1910 to study
with Shokatsu Shaku, in California. He completed his training in Japan where he was
ordained in 1931. Sokei-an died of poor health in 1945, after having spent two years in a
Japanese internment camp from 1942-1943. The center he established in New York City
would evolve into the First Zen Institute of America.
1932 CE The Buddhist Bible
Dwight Goddard, who studied Buddhist meditation practice in both China and Japan,
tried to establish an American monastic community dedicated to practice in Thetford,
Vermont. It was not a success, but Goddard’s anthology of Buddhist sources, The Buddhist
Bible, made an enduring contribution to Americans’ understanding of Buddhism.
1934 CE Soto Zen Temple in San Francisco
Sokoji, a Soto Zen Buddhist temple, was established in San Francisco for the JapaneseAmerican community. In the 1960s, Shunryu Suzuki would start teaching Zen meditation
to Euro-Americans at this temple.
1935 CE Relics of the Buddha to San Francisco
A portion of the Buddha’s relics was presented to Bishop Masuyama of the Jodo Shinshu
Buddhist Mission of North America, based in San Francisco. This led to the construction of
a new building which had a stupa on its roof for the holy relics – the Buddhist Church of
San Francisco on Pine Street, completed in 1938.
1942 CE Internment of Japanese Americans
Two months after Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order
9066 which eventually removed 120,000 Japanese Americans, both citizens and noncitizens,
to internment camps where they remained until the end of World War II. Buddhist priests
and other community leaders were among the first to be targeted and evacuated. Zen
teachers Sokei-an and Nyogen Senzaki were interned. Buddhist organizations continued to
serve the internees in the camps.
1944 CE Buddhist Churches of America Incorporates
At a meeting in the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah, the national organization of
Japanese Jodo Shinshu Buddhists, known as the Buddhist Mission of North America,
formally incorporated under the new name Buddhist Churches of America. Today there
are some 60 temples and a membership of about 19,000.
1944 CE Buddhist Temple of Chicago
The Buddhist Temple of Chicago was established as a nonsectarian temple in the
Mahayana tradition by Rev. Gyomay M. Kobose. He would later found the Chicago-based
American Buddhist Association, the first nonsectarian religious organization of American
Buddhists, in 1955.
1949 CE Buddhist Studies Center in Berkeley
The Buddhist Studies Center was established in Berkeley, California, under the auspices of
the Buddhist Churches of America. In 1966, the center changed its name to the Institute of
Buddhist Studies. It is active today in training clergy for the Buddhist Churches of
America.
1950 CE D.T. Suzuki in New York
D.T. Suzuki first came to the United States in 1897, spending the next fourteen years
translating Taoist and Buddhist works and writing introductory texts to Mahayana
philosophy and history. After returning to Japan in 1911, he and his wife, the American
theosophist Beatrice Erskine Lane, founded the English-language journal, The Eastern
Buddhist, in 1921. He returned to the United States in 1949, teaching at the University of
Hawaii and then Claremont Graduate School. A year later he gained a position at
Columbia University. Suzuki’s writings and seminars led to Zen’s popularity in the late
1950s, mediated in part through such Beat Buddhists as Alan Watts, Allen Ginsberg, Jack
Kerouac, and Gary Snyder.
1955 CE Beat Zen
The first public reading of the poem “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg at the Six Gallery in San
Francisco is said to have signaled the beginning of the Beat Zen movement.
1957 CE Cambridge Buddhist Association
The Cambridge Buddhist Association was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a nonsectarian meditation and study center. Since its founding it has had a number of directors
from different lineages, including Hisamatsu Shinichi (Rinzai Zen), Masatoshi Nagatomi
(Jodo Shinshu), Maurine Stuart (Rinzai Zen), and George Bowman (Korean Chogye).
1957 CE Zen Boom
In the late 1950s, several popular books on Buddhism were published, including Alan
Watt’s bestseller The Way of Zen and Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums.
1959 CE Sino-American Buddhist Association
The Sino-American Buddhist Association was established under the direction of Ch’an
Master Hsuan Hua from Hong Kong. In 1976, it evolved into the Dharma Realm Buddhist
Association with headquarters at the City of 10,000 Buddhas in Talmage, California.
