Asian American Religiosities

AMERASIA JOURNAL 22:l (1996):107-132

Journey to the Chinese Buddhism

Far West: n America

I R E N E LIN

Chinese Buddhism in America A number of interesting studies have appeared on Chinese religions in America. However, the direct application of current Western reli- gious studies classification schemes and labels to the study of Chinese religions and practices in the United States is problematic. Situating new and unfamiliar religious groups solely within the available cat- egorical schemes predisposes a ”colored” understanding of the new. For example, Stark and Bainbridge’s elaboration on the church, sect, and cult typology, based on a continuum of tension that exists be- tween religious groups and the socio-cultural environment, requires a Christian understanding of religious organizational splintering and formation.’

In contemporary Chinese religious culture, however, there is no centralized ecclesiastical authority to establish orthodoxy or orthopr- my, or “hierarchical” organizational structures equivalent to the Western typology of church, sect, and cult.’ Religious authority and acceptance in the society are often gained through the spiritual attainment of the group founder as manifested by supernatural powers of blessings, healing, or averting calamities affecting potential members. Furthermore, the offer- ing of social services or conversion of believers through the founder’s charisma adds legitimacy. Chinese culture does not view religious traditions and groups as mutually exclusive. A person can belong to different religious organizations simultaneously and appeal to one or another or even many. Religious authority is diffused among a great number of decentralized and varied independent religious groups- some small, some large.

IRENE LIN is a doctoral student in the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University and interested in Chinese, Japanese and Asian American religions.

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Given the classification issues, the existing scholarship on Chi- nese religions and their establishments can be roughly grouped into three types. The first covers research on indigenous Chinese religions which were transplanted to the United States by the earliest Chinese immigrants between 1854-1883 and the Chinese temples of Northern California built by these immigrants. The second focuses on Chinese Buddhism in the larger context of Buddhist traditions in America. The third includes short descriptions of selected Chinese Buddhist or- ganizations in America, primarily found in encyclopedias of Ameri- can religion^.^

The study of Buddhism in the United States is largely based on European American experiences and encounters with Buddhism This literature has been dominated by studies on Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada traditions, and the Japanese “new religion,” Soka-gakkai/ Nichiren Shoshu (the soka gakkai separated from Nichiren Shoshu Priesthood in 1991). This selective emphasis reflects Buddhist tradi- tions that have attracted European American interest and f ~ l l o w i n g . ~

As a prime example of this bias, Charles Prebish uses the term “American Buddhism” to describe the struggle of a foreign religious tradition to acculturate and accommodate to the American mindset.6 Despite his focus on the acculturation process of American Buddhism over three time periods, Prebish neglects the Buddhism of Asian Ameri- cans. To bring their experience into his framework, one would need to develop new labels and expand the perimeter of the term ”accultura- tion of Buddhism” to account for the Buddhist experiences of the Asian Americans. Similarly, Emma McCloy Layman examines Buddhism in America from the vantage point of European Americans. She states that “Buddhism in America does not really have an American style, but ap- pears as an Oriental anachronism in a Western society. Some of the val- ues. . .are consonant with those of the Judeo-Christian tradition. . .[T]he ideology and practices of Buddhism are in conflict with the dominant values of our technological, materialistic, and secular ~ o c i e t y . ” ~

The paucity of studies on Buddhism of Asian Americans also ex- tends to the general ignorance about Chinese religions in America. Chinese religions are no longer represented solely by ”joss houses,” not merely characterized by ancestor worship in private homes, and not adequately defined by the European American encounters with them. Rather, the religious experience of Chinese Americans needs to take into account the perspective of Chinese Americans themselves. Recognizing such a need, this study begins the larger project by sup- plying the institutional picture of specific communities of Chinese Americans gathering for communal worship.

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From 1965 to 1990, the Chinese American population increased about four-and-a-half times, primarily driven by immigration. The heterogeneity characterizing the Chinese immigration since 1965, mainly a result of the quota system under the 1965 amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and subsequent series of amendments to the 1952 Act,* resulted in a proliferation of Chinese religious organizations in the United States. Post-1965 Chinese Bud- dhist organizations, an important subset of Chinese American reli- gious organizations, have not received adequate attention in Asian American or religious studies literature^.^

This preliminary examination identifies and explains issues relevant to the understanding of Chinese Buddhist organizations through a case study of Hsi Lai ssu (Hsi Lai means “coming to the West,” which con- notes “the Buddha Dharma coming West”’O and ssu means temple), other- wise known as the International Buddhist Progress Society, a Chinese Buddhist organization in Hacienda Heights, ten miles East of Monterey Park, in Southern California.’l Hsi Lai originated as a Taiwan-based, ethnic-Chinese Buddhist organization with a predominantly middle- and upper-class membership. This study explores how Hsi Lai functions to retrieve, preserve, and create a post-1965 Chinese American identity while at the same time bridging the realities and multiple subject po- sitions occupied by a large, heterogeneous Chinese American popula- tion--e.g., race, ethnicity, nationality, class, gender and religion.12

The Hsi Lai Temple13 The Hsi Lai Temple in Southern California is the largest overseas branch of the Fo Kuang Shan (”Buddha’s Light Mountain”) in Taiwan. Fo Kuang Shan was founded in 1967 by Master Hsing-yiin, the forty-eighth Patriarch of the Lin-chi School of Ch‘an Buddhism. Hsing-yun, born in 1926 in China, became a novice monk at the age of twelve, and was fully ordained three years later. Subsequently, he attended the Ch‘i-hsia Vinaya School and the Chiao-shan Buddhist College. The Master left China for Taiwan in 1949 and is perceived to have personally revital- ized Buddhism in Taiwan. Hsing-yun was the first monk in Taiwan to utilize television and radio programs to propagate Buddhism, and to use public forums to give large-scale public lectures on Buddhism.14

For Hsing-yun, the revitalization of Buddhism “lies in its people, wealth, spirituality and undertaking.” His methods for pursuing such an end are through ”humanization,” ”modernization,” and ”interna- tionalization,” in the form of Buddhist cultural, educational, social, and medical programs. Fo Kuang Shan has evolved into the largest Buddhist center in Taiwan, with many branches throughout Taiwan

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and the world. In the U.S., aside from the Hsi Lai Temple, there are many branch temples in cities including San Francisco, San Diego, Austin, Dallas, Denver, and New York, along with numerous local chapters throughout the country. Prior to the construction of the Hsi Lai Temple, Fo Kuang Shan’s first temple in the United States was an old church in Maywood, called the Pai-t’a ssu (White Pagoda Temple), which became too small to accommodate the needs of its members.I5

Hsi Lai Temple was built in 1988 and occupies over twenty acres. Construction costs exceeded thirty million dollars, financed by dona- tions primarily from Taiwan. Substantial donations were also received from donors in other countries including the U.S., Malaysia, and Hong Kong. The completion of the temple was delayed for two-and-a-half years because of opposition from the community, composed of many conservative, affluent, and retired European Americans, who had a wide range of concerns and fears.16

