This book is the first comprehensive overview of Buddhist architecture in North America and provides an analysis of Buddhist architecture and communities. Exploring the arrival of Buddhist architecture in America, the book lays out how Buddhists have expressed their spiritual beliefs in structural form in the United States. The story follows the parallel history of the religion’s emergence in the United States since the California Gold Rush to the present day. Conceived of as a general history, the book investigates Buddhist structures with respect to the humanistic qualities associated with Buddhist doctrine and how Buddhist groups promote their faith and values in an American setting. The author’s point of view starts from the ground floor of the buildings to move deeper into the space of Buddhist practice, the mind that seeks enlightenment, and the structures that help one to do so. It discusses Buddhist architecture in the United States in a manner consistent with the intensely human context of its use. A unique and ground-breaking analysis, this book adds to the study of Buddhist architecture in America while also addressing the topic of how and why Buddhists use architecture in general. It will be of interest to scholars of religion, architecture, space and place, U.S. history, Asian Studies, and Buddhist Studies. It will also be a valuable addition to the libraries of Buddhist communities across the United States and the world, since many of the observations about Buddhist architecture in the United States may also apply to structures in Europe and Asia.

"This book is the first comprehensive overview of Buddhist architecture in North America and provides an analysis of Buddhist architecture and communities. Exploring the arrival of Buddhist architecture in America, the book lays out how Buddhists have expressed their spiritual beliefs in structural form in the United States. The story follows the parallel history of the religion's emergence in the U.S. since the California Gold Rush to the present day. Conceived of as a general history, the book investigates Buddhist structures with respect to the humanistic qualities associated with Buddhist doctrine and how Buddhist groups promote their faith and values in an American setting. The author's point of view starts from the ground floor of the buildings to move deeper into the space of Buddhist practice, the mind that seeks enlightenment, and the structures that help one to do so. It discusses Buddhist architecture in the U.S. in a manner consistent with the intensely human context of its use. A unique and ground-breaking analysis, this book adds to the study of Buddhist architecture in America whilst also addressing the topic of how and why Buddhists use architecture in general. It will be of interest to scholars of religion, architecture, space and place, US history, Asian Studies and Buddhist Studies. It will also be a valuable addition to the libraries of Buddhist communities across the United States and the world, since many of the observations about Buddhist architecture in the U.S. may also apply to structures in Europe and Asia"--

This dissertation explores Buddhist architecture in America from the nineteenth century through the present day. It examines significant examples of Buddhist architecture with respect to the spiritual beliefs of the practitioners who created them. Its goal is to understand these structures from the point of view of human experience. Given the large number of Buddhist structures that exist in the U.S., the narrative navigates the major contours of its development. It follows in isometric fashion the parallel history of Buddhism's emergence in America that started with the California Gold Rush and its influence on the New England Transcendentalists. Proceeding chronologically through the twentieth and early twenty-first-centuries, the historical sweep of Buddhism's architectural presence in America is articulated by exploring important structures in depth with respect to Buddhist belief, human emotion, socio-political contexts, and religious faith. A number of hermeneutic binaries are employed throughout the history presented here. Space and Place, East and West, Interior and Exterior, and Spirit and Matter are the major motifs implemented to explicate the buildings and environments under investigation. The overwhelming feeling pervading the discourse and design of Buddhist architecture and its co-extensive belief system is that of the heart. The human proclivity to attach personal meaning and deep emotion to a space or a place is at the express core of the Buddhist structures that house Buddhist practices. As a result, the study's methodology is inspired by Yi-Fu Tuan's humanistic geography, whose work explores the relationship between environment and human subjective experience. The study finds that ritual, lineage, and heritage work in tandem with heart, home, and the human body in the construction, understanding and experience of Buddhist architecture. It argues that traditional forms and practices derived from each community's home culture infused a sense of shelter and protection onto these buildings. Buddhist belief and its associated architecture assuaged the new and sometimes hostile setting of the United States. As the first study of its kind, this dissertation opens the field of Buddhist architecture in America as a distinct branch of scholarly inquiry.

Awarded the Prix Stanislas Julien by the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The Wheel of Rebirth is one of the most basic and popular images in Buddhist visual culture. For nearly two thousand years, artists have painted it onto the porches of Buddhist temples; preachers have used it to explain karmic retribution; and philosophers have invoked it to illuminate the contrast between ignorance and nirvana. In Reinventing the Wheel, noted scholar Stephen F. Teiser explores the history and varied interpretations of the Wheel of Rebirth, a circle divided into sections depicting the Buddhist cycle of transmigration. Combining visual evidence with textual sources, Reinventing the Wheel shows how the metaphor of the wheel has been interpreted in divergent local traditions, from India to Tibet, Central Asia, and China. Teiser deftly shows how written and painted renditions of the wheel have animated local architectural sites and religious rituals, informing concepts of time and reincarnation and acting as an organizing principle in the cosmology and daily life of practicing Buddhists. Engaging and accessible, this uniquely pan-Buddhist tour will appeal to anyone interested in Buddhist culture, as well as to scholars of religious studies, art history, architecture, philosophy, and textual studies.

An interesting examination of two Theravada Buddhist temples in Chicago and Los Angeles highlighting the relationship between historical and traditional practices, and the values of American converts and second generation Asian-American Buddhists. Numrich (religion research associate, U. of Illinois) considers the adaptations and maladaptations of Westerners into temple life, monastic staffs, parallel congregations, and issues of "lay" ordination, and attempts to integrate West and East as the interest in Buddhism in America increases. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

"This well-informed book provides a comprehensive survey of a variety of Buddhist traditions in the contemporary U.S. . . . [its] strength, apart from being a mine of information, is Seager's insistence on taking a historically informed and comparative perspective." - Religious Studies Review.

The editors bring some of the leading voices in Buddhist studies to examine the debates surrounding contemporary Buddhism's many faces. Race, feminism, homosexuality, psychology, environmentalism, and notions of authority are some of the issues confronting the religion today. 9 photos.