Today the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association has temples in San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Seattle, Maryland, Vancouver, and Calgary.
1959 CE Diamond Sangha in Hawaii
Diamond Sangha was established in Honolulu as a center for the Sanbo Kyodan lineage of
Soto Zen Buddhism under the direction of Philadelphia-born Robert Aitken-roshi.
1960 CE Soka Gakkai in the U.S.
Daisaku Ikeda (President of Soka Gakkai) visited the United States. By 1992, Soka Gakkai
International – USA estimated that it had 150,000 American members.
1962 CE San Francisco Zen Center
The San Francisco Zen Center was established for the practice of Soto Zen Buddhism
under the direction of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, whose book, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, is a
classic introduction to Zen meditation.
1962 CE Joshu Sasaki-roshi in Los Angeles
Sasaki-roshi, one of America’s foremost Zen masters, first taught in a garage and then
later in a dentist’s office before establishing the Cimarron Zen Center in South Central Los
Angeles, in 1968.
1966 CE Thich Nhat Hanh to America
In the midst of the Vietnam conflict, Vietnamese monks in Saigon immolated themselves –
an act the entire world witnessed through press coverage. Secretary of State Henry Cabot
Lodge then met with Vietnamese and Japanese Buddhist leaders, and the State Department
established an Office of Buddhist Affairs headed by Claremont College Professor Richard
Gard. While Americans were reacting to the monks’ acts of self-immolation, another
Vietnamese monk, named Thich Nhat Hanh, came to the United States to speak about the
conflict. His visit, coupled with the publication in English of his book, Lotus in a Sea of
Fire, so impressed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that King nominated Nhat Hanh for the
Nobel Peace Prize.
1964 CE Buddhist Association of the United States
The largest Chinese Buddhist group in the New York area established headquarters in the
Bronx. In 1981, under the inspiration of one of its leading teachers, Dr. Chia Theng Shen,
the Association also built a substantial rural monastic center, the Chuang Yen Monastery,
in Kent, New York.
1965 CE Immigration and Nationality Act
This act ended the quota system, enacted in 1924, which had virtually halted immigration
from Asia to the United States for over forty years. Following 1965, growing numbers of
Asian immigrants from South, Southeast, and East Asia settled in America; many brought
Buddhist traditions with them.
1966 CE First Buddhist Monastery in Washington D.C.
The Washington Buddhist Vihara, established in Washington, D.C., as a missionary center
with the support of the Sri Lankan government, was the first Sri Lankan Buddhist temple
in America. The Ven. Bope Vinita Thera brought an image and a relic of the Buddha to the
nation’s capital in 1965. The following year, the Vihara was incorporated and, in 1968, it
moved to its present location on 16th Street, NW.
1966 CE Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
The dream of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, Tassajara, a mountain monastic training center
affiliated with the San Francisco Zen Center, opened. In 1969, the San Francisco Zen
Center also purchased its present property on Page Street for a large urban residential
center.
1966 CE First Buddhist Seminary in Berkeley
The Buddhist Studies Center in Berkeley, founded in 1949, changed its name to the
Institute of Buddhist Studies and became the first seminary for Buddhist ministry and
research under the auspices of the Buddhist Churches of America. It affiliated with the
Graduate Theological Union in 1985, and currently offers three degrees, a Master of Jodo
Shinshu Studies, a Master of Buddhist Studies, and a PhD in Cultural and Historical
Studies of Religion with a focus in Buddhist Studies.
1967 CE Zen Center of Los Angeles
The Center was established under the direction of Taizan Maezumi-roshi. Some of those
trained at ZCLA would be among the first American-born cohort of roshis: Bernard
Tetsugen Glassman (Yonkers), Jan Chozen Bays (Portland), and John Daido Loori (Mt.
Tremper, New York).
1969 CE Tibetan Center in Berkeley
Tarthang Tulku, a Tibetan monk educated at Banaras Hindu University in India, came to
Berkeley and within a few years established the Nyingma Meditation Center, the first
Tibetan Buddhist center in the U.S.