For example, the nearby residents claimed that the temple would be “oversized for a neighborhood of single-family homes, that it would jam surrounding streets with traffic and that it would be a jarringly inappropriate cultural presence.” Other concerns resulted from the community’s misunderstanding of Buddhism and Chinese culture, including noise from chanting of sutras, gongs, and firecrackers; the “adverse influence” on the youth resulting from the unfamiliar cloth- ing of Buddhist monks and nuns; the unfounded fear of animal sacri- fices on the temple site (and thus the fear for neighborhood dogs be- cause ”the Chinese all eat dog meat”); and the worry that the children might be entrapped by the new “religious cult.”17

Six public hearings and over one hundred meetings took place be- fore the Hacienda Heights city council finally granted the permit for con- struction of Hsi Lai Temple. Hsi Lai had to address and accommo- date the concerns and objections of the residents such as changing the color of the temple to a less conspicuous one; lowering the height of its buildings; foregoing the installation of a eighty foot golden statue of the Buddha near the front entrance of the temple; taking measures to lessen the chances of fires from its use of incense; limiting its park- ing space to prevent too many people from going to the temple at once and causing traffic problems; and erecting a wall on a section of the freeway to prevent potential traffic hazards posed by the view of the temple. Despite such opposition from the community before the construction period, on the opening ceremony day of the temple, con- gratulatory letters from U.S. Congressman Matthew Martinez, Secre- tary of State of California, March Fong Yu, other heads of states, and prominent Buddhist leaders from thirty countries were received.

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Hsi Lai's stated goal is threefold: to offer a spiritual and cultural center for the United States, to provide Westerners a place for learning about the Dharma, and to facilitate the exchange of culture between East and West. When its policy requiring Hsi Lai members to con- form to a unified standard of behavior set by Fo Kuang Shan is in con- flict with its policy of blending Buddhism with the local culture, the latter often takes precedence over the former.ls For example, all monks and nuns at Hsi Lai wear amber-colored robes, whereas at Fo Kuang Shan, such robes are reserved for those of higher ranks and lower- ranked monks and nuns wear black robes. The reason for such a change at Hsi Lai is that amber is more pleasing to the eye than black for American visitors.

Organization As an organization, Hsi Lai Temple consists of the temple, the Bud- dhist Sangha (monastic order), and the Buddha Light International Association (BLIA). The Hsi Lai temple provides not only a place of worship but also a forum for lectures, discussions, classes, communal rituals, and other Buddhist services and activities. Communal prac- tices and other activities are conducted in Mandarin Chinese, with si- multaneous English translation on most occasions, provided mainly for one point five and second generation Chinese Americans. Further- more, to accommodate the needs of its members, classes on Buddhism are offered in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. Religious activities are offered on most weekday evenings and all day on weekends. Group activities are created in accordance to the different groups' varying level of interest in and understanding of Buddhism.19

The massive physical structure of the temple includes the Bodhi- sattva Hall, the Buddha Hall, V.I.P. suites, reception rooms, classrooms, a gift shop, auditoriums, a museum, a memorial pagoda, a library, ad- ministrative offices, and living quarters for the monks and nuns.22 The parking lot, which can accommodate two hundred cars, is often insufficient to satisfy the parking needs during major holidays, such as Chinese New Year's eve and New Year's day.

The temple is administered by monks and nuns hand-picked and sent from Fo Kuang Shan. The number of monks and nuns that Fo Kuang Shan deemed qualified to proselytize in the United States reached fifty in 1988. After the passage of the Immigration Act of 1990, allow- ing for religious workers to immigrate to the United States under the fourth preference and to enter the United States as nonimmigrants under R visas, the number of monks and nuns doubled. The organi- zational hierarchy of Hsi Lai Temple is subsumed under that of Fo

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Kuang Shan. The Religious Affairs Committee is the leading govern- ing unit of the main monastery, subsidiary and associate monasteries, and all other organizations and units.21

The third leg of the religious organization is the lay Buddha’s Light International Association, established by Fo Kuang Shan in fifty-one countries, with members reaching one million, predominantly made up of Chinese and overseas Chinese. The goal of BLIA is to ensure that ”Buddhism moves from the monastic to the laity, from temple to society, from self-realization to helping others, from quietude to action, from disciple to teacher, from Taiwan to the world.”22 BLIA allows the laity to take an active role in the propagation of the Dharma and the shap- ing of ”contemporary Buddhism”;23 BLIA sponsors and organizes all activities on and outside temple premises that are not a part of the regu- larly scheduled rituals, practices, and religious services of the temple.

BLIA claims to be the fourth largest social organization in the world; it applied for membership to the UN as a non-governmental organization in February 1994. In the United States, it consjsts of twenty-two chapters, nineteen sub-chapters, and five organizing com- munities. The establishment of a local chapter typically starts with a Hsi Lai member inviting friends in her local community to her home for an informal discussion of the Dharma. After several meetings, when the number of people attending reaches one hundred, formal lectures on the dharma are set up, and group practice such as Dharma discus- sion, meditation, and liturgy take place at members’ houses on a ro- tating schedule. With permission from Hsi Lai Temple, a local BLIA is established, accompanied by election of local chapter officers and solicitation of donations from group members. The local chapter then organizes large-scale Buddhist activities in its community, such as in- viting monks and nuns from Hsi Lai Temple to talk on the Dharma. At the end of such talks, attendees can officially ”take the refuges” and become lay disciples of Master Hsing-yiin through ordination ceremonies. It is by becoming lay disciples of Master Hsing-yiin that individuals become official members of the Hsi Lai Temple.25

Social Functions In addition to being a religious organization, Hsi Lai Temple serves as a Chinese community center, helping the Chinese immigrants cope more effectively with American society. During the initial stages of the establishment of Hsi Lai Temple, the Abbess in charge at the time, Venerable Tzu-chuang, under the instruction of Master Hsing-yiin, emphasized free practical services for the overseas Chinese commu- nity.26 Services included locating relatives and friends, helping immi-

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grants find jobs by providing channels for networking, and organiz- ing seminars to educate immigrants about American laws, customs, the educational system and job market. Hsi Lai Temple has expanded such services over time, in conjunction with its propagation of the Dharma. Its services as an overseas Chinese center now include free transportation to and from the airport, free meals, and a place to stay for those in need of such assistance.

