Seeding Buddhism with Multiculturalism: The Transmission of Sri Lankan Buddhism in Toronto (Advancing Studies in Religion Series)

Immigrants often face considerable challenges when it comes to preserving their cultural and religious teachings. D. Mitra Barua argues that the Sri Lankan Buddhist community in Toronto has maintained its coherence and integrity not despite but because of the need for cultural adaptations. Drawing on survey data, over fifty in-depth interviews with temple monks, educators, parents, and children, and fieldwork conducted in Toronto and Colombo, Sri Lanka, Seeding Buddhism with Multiculturalism examines how a religious tradition is transmitted from one generation to the next in a new cultural setting, and what happens during that process of transmission. Barua demonstrates that Buddhists have passed on Buddhist beliefs, attitudes, and practices to their Canadian-born youth, who in turn have constructed their own distinct Buddhist identity, influenced by the individualistic, egalitarian, and secular cultural ambience in Toronto. Through creative fieldwork and translocal analysis – taking into account migrants' geographical, cultural, and familial ties to multiple locales – this book further explains that pre-migration experiences often shape and determine the success or failure of intergenerational transmission. An ethnographic religious study with an uncommon depth of perspective, Seeding Buddhism with Multiculturalism shows that first- and second-generation Sri Lankan Buddhists in Toronto are successfully practising Theravada Buddhism within a Canadian context. Immigrants often face considerable challenges when it comes to preserving their cultural and religious teachings. D. Mitra Barua argues that the Sri Lankan Buddhist community in Toronto has maintained its coherence and integrity not despite but because of the need for cultural adaptations. Drawing on survey data, over fifty in-depth interviews with temple monks, educators, parents, and children, and fieldwork conducted in Toronto and Colombo, Sri Lanka, Seeding Buddhism with Multiculturalism examines how a religious tradition is transmitted from one generation to the next in a new cultural setting, and what happens during that process of transmission. Barua demonstrates that Buddhists have passed on Buddhist beliefs, attitudes, and practices to their Canadian-born youth, who in turn have constructed their own distinct Buddhist identity, influenced by the individualistic, egalitarian, and secular cultural ambience in Toronto. Through creative fieldwork and translocal analysis – taking into account migrants' geographical, cultural, and familial ties to multiple locales – this book further explains that pre-migration experiences often shape and determine the success or failure of intergenerational transmission. An ethnographic religious study with an uncommon depth of perspective, Seeding Buddhism with Multiculturalism shows that first- and second-generation Sri Lankan Buddhists in Toronto are successfully practising Theravāda Buddhism within a Canadian context. "Focusing on Sri Lankan Buddhists in Toronto, D. Mitra Barua argues that the Sri Lankan Buddhist tradition, not despite but because of the cultural adaptations to the Canadian context, has maintained its coherence and integrity. Sri Lankan Buddhists have succeeded in transmitting Buddhist beliefs, attitudes and practices onto their Canada-born youth who in turn have reconstructed their own distinct Buddhist identity influenced by the individualistic, egalitarian and secular cultural ambience in Toronto. This observation derives from a comprehensive research comprised of two surveys, over fifty in-depth interviews and fieldwork conducted in Toronto (Canada) and Colombo (Sri Lanka). What makes this study outstanding is its creative fieldwork and translocal analysis. The former displays researcher's simultaneous role of being (in) the field; the latter explains that pre-migration experiences of immigrants often shape and determine the success or failure of intergenerational transmission."-- Provided by publisher How Buddhist immigrants in Toronto transmit their teachings and traditions to the next generation.