1970 CE Shasta Abbey at Mount Shasta
The first Soto Zen monastery in America was established in the Bay Area under the
direction of Roshi Jiyu Kennett, an English-born woman who trained in Japan. It is the
headquarters of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives.
1970 CE Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche to America.
This Oxford-educated Tibetan teacher brought the Karma Kagyu Tibetan Buddhist
lineage to the U.S. He first taught at Tail of the Tiger (now Karme-Choling), a center on a
farm his students purchased in Barnet, Vermont. In 1971, he established Karma Dzong in
Boulder, Colorado. In 1973, he founded Vajradhatu, an organization consolidating many
Dharmadhatu centers. Cutting through Spiritual Materialism, a classic introduction to
Trungpa’s form of Tibetan Buddhism, was published in 1973.
1970 CE International Buddhist Meditation Center
IBMC was established by Ven. Dr. Thich Thien-An, a Vietnamese Zen Master, in Los
Angeles. The College of Buddhist Studies is also located on the grounds of the Center,
which is currently under the direction of Thien-An’s student, Ven. Karuna Dharma.
1971 CE Chinese Buddhism in the Catskills
The Eastern States Buddhist Temple Association in New York dedicated Temple
Mahayana in the Catskill Mountains in Leeds, New York.
1972 CE Korean Zen Master to Rhode Island
Zen Master Seung Sahn came to the United States with little money and little knowledge of
English. He rented an apartment in Providence and worked as a washing machine
repairman. A note on his door said simply, “What am I?” and announced meditation
classes. Thus began the Providence Zen Center, followed soon by Korean Zen Centers in
Cambridge, New Haven, New York, and Berkeley, all part of the Kwan Um School of Zen.
1972 CE Wat Thai in Los Angeles
Land for a temple was purchased on Cold Water Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood,
opening rites were performed, and monks began living in a residence on the property in
1972. The main hall of Wat Thai, the first Thai Buddhist temple in America, was
completed and consecrated in 1979.
1972 CE Gold Mountain Monastery
Headquarters for the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, a Chinese Buddhist
organization, were established in San Francisco, where the movement was based until the
founding of the City of 10,000 Buddhas in 1976. The membership of the Dharma Realm
Buddhist Association is a mix of Chinese immigrants and Euro-Americans who follow the
late Master Hsuan Hua.
1973 CE Vajradhatu Formed
Vajradhatu, the international organization of Chogyam Trungpa’s Tibetan Buddhist
centers, was first established at Karma Dzong in Boulder, Colorado. It later moved to
Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1974 CE Buddhist Chaplain in California
The California State Senate appointed Rev. Shoko Masunaga as its first Buddhist and first
Asian-American chaplain.
1974 CE First Buddhist Liberal Arts College
Naropa Institute was founded in Boulder, Colorado, as a Buddhist-inspired, but nonsectarian liberal arts college, which aimed to combine contemplative studies with
traditional Western scholastic and artistic disciplines. The accredited college now offers
courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels in Buddhist studies, contemplative
psychotherapy, environmental studies, poetics, and dance.
1974 CE Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Robert Pirsig’s novel popularized the image and teaching of Zen in the American literary
imagination.
1974 CE Redress for Internment of Japanese Americans
Rep. Phillip Burton of California addressed the U.S. House of Representatives on the topic
“Seventy-five Years of American Buddhism” as part of an ongoing debate surrounding
redress for Japanese Americans interned during World War II.
1975 CE The Fall of Saigon and the Arrival of Vietnamese Refugees
About 130,000 Vietnamese refugees, many of them Buddhists, came to the U.S. in 1975
alone. By 1985 there were 643,200 Vietnamese in the U.S. Dr. Thich Thien-an, a
Vietnamese monk and scholar already in Los Angeles, began the Chua Vietnam in 1976. It
was the first Vietnamese Buddhist temple in America and is still thriving on Berendo
Street, not far from central Los Angeles.
1975 CE Laotian, Hmong and Mien Refugees Arrive from Laos
With the end of the war in Vietnam some 70,000 Laotian, 60,000 Hmong, and 10,000 Mien
people arrived in the U.S. as refugees bringing their religious traditions, including
Buddhism, with them.