In order to preserve, strengthen, or at times create the Chinese identity of its members, Hsi Lai Temple offers Mandarin, Taiwanese, and Cantonese classes, mainly to one point five and second generation Chinese Americans. In addition, special classes on Chinese culture are offered, including Chinese art, folk dance, music, cooking, and T’ai-chi, which help overseas Chinese to keep in touch with their ancestral roots. The vice-president of the BLIA Los Angeles chapter, a Chinese Ameri- can, has said, “BLIA has soothed the hardships of the loss of roots due to living in a foreign country, developing the limitless treasures within our hearts, uniting the hearts of all Chinese globally.” At present, the members of Hsi Lai Temple are predominantly Chinese, with increas- ing numbers of Buddhists of other races and nationality joiningz7

Due to the lack of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the United States, the de facto Taiwanese embassy, representing the gov- ernment of Taiwan, is called the Coordination Council for North Ameri- can Affairs (CCNAA). Hsi Lai Temple has offered its premises as the reception hall for the CCNAA. The Temple has thus taken on some functions of an embassy, becoming itself a de facto embassy. For ex- ample, Hsi Lai has sought to help bridge the tensions between the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan by hosting representatives of both governments.28 It maintains good relations with political figures both in the US. and abroad. American heads of state (for example, Vice President Albert Gore) have visited Hsi Lai Temple, and Taiwanese government officials have made the Temple a must stop upon their visit to the West Coast.

The Temple also acts as a social relief center, providing aid to neigh- boring communities, including donating money and books to local schools, providing conference rooms free of charge for educational and cultural group gatherings, and helping to preserve the environ- ment and ecology through reforestation, recycling, and community clean-up programs. BLIA sponsors soup kitchens for the homeless and presents food baskets and gift certificates to low income families. In addition, BLIA provides relief in times of natural disasters in the Peoples’ Republic of China and the United States, and also sends aid to Third World countries through local BLIA chapters.

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Hsi Lai Temple opens its doors to visitors as a ”cultural center,” fostering cross-cultural understanding. It regularly sponsors group visits to the Temple; each month, groups totaling one to two thousand people visit Hsi Lai, of which two-thirds are European American and the remainder are mostly Chinese, with a few from other Asian coun- tries. Individual visitors to the Temple are predominantly Chinese Ameri~ans.2~ On the one hand, the Temple offers Chinese language and cultural classes and sponsors Chinese cultural activities introducing traditional and contemporary art forms to the community. On the other hand, the Temple offers cross-cultural training programs such as Japa- nese and Spanish language classes, Western dessert-making, social danc- ing, and aerobics. In addition, Hsi Lai performs Buddhist religious and cultural activities in the community at large. For example, Hsing-yiin has performed a blessing service before the California State Senate.

To foster better understanding of American culture for Chinese Americans, Hsi Lai Temple also offers activities celebrating American holidays such as Halloween and Thanksgiving. Furthermore, to fa- miliarize it members with non-Buddhist religious holidays and cel- ebrations that occur each month, articles on various traditions are regularly featured in the Temple’s newsletter, Hsi Lai News.

Hsi Lai Temple proclaims itself to be the ”home” for all its mem- bers. The family atmosphere is created and sustained through numerous services and activities. The Temple maintains a very large kitchen and dining facilities, serving three buffet style vegetarian meals every day to the clergy and laity. Most of the members who live nearby eat daily at the temple. Furthermore, Hsi Lai provides living quarters in houses it owns, adjacent to temple grounds, to those members who wish to stay there as the need arises, especially those living far away from the Temple?O

The emphasis is on individual Buddhist families coming “home” for reunion with the large extended family. BLIA emphasizes that fami- lies should spend more time together and accordingly sponsors regu- lar activities which increase family involvement, such as parents-chil- dren sports events, concerts, plays, and art shows. Moreover, to ac- commodate the needs of two-income families, Hsi Lai Temple pro- vides child and elderly care.

At the requests of parents, children’s classes are offered after school and on weekends as a supplement to the regular schooling. In the summer of 1994, Hsi Lai University opened on the premise of the temple, with authorization from the California Superintendent of Public Instruction, as a degree-granting school of theology. The university offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Buddhist Studies. The con-

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struction of an East Coast campus on an already-purchased 470 acres in New York State is being planned. Chinese parents who are concerned with the liberal atmosphere of American universities can send their chil- dren to receive higher education in a more conservative environment?*

Hsi Lai University tries to bridge the gap between Buddhist theol- ogy and religious studies by having religious studies scholars on the faculty. It also offers its ”state of the art” conference rooms and librar- ies for use by religious studies scholars not affiliated with the univer- ~ i t y . ~ ~ Moreover, it sends qualified monks and nuns to pursue gradu- ate degrees in religious studies at top-ranked universities.

BLIA sponsors adult and community education program by regu- larly offering seminars and lectures to increase the lay understanding of Buddhism. Moreover, BLIA provides lectures in local colleges, high schools, city halls, stadiums, jails or senior centers. In addition to spon- soring conferences, meetings, and exchange programs between Bud- dhists of different traditions, BLIA also promotes dialogue and inter- change between Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions. For instance, Master Hsing-yiin has received visits from the Dalai Lama and ambassa- dors from the Vatican.

In order to make the Buddhist teachings and Fo Kuang ideals eas- ily accessible, Fo Kuang Shan operates its own publishing house and audio-video production center, producing over four hundred Bud- dhist publications, audio and video materials in Chinese, English, and Korean, distributed in twenty countries. Upon the opening of Hsi Lai University, Hsi Lai University Press was established in 1994, with the initial agenda to publish Master Hsing-yun’s works in English.34

Periodicals are also published in Chinese and English by the dif- ferent Fo Kuang organizations in order to update members on Fo Kuang events and to propagate Buddhist teachings. These periodicals include Awaken the World, Universal Gate, Hsi h i News, and Buddha’s Light Centu y. Hsi Lai also uses other media to propagate its teachings to a broader au- dience. For example, BLIA regularly sponsors programs on local ra- dio stations and broadcasting networks and Hsi Lai Temple contrib- utes Dharma talk-shows to a local Chinese television channel.

Analysis: Theoretical Suggestions

The Fo Kuang Hsi Lai Temple provides the context for overseas Chinese to reinforce and reinvent Chinese identity through religion, ethnicity, nationality, culture, family, and education. In response to a modern industrial society characterized by pluralism, religion becomes sub- ject to the forces of fashion, or what Peter Berger calls the dynamics of ”consumer p r e f e r e n ~ e . ” ~ ~ Competing for the individual’s time and

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interest, Hsi Lai’s Buddhism has been ”designed, produced, and mar- keted” with the needs of its members and potential members in mind. At the current stage of Hsi Lai Temple’s development, its target is mainly the overseas Chinese.

