A different situation exists in parts of Asia where Buddhism has remained the leading religious force and has continued to exert a strong influence on political, economic, and social life. This is the case in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, where Buddhism is the dominant religion among the Sinhalese and Burman majorities, and in Thailand, where more than 90 percent of the population is counted as Buddhist. Although in the majority, Buddhists face unique challenges in these areas. In Sri Lanka, Buddhists were divided over the proper response to the civil war (1983–2009) between the Sinhalese government and the Tamil Tigers, a paramilitary group that sought an independent state in the north for the primarily Hindu Tamils. In Myanmar, Buddhists confronted the profound political division between the military junta, which ruled from 1962 until 2011 and sought to legitimate its dictatorship in traditional Buddhist terms, and the democratic opposition—led by Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace—which based its resistance on a very different version of Buddhist teaching and practice. In 2007 Buddhist monks were prominent in Myanmar’s so-called Saffron Revolution (named for the saffron-coloured robes traditionally worn by Theravada monks), a large demonstration in Yangon for democratic reforms that drew a harsh response from the government. That action was a catalyst helping to effect constitutional reforms in 2008 and a change in government in 2011. As the state religion of Thailand, Buddhism has retained a firm position within a relatively stable social and political order, despite deep divisions and conflicts that have developed among various groups. Buddhism is the officially recognized “spiritual heritage” of Bhutan, a traditionally Vajrayana Buddhist kingdom that completed its transition to parliamentary government in 2008.
A third situation occurs in societies where Buddhist traditions operate with a considerable degree of freedom and effectiveness, though Buddhism’s role is circumscribed to varying degrees. This situation prevails in several of the Pacific Rim countries, including South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, and to a lesser extent in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, where Buddhism is practiced by significant numbers of the large Chinese minority. The primary example, however, is Japan, where Buddhism has continued to exert an important influence. In the highly modernized society that has developed in Japan, many deeply rooted Buddhist traditions, such as Shingon, Tendai, Pure Land, and Zen, have persisted and have been adapted to changing conditions. At the same time, new Buddhist sects such as Risshō-Kōsei-kai (“Society for Establishing Righteousness and Friendly Relations”) and Sōka-gakkai (“Value-Creation Society”) have gained millions of converts in Japan and throughout the world. The latter, which is a variant of Nichiren Buddhism, has increased its international profile since the late 20th century under the leadership of Daiseku Ikeda.
Finally, new Buddhist communities have established roots in areas where Buddhism disappeared many centuries ago or did not exist at all before the mid-19th century. In India, for example, the Mahar Buddhist community established by B.R. Ambedkar has developed its own style of Buddhist teaching and practice that incorporates and integrates religious elements drawn from the pre-existing Mahar tradition.
Statue of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar.© Manohar S/Fotolia
In the Western world, particularly in the United States and Canada, the growth of new Buddhist communities—which include Buddhist immigrants from different parts of Asia, the North American-born children of immigrants, and indigenous converts—has been very rapid indeed. In these areas older Buddhist traditions have mixed and interacted in ways that have generated rapid changes in ways of thinking and in modes of practice. Many indigenous converts place greater emphasis upon the practice of meditation than upon monastic life, and since the mid-20th century a steady stream of books and other media have reflected this trend. Many other North American-born Buddhists of non-Asian descent have studied in traditional Buddhist countries, become ordained, and returned to the United States to lead and even found monasteries and Buddhist community centres. Some practicing Buddhists and scholars of Buddhism believe that the process of accomodation and acculturation in the West, and particularly in North America, is leading to a “fourth turning of the Wheel of the Dharma,” a new form of Buddhism that will turn out to be quite different from the traditional forms of Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana while incorporating aspects of each.
For more than two millennia, Buddhism has been a powerful religious, political, and social force, first in India, its original homeland, and then in many other lands. It remains a powerful religious, political, and cultural force in many parts of the world today. There is every reason to expect that the appeal of Buddhism will continue far on into the future.
Citation Information
Article Title: Buddhism
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 09 August 2019
URL: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhism
Access Date: August 13, 2019
Additional Reading General treatments
Arguably the best introduction to Buddhism as a whole is Joseph M. Kitagawa and Mark D. Cummings (eds.), Buddhism and Asian History (1989). Another basic introductory work that focuses on Buddhist communities and practices in the 19th and 20th centuries is Frank E. Reynolds and Jason A. Carbine (eds.), The Life of Buddhism (2000). The two best anthologies of Buddhist texts are John S. Strong (compiler), The Experience of Buddhism: Sources and Interpretations (1995); and Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (ed.), Buddhism in Practice (1995), a more advanced volume.
Important reference works include G.P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names, 2 vol. (1937–38, reprinted 1983). An extensive, fully annotated bibliography of older Western-language materials is provided in Frank E. Reynolds, John Holt, and John S. Strong, Guide to Buddhist Religion (1981). Other valuable bibliographic discussions are J.W. de Jong, A Brief History of Buddhist Studies in Europe and America (1997); and Frank E. Reynolds, “Coming of Age: Buddhist Studies in the United States from 1972 to 1997,” The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 22(2):457–483 (1999).
Important books that treat topics on a pan-Buddhist basis include David L. Snellgrove (ed.), The Image of the Buddha (1978); José Ignacio Cabezón (ed.), Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender (1992); Robert E. Buswell, Jr., and Robert M. Gimello (eds.), Paths to Liberation: The Mārga and Its Transformations in Buddhist Thought (1992); and Alan Sponberg and Helen Hardacre (eds.), Maitreya: The Future Buddha (1988). An “Orientalist” critique in Buddhist studies was initiated in Philip C. Almond, The British Discovery of Buddhism (1988). Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (ed.), Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism Under Colonialism (1995), deals more generally with the same topic. Also of interest are Christopher S. Queen and Sallie B. King (eds.), Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia (1996); and Anne Carolyn Klein, Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: Buddhists, Feminists, and the Art of the Self (1995). Buddhism in India