1975 CE Insight Meditation Society in Rural New England
IMS was established in a former Catholic monastic center in Barre, Massachusetts, under
the guidance of Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, and Christina
Feldman for the intensive practice of vipassana meditation.
1976 CE Council of Thai Bhikkhus
The Council, a nonprofit corporation based in Denver, Colorado, became the leading
nationwide network for Thai Buddhism.
1976 CE City of 10,000 Buddhas
Established in Talmage, California, by the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association as the first
Chinese Buddhist monastery for both monks and nuns, the City of 10,000 Buddhas consists
of sixty buildings, including elementary and secondary schools and a university, on a 237acre site.
1976 CE American Zen College
The College was founded in Germantown, Maryland, under the direction of the Korean
Zen Master Gosung Shin.
1976 CE First Rinzai Zen Monastery
On July 4, Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji, America’s first Rinzai Zen monastery, was
established in Lew Beach, New York, under the direction of Eido Tai Shimano-roshi.
1978 CE Buddhist Peace Fellowship
The Fellowship was founded to bring a Buddhist perspective to the peace movement, and to
bring the peace movement to the Buddhist community.
1979 CE Tibetan Buddhism in Woodstock
Karma Triyana Dharmachakra was established in Woodstock, New York, as the North
American seat of the Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan
Buddhism.
1979 CE Cambodian Refugees Come to the U.S.
Four years of the “Killing Fields” under the regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge ended
with the invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam. Refugees poured across the border into
Thailand. Between 1979 and 1989, 180,000 Cambodian refugees were relocated in the
United States. In 1979, the Cambodian Buddhist Society was established in Silver Spring,
Maryland, as the first Cambodian Buddhist temple in America. The nearly 40,000
Cambodian residents of Long Beach, California, purchased the former headquarters of the
Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union and converted the huge building into a temple
complex.
1979 CE Ch’an Meditation Center in Elmhurst
The Institute of Chung-Hwa Buddhist Culture Meditation Center (later Ch’an Meditation
Center) was established in Elmhurst, New York, under the direction of the Chinese
meditation master, Ven. Sheng-Yen Cheng.
1980 CE First Burmese Temple
Dhammodaya Monastery, the first Burmese Buddhist temple in America, was established
in Los Angeles.
1980 CE Friends of the Western Buddhist Order
This group, also called the Aryaloka Community, was established in Newmarket, New
Hampshire, as a non-sectarian Buddhist community. The FWBO was founded in England
by Ven. Sangharakshita to promote a new form of Western Buddhism which emphasized
right-livelihood cooperatives and deemphasized the strict separation of the lay and
monastic components of the Sangha. Today, the Aryaloka Buddhist Center is part of the
international organization, the Triratna Buddhist Community.
1980 CE Tibetan Rigpa Fellowship
The Fellowship was established in Santa Cruz, California, as a center for the teachings of
Lama Sogyal Rinpoche, a Tibetan lama and meditation master.
1980 CE Sri Lankan Vihara in Los Angeles
The Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara was established in Los Angeles as a Sinhalese
Buddhist temple. It has the largest number of monks in residence of any Sri Lankan temple
in the U.S.
1980 CE Buddhist Sangha Council
The Buddhist Sangha Council of Los Angeles (later of Southern California) was established
under the leadership of the Ven. Havanpola Ratanasara. It was one of the first crosscultural, inter-Buddhist organizations, bringing together monks and other leaders from the
entire range of Buddhist traditions.
1981 CE Wat Buddharam in Tennessee
Wat Buddharam, the first Thai Buddhist temple of the Thammayut lineage in America,
was established in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
1981 CE A History of Buddhism in America
The first edition of Rick Fields’ How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of
Buddhism in America was published. It became the classic history of Buddhism in America.
1983 CE The College of Buddhist Studies
The College opened under the auspices of the Buddhist Sangha Council of Southern
California in Los Angeles to confer B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in Buddhist Studies. The
college used the buildings that house the International Buddhist Meditation Center but
closed in 2003.