“Plausibility Super-structure”

In order for Hsi Lai Temple to maintain its meaning in a religiously pluralistic and ethnically diverse society, a social base, or what Berger calls a ”plausibility structure,” is necessary for its continuing exist- e n ~ e . ~ ~ However, in most modern settings, for a religious group seek- ing to maintain itself in pluralistic competition with other religious groups, the social engineering problem is transformed from one of enlisting the society as a whole for the purpose of social confirmation into one of constructing and maintaining a subsociety that may serve as the plausibility structure for the de-monopolized religious ~ y s t e m . 3 ~

Especially in the case of Hsi Lai, where Chinese Buddhists are geographically separated by the Pacific from the main social group that serves as its basis of plausibility, the significance of the plausibil- ity structure becomes especially important. Because the world view of the Chinese Buddhists is not shared by the American public at large, Hsi Lai Temple needs to establish a subsocietal plausibility base to main- tain their belief system. To avoid small subworlds of fragmented uni- verses of meanings, Hsi Lai Temple has created a broad social base which provides a more holistic universe of meaning. In its attempt to provide an entire world view for the Chinese American Buddhists, it has created a ”plausibility superstructure,” which incorporates numer- ous substructures-namely a religious organization, an ethnic commu- nity, a de facto embassy, a social relief center, a cultural center, and a school. Through religion, these substructures serve diverse roles in creat- ing and maintaining different aspects of the Chinese American identity.

For members, Hsi Lai Temple’s super social base for maintaining and reinforcing its distinctive system of meaning, simultaneously en- ables the fulfillment of religious, cultural, communitarian, national, fa- milial, and educational needs. For non-member Chinese Americans, the temple, religious rituals and practice, cultural events and activi- ties, ethnic community, de facto embassy, and traditional and holiday celebrations are available to each person for whatever purposes he or she is seeking. The association through activities, in various forms, creates opportunities for nonmembers to become socialized into the Fo Kuang world view in varying degrees. This world view is de- scribed in a booklet entitled “HOW to Be a Fo Kuang Buddhist,” re- quiring members to place the monastery, the community, Buddhist

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undertakings, and Buddhism above the self.38 Hsi Lai Temple’s cre- ative incorporation of numerous identities avoids compartmentaliza- tion (separation of secular / sacred spheres) and solid boundaries in order to accommodate the heterogeneous needs of the Chinese Americans.

At the lowest level of association are tourists, followed by those who come to participate in cultural festivities or who come to take advantage of the Temple’s cultural training courses, identifying with Hsi Lai as an overseas Chinese community center. Then there are politi- cians and celebrities who come to Hsi Lai Temple for social or politi- cal reasons, identifying Hsi Lai as a large charitable organization or as a de facto representative of the Taiwanese government. Alternatively there are those who send their children to attend classes or the Uni- versity, identifying Hsi Lai as a provider of education. There are Bud- dhists who have not taken refuge under Master Hsing-yun, coming to the temple only on important Buddhist holidays, who identify Hsi Lai Temple solely as one religious organization among many.

Among those who have taken refuge and are disciples of Master Hsing-yun, involvement and association with the temple also vary. Some volunteer their services, some contribute money, and some partici- pate in key rituals and services or some combination thereof. There are some disciples that participate in all religious functions as individuals and others who involve their entire family, participating in all activi- ties and events, whether religious or not, truly identifying with Hsi Lai as “home,” thus constituting the core members of the Temple.

Hsi Lai‘s Role in t h e “New Ethnicity“ There is no single Chinese identity in the United States or throughout the world of the Chinese diaspora. Following the tendency of the ”Chinese people and Chinese culture which has been constantly amal- gamating, restructuring, reinventing and reinterpreting themselves,” overseas Chinese have been constructing their own cultural identities in non-Chinese environment^.^^ The term, ”Chinese American,” is both a political label and a symbolic identity label.40

The old concept of ethnicity based on the assumption of ”bio-cul- tural-territorial isolate frame of reference” is no longer applicable to the overseas Chinese in diaspora who have come to the United States from different parts of the world.41 More applicable to these overseas Chinese is the concept of “new ethnicity” as “an affective/symbolic and behavioural strategy frame of reference, which is contingent upon the larger social environmental context.”** “New ethnicity” represents an attempt by members of ethnic minorities to balance the need for “a sense of rootedness or belongingness” with the desires to ”alter the

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established distribution of power, privilege and prestige so as to gain economic, political, and cultural rights / advantage^."^^

Hsi Lai Temple provides the context for post-1965 Chinese Ameri- cans to construct their identity, characterized by heterogeneity, hybrid- ity, multiplicity, fluidity, and situation.44 This identity is made up of nu- merous sub-identities including race, ethnicity, culture, nationality, class, gender, and religion which may be selectively chosen and com- bined or sometimes ascribed by the dominant community at large. Hsi Lai serves as a multicultural resource for these Chinese Americans. It is a cultural carrier in preserving traditional Chinese culture; a cultural broker in bridging Chinese subculture and American culture; a cultural entrepreneur in helping to define a new Chinese American identity.45

Through Hsi Lai's offering of a wide-range of educational pro- grams and activities, the content of Chinese and American identities are being creatively selected and incorporated. Concurrently, while Chinese identity can be affirmed, American identity can be strength- ened. Thus identity becomes inclusive and not exclusive. Through cul- tural training classes and activities-retrieving and recreating Chinese national and traditional culture, in addition to introducing and par- taking in non-Chinese cultures-Chinese Americans who participate in them can identify with their nation and tradition while at the same time becoming international and transcending the limits of such cul- t ~ r e . ~ ~ An added layer of identity provided by Hsi Lai is that of Chi- nese Buddhists, in particular, Fo Kuang Buddhists. The construction of a new ethnicity that can be manipulated situationally, may adequately reflect the lives of Chinese Americans, who can choose to be ethnically visible or invisible depending on whether such identity is valued or deemed beneficial. Whether Hsi Lai can or will be used as a means for mobilizing its members to further the political, social or economic in- terests of members remains a question for the future.47

Revitalization

Because religious systems may serve to compensate for loss of native culture, immigrant communities often reinscribe aspects of older tra- ditions in their new context. In the case of post-1965 Chinese Ameri- cans with nostalgia for Chinese roots, Hsi Lai Temple provides an in- stance of religion serving to revive and construct Chinese culture and identity for the Chinese Americans, ensuring relevance to their differ- ential situations. Furthermore, Hsi Lai furnishes an example of how Buddhism has been revitalized to accommodate the needs of modern industrial society and to adapt to the culturally pluralistic environ- ment.48

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Hsi Lai Temple strives to make Buddhism relevant to modern so- ciety. It refashions and repackages tradition to fit the modern context through its choice of organizational structure, design of activities for members, potential members, and the community, and use of modern mass media and technology. Traditional Buddhist ways are changed by ”coming out of the forest and entering into society,” and serving the community through ”involvement in families, nations, and the Past ”distorted” images of Buddhism are transformed from “passivity to activity,” from ”pessimism to optimism,” from ”aversion to the world to engagement in the society and love of existence,” and from the prac- tice of asceticism to practice in a quiet, wealthy and comfortable envi- ronment .50

Hsi Lai’s emphasis on this-worldly orientation, as opposed to the traditional other-worldly orientation, is manifested in its goal to cre- ate a Buddhist Pure Land (or Buddhist ”paradise”) on earth here. Master Hsing-yiin advocates the ideal of “placing wealth among the devo- tees.” He sees to it that modern facilities are built so that Buddhist devo- tees can practice in a surrounding replete with wealth and comfort. In tangible ways, Fo Kuang Shan can be viewed as the Eastern Pure Land and Hsi Lai Temple, the Western Pure Land-sacred, prosperous, and serene. Through BLIA and its effective mass media, the local is tran- scended, globalized and unified. In the Buddha’s Light newsletter, Fo Kuang Shan is introduced as a Buddhist sacred place to which believ- ers can make pilgrimages?’

Another illustration of Hsi Lai Temple’s this-worldly orientation is its development of a Buddhism for daily life, represented by the BLIA. By keeping old ways alive while teaching new ways, and pro- viding a stable source of meaning and belonging, this ”megatemple” serves as a sheltering canopy of legitimation €or the Chinese Ameri- cans’ new identities by reference to their tradition.52 Traditional func- tions of the temple, such as offering talks on the Dharma and provid- ing a place for religious practice, are expanded to accommodate the needs of the communities-for example in performing ceremonies for anniversaries, birthdays, weddings, and commemorations.

Asian American Panethnicity and Asian American Panethnic Buddhist Organization For post-1965 Chinese immigrants who are multicultural, multilingual, and from different socio-economic backgrounds, ”Asian American pan- ethnicity” in terms of a consciousness of shared culture, language and religion is still a foreign concept. Espiritu’s referent for ”Asian American panethnicity” is based on the institutionalization of Asian American

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consciousness, reflecting an efficient mobilization of diverse people based on shared political, social, and economic interests or experience on a case-by-case b a ~ i s . 5 ~ For post-1965 Chinese immigrants, to the extent that religion and culture are intertwined, the boundaries between differ- ent Asian/Asian American cultures may not be as fluid and situational. They do not share the same world view and experiences as American- born or American-raised Asians. The impact of pan-Asian identity, however, may increase with the immigrant children’s coming of age.

Hsi Lai Temple, with its predominance of post-1965 Chinese im- migrants, has not yet moved towards becoming an Asian pan-ethnic Buddhist organization. Aside from the overwhelming majority of mem- bers of Chinese origin, currently there is a slow but steady increase of European American members. Hsi Lai strongly encourages and sup- ports the joining of European American members. For example, Hsi Lai N m s regularly has articles featuring the profiles of new European Amer- ican members.54 The implications of this phenomenon of merging the boundaries between Chinese Americans and European Americans, but not between Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans, in a reli- gious community suggests more questions than this study can enter- tain.

Hsi Lai is beginning to expand in the direction of reaching out to other Asian American groups by participating in cross ethnic-Asian Buddhist activities. On April 3,1994, for instance, Hsi Lai participated in a Hanamatsuvi (flower festival) celebration sponsored by the Buddhist Sangha Council of Southern California and the Japanese Buddhist Asso- cia tion. Seven Buddhist organizations representing Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, and Sri Lankan traditions came together to participate in the celebration. In another instance, on August 21, 1994, Hsi Lai invited monks from other Chinese, Sri Lankan, Thai, and Tibetan temples and monasteries to parficipate in its Sangha (monastic order) day.55 The joining zf different Asian Buddhist groups on different occa- sions may represent a beginning of the joining of ethnic boundaries of Buddhist groups. The next step for Hsi Lai istoward the expansion of its membership to people of different Asian ethnic backgrounds. If “Asian American panethnicity” consciousness is one characterized by political identification for the purpose of effectively mobilizing diverse people to further some common interests, an interesting topic for fur- ther research is what role, if any, can religion play in providing a cul- tural bond to fill in the content of “Asian American panethnic” con- sciousness.

Hsi Lai is also attempting to expand the borders of its present sta- tus as a Chinese Mahayana Buddhist organization to become a pan-

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Buddhist organization. Master Hsing-yun states that "no distinction will be made in regards to area, country and race"; thus BLIA will preach Buddhism with a view of the whole world as one?6 Towards this goal, for the inauguration of the BLIA International Headquarters and the First General Membership Conference held at Hsi Lai Temple from May 17 through 22,1992, Hsi Lai Temple invited over four thousand delegates from all five continents, bringing together Buddhists from Southern (Theravada) and Northern (Mahayana) traditions, as well as the exoteric ("Sutric") and esoteric (Tantric) schools. In addition, Hsi Lai signed an agreement with the Abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya Temple in Thailand, representing the Theravada tradition, for the purpose of cooperating on projects and exchanging monastic and lay personnel. BLIA chapters worldwide also regularly sponsor conferences and meet- ings among Buddhists of different tradition^.^^

There seems to be gap between the ideal of Buddhism as a non- ethnic, a social truth, especially as articulated by Master Hsing-yun, and the reality of Hsi Lai being an Buddhist organization centered around creating a form of Buddhism and Buddhist community relevant to the needs of its predominantly Chinese American members. Despite the Temple's attempt to encourage European Americans to join the orga- nization, they remain a novelty. While European American members are introduced in the Hsi Lai News, new Chinese American members do not receive such attention or coverage in its newsletters.

Conclusion Much of the Hsi Lai Temple's success can be attributed to its ability to retain cultural continuity with Taiwan, while at the same time modi- fying its social base in accommodation to American culture. By pro- viding a wide range of frequent activities and a network of internal connections, it effectively moves its members to a high level of com- mitment and involvement?8 An additional factor in its success is its ability to attract and maintain members of different ages and eco- nomic backgrounds. Master Hsing-yun particularly stresses the im- portance of making Buddhism attractive to youth. Hsi Lai also pro- vides structures and activities for effective primary socialization into its unique world view by reaching out to entire families with children, not just individuals. Moreover, it facilitates secondary socialization through its structure and programs.59 Finally by providing a commu- nity accepted by the American public at large, and the world at large, and a "'home" to the Chinese American Buddhists through its plausi- bility super-structure, it makes its members feel at ease with their unique identity and world view, and at the same time makes it easier

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for them to maintain and confirm the reality of their world. This case study of Hsi Lai Temple provides one example of a di-

mension of Buddhism in America that has been largely overlooked thus far-namely the Buddhism of Asian Americans. Even though Buddhism represents both a religious and a cultural option for Euro- pean Americans and Asian Americans, historically, their encounters with and experiences of Buddhism have developed differently. Thus, the unique experiences of Asian Americans with Buddhism need to be examined from their perspective.