1983 CE Kwan Um School of Zen
The Kwan Um School of Zen was formed as an umbrella organization to facilitate the
teaching, communications, and administrative needs of the many Korean Zen centers
founded by Zen Master Seung Sahn. Ground was broken for the Diamond Hill Zen
Monastery, in Rhode Island, the first Korean-style monastery in the United States.
1985 CE First Laotian Temple
Though it had been operating unofficially since 1979, Wat Lao Phouthavong, the first
Laotian temple in America, was legally incorporated in Catlett, Virginia.
1986 CE Buddhist Astronaut on Challenger
Lt. Col. Ellison Onizuka, a Hawaiian-born, Jodo Shinshu Buddhist was killed 73 seconds
after take off in the space shuttle Challenger. He was the first Asian-American to reach
space.
1987 CE Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche Dies
Trungpa died at age 47 of cardiac arrest. His cremation took place at Karme-Choling in
Barnet, Vermont.
1987 CE Conference on World Buddhism in North America
For ten days in July, Buddhists from all the Buddhist lineages in North America came
together in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a conference intended to initiate dialogue among
them and further mutual understanding and cooperation.
1987 CE Buddhists Get Organized
The Buddhist Council of the Midwest gathered twelve Chicago-area lineages of Buddhism,
including traditions from five Theravada countries, four Mahayana countries, Tibet and
the United States. In Los Angeles, the American Buddhist Congress was created, with 47
Buddhist organizations attending its inaugural convention as a national ecumenical
Buddhist organization. And this same year, the Sri Lanka Sangha Council of North
America was established in Los Angeles to be the national network for Sri Lankan
Buddhism.
1987 CE Buddhist Books Gain Wider Audience
Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield published what became a classic book on vipassana
meditation – Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation. Thich Nhat
Hanh, who was residing at Plum Village in France and visiting the United States annually,
published Being Peace, a classic treatment of “engaged Buddhism” – Buddhism that is
concerned with social and ecological issues.
1988 CE Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights
Construction of Hsi Lai Temple, a Chinese Pure Land Buddhist temple in Hacienda
Heights, California, was completed. The center of Fo Kuang Buddhism in the United
States, the temple cost more than $30 million, occupies 14 acres of land, and was begun in
1967. It is the largest Buddhist temple in the western hemisphere.
1988 CE Jade Buddha Temple in Houston
Land was purchased for the Jade Buddha Temple complex, which includes a Great
Buddha Hall which holds over 600 people, several smaller halls, a library, and a school was
constructed by the Chinese Buddhist community of Houston. They had first organized in
1978 and built the Buddha Light Monastery in 1980, but the rapid growth of the
community necessitated construction of the much larger temple less than a decade later.
Construction was completed in 1990.
1988 CE “Little Saigon” in Orange County
The city of Westminster designated a stretch of Bolsa Avenue as “Little Saigon.” The
street, once strawberry fields and vacant lots, became the thriving business center of a
growing Vietnamese community. In Westminster, Santa Ana, and Garden Grove there are
two dozen Buddhist temples.
1988 CE Wat Carolina in Bolivia, North Carolina
The Buddhist Association of North Carolina opened a temple for the Theravadin
community of Thai and Laotian Buddhists in the area. The foundation for a newly
constructed temple was laid in July 1989.
1989 CE Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
The Center was established on a renovated farm in Barre, Massachusetts, to complement
the Insight Meditation Society and be a bridge between the academic study of Buddhism
and the practice of Buddhist meditation. Located very near IMS, the Center has its own
library, meditation hall, kitchen, and guest rooms.
1990 CE Trungpa’s Vajra Regent Dies
Tom Rich, who had been empowered as Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin in 1976, died. In 1989,
he had revealed that he had AIDS and had not informed his partners. Controversy shook
the movement.
1991 CE Tibetan Resettlement in the United States
The National Office of the Tibetan Resettlement Project was established in New York after
the United States Congress granted 1,000 special visas for Tibetans, all of them Buddhists.
Two years later the Tibetan Community Assistance Program, designed to assist Tibetans
resettling in the United States, was opened in New York. Cluster groups of Tibetan
refugees have established their own small temples and have begun to encounter EuroAmerican practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism.