As illustrated by Hsi Lai, religion plays an important role in the retrieving, preserving, reviving, and creating of cultural identities for Chinese Americans, especially among recent immigrants. The construc- tion of a “new ethnicity,” as a survival tactic, results from the Chinese Americans’ attempt to preserve its tradition, while assimilating or ac- commodating to the dominant culture. Therefore, the study of Asian American religious organizations in general is at the intersection of religious studies, comparative ethnic studies, and Asian American stud- ies. Methodologies from these fields need to be employed jointly to account for ethnic-Asian religious phenomena. However, rather than adopting wholesale available methodologies and terminologies em- ployed in the study of Judeo-Christian religions, we should employ new methodologies and labels that are specific to non-European Ameri- cans and non-Judeo-Christian phenomena.

Furthermore, the categories and labels used to study post-1965 Asian American religious organizations will probably change with the fluid development of these groups. Hsi Lai is (slowly) in the process of mov- ing from a predominantly ethnic-Chinese Buddhist community to a more “mixed Buddhist community,” attracting non-ethnic Chinese mem- bers. To the extent the children of its Chinese immigrant members come of age or “Asian-American panethnic” or “panethnic” members become a reality, Hsi Lai may adapt its teachings, practices, and orga- nization to accommodate the needs of these non-ethnic Chinese minori- ties and/or Euro-Americans. How Hsi Lai chooses to balance the in- terests of its ethnic-Chinese members and those of non-ethnic Chinese members will play a significant role in determining its future.

An important area of research to pursue in the study of Chinese religious groups in the United States is to ask if the phenomenon of bridging traditional and modern aspects of religion and culture is oc- curring in wider Buddhist and non-Buddhist contexts. Especially promising is the comparative study of traditional Chinese religions in Asia and Chinese American religions. The comparative study of Chi- nese American religions and Japanese new religions, both in Japan

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and in the United States, would enable us to d r a w parallels a n d differ- ences, continuities a n d discontinuities. Such a study can, of course, be extended to ethnic minority religions in general a n d other ”non-main- line” religions.

Notes The author would like to thank Carl Bielefeldt, Rudy Busto, Bernard Faure, John Kieschnic, and Venerable Yifa of Hsi Lai Temple for thier help and con- structive criticism.

Whereas the ”church is defined as an established religious body in the society, both sect and cult are ”deviant” religious bodies in increasing relative tension with their surrounding socio-cultural context. A ”cult” in this model is defined as a movement with no previous ties to another established religious body, originating in the host society through inno- vation, or imported from another society. Curiously, under this typol- ogy, if members of an imported cult are primarily an immigrant ethnic population, then the cult is regarded as an ethnic church. Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 25,189. The suitability of applying Western religious studies labels, such as ”cult,” to Chinese religions also needs to be examined. Upon the transforma- tion from a religious organization that is based on ethnic population to one which seeks to recruit converts from the broader population in the United States, Chinese religions, according to this scheme, leave the do- main of ethnic religions and enter the field of ”alternative religions.” The change may trigger the labeling of “new religious movements” as alter- natives to mainline American religions, i.e., those that are “not norma- tively Judeo-Christian.” Robert S. Ellwood, Jr., Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1973), 2. The term ”cult,” however, is inappropriate on at least three grounds. First, given its pejorative connotation, it generates fear and suspicion on the part of the public. Second, it is supposed to refer to ”new“ religious groups in society, but transplanted Chinese religions are hardly new and may belong to long-established traditions in their country of origin. Third, ”cult” is a catch-all term that does not allow for adequate distinction among different types of ”non-mainline American religions.” Given the problems in applying Western category schemes and labels, a more fit- ting terminology is desirable for studying Chinese religions in the United States. For discussions on new religious movements, see David G. Bromley and Phillip E. Harmnond, eds., The Future of New Religious Movements (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1987); Jacob Needleman and George Baker, eds., Understanding the New Religions (New YorkCity: Seabury Press, 1978); Geoffery K. Nelson, Cults, New Religions 6 Religious Creativity (Lon- don: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987). Charles S. Prebish in American Bud- dhism (North Scituate, Masachusetts: Duxbury Press, 1979), 173-174, discusses the interpretation of the term “new” in the phrase of “new religion” as ”new in the sense of group, which has arisen in America within the last one hundred fifty years and are still extant” and as “unusual or exotic.”

1.

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2. Other models have been applied to the Asian religions in the United States. Peter W. Williams in America’s Religions: Traditions t? Cultures (New York Macmillan Publishing Company, 1990), 417, uses the categories of eth- nic religions, export religions, and cults or new religions to describe Asian religions in the United States. Catherine L. Albanese in America: Religions and Religion (Belmont, California: Wadsworth, Inc., 1992), 318, employs the categories of ”church,” meditation, evangelical, and ethnic Buddhism to characterize different Buddhist groups in the United States. Also see Jan Nattier, ”Visible and Invisible: Jan Nattier on the Politics of Representation in Buddhist America,” Tricycle: The Buddhist Review 5 (1995):42-49, who posits the typology of elite, evangelical, and ethnic Buddhism. These categories reflect similar biases of Western perspectives.

Indigenization is the process through which foreign-born religion changes through contact with native religion and culture. See Kiyomi Morioka, “Gairai shukyz no dochakuka o meguru gaineteki seiri [a conceptual exami- nation of the indigenization of foreign-born religions],” Shicho 107 (1972): 52-57. Also see Carlyle C. Haaland, ”Shinto and Indigenous Chinese Religion.“ Encyclopedia of American Religious Experience. C. H. Lippy and P. W. Williams, eds., (New York Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988), 669-709. Also, L. Eve Armentrout Ma, “Chinese Traditional Religion in North America and Hawaii,” in Chinese America; History & Perspectives (San Francisco: Chinese Historical Society of America, 1988), 131-147, which is primarily a study of the religious practice of traditional or popular Chinese religion which combines Buddhism, Taoism, elements of Con- fucianism, and local cults. Ma states that many recent immigrants still practice this Chinese traditional religion. Also see Mariann Kaye Wells, Chinese Temples in California (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1962), 108; Peter Harvey, A n Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, Histoy, and Pructices (Cambridge: Cambridge Univesity Press, 1990); Emma McCloy Layman, Buddhism in America (Chicago: Nelson- Hall, 1976); Prebish, 1979; Charles s. Prebish, ”Buddhism,” Encyclopedia of American Religious Experience, C. H. Lippy and P. W. Williams, eds., (New York Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988); and Rick Fields, How the Swans Came to fhe Lake: A Narrafizx Hisioy ofBuddhism in America (Boston: Shambhala, 1992). The only Chinese Buddhist organization presented is the Sino- American Buddhist Association in Northern California (in 1984, the name of the organization was changed to Dharma Realm Buddhist Association); see Gordon Melton, The Encyclopedia of American Religions (Wilmington: North Carolina, McGrath Publishing Company, 1978), 424-430.

See Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Fall 1994, special section on “Dharma, Diversity and Race.” According to bell hooks, ”Waking up to Racism,” 42- 44, many Buddhists of color in the U.S. do not have visibility. Victor Sogen Hori in “Sweet and Sour Buddhism,” 48-52, states that Westerners in the US. have projected their cultural attitudes onto Buddhism. In “Con- fessions of a White Buddhist,” 54-56, Rick Fields asserts that ,4merican Buddhism is being defined by the Whites in their own image. Addie Foye, “Buddhists in America: A Short, Biased View,” 57, comments on the di- vision of Buddhism into Asian American Buddhism and European Ameri- can Buddhism that leads to the invisibility of African American Buddhists.

3.

4.

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5. For example, the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, formerly known as the Sino-American Buddhist Association, is often portrayed as represen- tative of the Chinese Buddhist organizations. Its association with Ch‘an/ Zen and its large European American following have attracted the at- tention of scholars.

6. See Prebish, 1988.

7. Layman, 279.

8. Bill Ong Hing, Making and Remaking Asian America through Immigration Policy, 2850-1990 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993), 81. The 1965 amendments abolish the 1924 discriminatory national origins provision, which was retained in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, fa- voring immigrants of Western European origins. The subsequent series of amendments of the 1952 Act in 1990, collectively referred to as the Im- migration Act of 1990, provides for an overall increase in worldwide immigration. The 1990 Act increases the allocation for both family-re- lated and employee related immigration, and further creates a separate basis by which “diversity” immigrants (nationals of countries previously underrepresented since 1965 due to visa issuance), can enter the United States. Amendments of the 1952 Act that are directed towards the increase of Chinese immigrants entering the United States are as follows: The 1981 amendment creates a separate quota of 20,000 for Taiwan, which Taiwan previously shared with China and Hong Kong. In 1987, the annual quota for Hong Kong was increased from 600 to 5000, then to 10,000 from 1990 to 1993 and subsequently to 20,000. Furthermore, thousands of students were admitted from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asian countries, and the People’s Republic of China. See INA 5 201- 5 203; aside from the Clu- nese immigrants from Chma, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, ethnic Chinese im- migrants who entered the United States are composed of refugees from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia who were admitted to the United States since 1975 and the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asian and Latin Ameri- can countries facing anti-Chinese discrimination and political unrest. This latter group came to the United States for a more stable investment envi- ronment and better educational opportunities for their children. L. Ling- chi Wan& “Roots and the Changing Identity of the Chinese in the United States,“ The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today, Tu Wei-ming, ed., (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 196. See INA 5 207. As an unintended consequence, however, the amendments to the 1952 Act serve to polarize the Chinese immigrants into two categories: professionals and service-workers; Peter Kwong, in The New Chinatown (New York: Hill and Wang, 1987), 22, names these two categories as “the Uptown Chinese,” made up of the professionals who do not settle in Chinatowns and “the Downtown Chinese,“ made u p of manual and ser- vice workers who tended to live in Chinatowns with their sponsoring rela- tives of similar humble origin from rural areas of southern China. In addition to the differences in the place of birth and socio-economic class, the Chinese Americans differ in their native dialect and place of origin, e.g., China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Latin America, ac- cording to Hing, 86-87.

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9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

One motivation for focusing on this subset is that Chinese American Buddhists are characterized by the superposition of two culturally dif- ferentiating factors: non-European heritage and non-Judeo-Christian belief. The combination of these two factors engenders unique experi- ences which warrant separate study and presents distinctive method- ological challenges. Examples of Chinese Buddhist organizations that have arisen since the late 1960s include Hsi Lai Temple, True Buddha School, Dharma Realm Buddhist Association (previously known as the Sino-American Buddhist Association), and Buddhist Tzu-Chi Associa- tion of America.

Since Hsi Lai Temple uses the Wade-Giles systems, Chinese terms re- lated to the Temple will be transliterated using the Wade-Gile,; ‘ s y stem instead of Pinyin. See Heinrich Dumoulin’s Zen Buddhism: A tlistory- India and China (New York Macmillan Publishig Company, 1988), for the legend of Bodhidharma, the twenty-eighth Indian Patriarch and first Patri- arch of Ch‘an in China. Bhodhidharma is said to have come to China from the West (India), bringing the ”seal of the Buddha m i n d from the motherland to China. Hsi Lai can be alternatively rad as ”coming from the West,” depicting the Dharma having come from the West and now returning to the West.

See Timothy Fong’s The First Suburban Chinatown: The Remaking of Monterey Park, California (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994). The subject of the paper, religious organizations, should be distinguished from re- ligious consciousness. As used here, a religious organization is a commu- nity gathered for common worship and furtherance of a religious belief. Religious consciousness, on the other hand, is an awareness of or inter- est in a religious belief, with differing intensity, which may entail pri- vate or common worship. Thus private forms of worship are not within the scope of this study. Much of Chinese traditional religion in the United States represents what Carlyle Haaland calls an ”invisible institution,” whose rituals are conducted in private. Also see Williams, America’s Reli- gions, 419. A basic assumption here is that religion can help to construct Chinese American identity by maintaining and constructing Chinese culture at the periphery. This notion of periphery is twofold: geographically, Chi- nese culture is being constructed in the United States, far from China. Culturally, it is being constructed by Chinese Americans, away from the ”American mainstream.” See Tu Wei-ming’s discussion, ’Cultural China,” 1-34, of “cultural China” being shaped by the periphery instead of the center by the Chinese in diaspora. The main sources for this case study include books, newsletters, jour- nals, booklets, and flyers published by Hsi Lai Temple, a related orga- nization or by an unrelated third party commissioned by Hsi Lai. Most of the information regarding the detailed operation of the temple, its founder, and its history is published in Chinese, whereas information on its activities and objectives is available in both Chinese and English. This study also relies on personal observations of the rituals and activi- ties, in addition to conversations with members of the monastic order and laity at Hsi Lai. Most of the members of the order at Hsi Lai have a good

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command of at least two languages in any of the following combination: Mandarin, Taiwanese, English, and Japanese. Many of the monks /nuns in higher administrative ranks studied at graduate schools primarily in Japan and secondarily in the U.S.

Hsing-yun, Perfectly Willing (Hacienda Heights, California: Hsi Lai Univer- sity Press, 1994).