1991 CE Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
The first issue of Tricycle: the Buddhist Review, a non-sectarian national Buddhist
magazine was published. The journal features articles by prominent Buddhist teachers and
writers as well as pieces on Buddhism and American culture at large.
1991 CE Thai Buddhists Slain in Arizona
On August 9, six Thai monks, a nun, and two novice monks were slain at Wat
Promkunaram, a Thai temple and monastic complex outside Phoenix, Arizona.
1991 CE Dalai Lama in Madison Square Garden
For more than a week in October, the Dalai Lama gave the “Path of Compassion”
teachings and conferred the Kalachakra Initiation in Madison Square Garden in New
York City.
1992 CE Korean Zen Transmission
At the Providence Zen Center in Cumberland, Rhode Island, Zen Master Seung Sahn gave
formal Dharma transmission to three American-born students, Barbara Rhodes, George
Bowman, and Mu Deung Sunim, who became full Zen masters.
1993 CE Centennial of the World’s Parliament of Religions
There were many prominent Buddhist speakers at the Centennial of the Parliament in
Chicago, among them Thich Nhat Hanh, Master Seung Sahn, the Ven. Mahaghosananda,
and the Ven. Dr. Havanpola Ratanasara. The Dalai Lama gave the closing address.
Buddhist co-sponsors of the event included the American Buddhist Congress, Buddhist
Churches of America, Buddhist Council of the Midwest, Buddhist Peace Fellowship,
Buddhist Society of Compassionate Wisdom, Chicago Dharmadhatu, Numata Center for
Buddhist Translation and Research, Rissho Kosei-kai, Kwan Um School of Zen, Maha
Bodhi Society, World Fellowship of Buddhists, Wat Dhammaram, Wat Thai of
Washington, D.C., Won Buddhism of America.
1993 CE Seu-Mi Sa Korean Temple in Tacoma
Seu-Mi Sa in Tacoma, Washington, was built from the ground up at a cost of $1.6 million.
The Seattle and Tacoma area is also home to four other Korean Buddhist temples.
1994 CE The Little Buddha
Bernardo Bertolucci’s film The Little Buddha was released nationwide.
1994 CE IBMC Holds Grand Ordination
In December, 1994, the International Buddhist Meditation Center held a Grand
Ordination primarily of bhikkhunis of Tibetan and Vietnamese traditions. The ordaining
master was Sri Lankan; a number of other traditions also participated.
1995 CE Buddhist Temple Construction Surges
The Vietnamese community dedicated a new Buddha Hall in Roslindale, Massachusetts.
The Thai community is building new temples in Dade County, Florida; Kew Gardens, New
York; and Fremont, California. Throughout the country immigrant and American-born
Buddhist communities are growing and building.
1997 CE Kundun
The film Kundun was released, depicting the life of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai
Lama.
2003 CE United Celebrations for the Buddha’s birthday in Boston
Over fifty Buddhist groups came together in downtown Boston to celebrate Vesak,
recognizing the 2547th birthday of the Buddha, and celebrating his Enlightenment and his
entering into Nirvana. Until this occasion, the Buddhist communities and organizations in
Boston, as throughout the United States, had ordinarily held such celebrations
independently.
2006 CE American Monk Named First U.S. Representative to World Buddhist Supreme
Conference
Venerable Bhante Vimalaramsi (Sayadaw Gyi U Vimalaramsi Maha Thera) was
nominated and confirmed as the first representative from the United States for the World
Buddhist Supreme Conference, which is held every two years and includes representatives
from fifty countries.
2007 CE First Buddhist Congresswoman Sworn In
Rep. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii, was the first Buddhist to be sworn into
Congress.
2009 CE Agreement Reached between Monks and City of Virginia Beach
The Buddhist Education Center of America and the City of Virginia Beach came to an
agreement that allowed religious services to be held for a limited time in a home in the City
for a limited time. With the conditional permit, the Buddhist monks were allowed to meet
for religious services only at specific times and days, with a restricted number of attendees
due to neighbor complaints of traffic, and they could not hold religious services outside.