Hsing-yun wrote articles which called for reform of the practice of Bud- dhism, spoke out against governmental interference in religion, and suggested the establishment of laws assuring equal treatment of all re- ligions in Taiwan. Hsing-yiin, (Perfectly Willing), 5; and Hsing-yun (Per- fectly Willing), 134-135. In the Chinese version of the text, the two terms of jen-chien (translated as “humanitarian” Hsing-yiin, Perfectly Willing, 76 or ”humanistic” Hsing-yiin, Perfectly Willing, 4) and skeng-huo (daily life) is subsumed in the English translation into ”humanization.” In this context I think Hsing-yiin is trying to convey that Buddhism is being made rel- evant to daily life, or socially engaged; see Hsing-yun, How to Be a Fo Kuang Buddhist (Hacienda Heights, California: International Buddhist Progress sod- ety, 1987); Fo Kuang Shan has branches in the United States, Canada, Ar- gentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Costa Rica, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, England, Switzerland, Germany, France, and Russia; Fu Chi-ying (Ckuan deng: Hsing-yiin fa shik ckuan [handing down the light: The Biography of Venerable Master Hsing-yiin] Taipei, Taiwan: Commonwealth Publishing Company, 1995), 254. Hsing-yiin brought back five blocks of bricks from India, holy sand from the Ganges, and mud from Fo Kuang Shan, which were all deposited into the foundation of Hsi Lai Temple-illustrating that “although the source of the pulse of Dharma is far, the flow of the Dharma reaches far,” Fu, 252. In November 1988, Life magazine published a picture of Hsi Lai naming it the largest temple in the Western hemisphere. In the following year, Reader‘s Digest also had an article on Hsi Lai. Ibid. Los Angeles Times, January 10,1988.

Los Angeles Times, January 10, 1988; Fu, 1995,254. Zbid., 252; see Hsing-yun, (1987); Hsing-yun, Perfectly Willing, 4. Communal practices and activities include talks, classes, meditation re- treats, short-term monastic retreats, Five precepts retreats and Amitabha Buddha Seven-day chanting retreats. The short-term monastic retreat provides the participants with first-hand experience of monastic life for five days. The five precepts are not to kill, not to steal, not to lie, not to engage in improper sexual conduct, and not to use intoxicants. Aside from the general activities open to all, there are special activities for the Fo Kuang Women and Fo Kuang Youth associations. Hsi Lai Temple also regularly offers separate Buddhist camps and retreats to accommodate the differ- ent needs of its members: college students, children, teenagers, retired people, teachers, and mothers / housewives. The Bodhisattva Hall houses images of Samantabhadra (representing great practice), Ksitigarbha (representing benevolence), Maitreya (the Future Buddha). Avalokite’svara (representing great compassion), and MaiijugA (representing great wisdom); The Buddha Hall has images of Bhai?ajyaguru

14.

15.

16.

17.

18. 19.

20.

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21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26. 27.

28.

(Medicine Buddha), Sakyamuni Buddha (the historical Buddha), and Amitabha Buddha( Buddha of eternal light).

The average age of the monks/nuns is thirty years old. The nuns out- number the monks at Hsi Lai; Our Report, 1995, 44. The Religious Af- fairs Committee, made up of thirteen members and seven alternates, elected by secret ballots, serves a term of six years. The Abbot of Fo Kuang Shan, elected by the committee members, acts as the chairperson of the committee and spends a maximum of two terms in office. The Religious Affairs Commit- tee consists of Veterans Council, Domestic Supervisory Council, Inter- national Supervisory Council, Education Council, Culture Council, Fo Kuang Shan Culture and Educational Foundation, Fo Kuang Pure Land Cultural and Educational Foundation, University Education Organizing Committee, Buddha’s Light International Association Development Committee, International Buddhist Progress Society, Religious Affairs Advancement Committee, and Cultivation Center. Our Report, 1995,43- 44.

Fu, 275,270. Master Hsing-yiin has retired from the position of abbot of Fo Kuang Shan and has become actively involved with the BLIA; BLIA claims that the benefits of joining its organization include meeting fel- low members and having many friends, increasing wisdom in home fellowship meetings, skill training programs, assistance in job hunting, increasing business contacts, getting personal advice, participating in Buddhist study clubs, being hosted by fellow members while traveling around the world, assistance in funeral, marriage, and other events, and ”sanctifying the spirit” by participating in countless activities. Hsing-yun, The Buddha’s Light l n t m a t i u n a l Association: who Are We? (Hacienda Heights, California: BLIA Headquarters, 1994):5.

The Buddha’s Light International Association, 1995.

According to BLIA, the other three largest social organizations are the Rotary Club, the Lion’s Club, and the United Way. Fu, 279. On the inau- guration day of the BLIA International Headquarters and the First General Membership Conference at Hsi Lai Temple, Former President of the United States, George Bush and President of Taiwan, Li Teng-huei sent letters of congratulations. Hsing-yiin, The Buddha‘s L i g h t International Association: w h o Are We? (1994):20. These figures are as of January 1994; The information on how to set up a BLIA chapter is from the Fo K u a n g S h i h C h i [Buddha’s Light Newsletter], February 1,1993. Prominent members of the Chinese commu- nity are asked upon their visit to the temple to initiate setting up a BLIA chapter in her community and to become the head of the local chapter; af- ter taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha (Buddhist monastic order), the participants become newly initiated Buddhists. The Fo K u a n g S k a n , 39. Hsing-yun, 1994,13; Fu, 1995,274,275. According to the H s i Lai News, during the January, 1994, Precept Retreat, of the four hundred devotees that came from different parts of the country and Canada, seventy-five were “Western Buddhists.” O.B.M., 1994. Fu, 253.

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29. The figures for individual visitors to the temple were not available at the time of the study; group visitors include Buddhist and non-Buddhist religious groups, politicians, students, and military personnel.

Only lunch is open to visitors of the temple, however a donation of five dollars is required; occasions for staying in the houses owned by Hsi Lai include late evening ceremonial rituals, week-long retreats or celebrations of Buddhas‘ or Bodhisattvas’ birthdays or enlightenment days.

Some of these events include performances by the different Hsi Lai or- ganizations, such as Hsi Lai Women’s Association, Hsi Lai Youth Asso- ciation, and Buddha‘s Light Symphony Orchestra, and Buddha‘s Light choirs; to accommodate the concerns of many parents that “the modern world presents children with a precarious environment for growing up,” BLIA regularly sponsors a ”safe, fun, and productive environment” in which children and youth can enjoy themselves while learning new skills and meeting new friends. During summer and winter vacations, BLIA sponsors retreat camps. During the course of the year, BLIA provides com- petitions in music, art, public speaking, and writing. In addition, BLIA youth groups visit sister youth groups in other communities, providing a chance for participants to learn new cultures and customs, and make new friends. Fo Kuang Shan, Our Report, 1995,26; In Taiwan, Fo Kuang Shan oper- ates successful pre-school, kindergarten, elementary, junior high, high schools, college, and graduate programs on its premises. Its reputation for turning out well-disciplined and well-educated students in Taiwan led Chinese parents in the U.S. to ask that Hsi Lai Temple provide a simi- lar educational environment in the U.S. The opening of Hsi Lai Univer- sity is a step towards accommodating this request. Hsi Lai has sponsored domestic and international academic conferences such as International Buddhist Conference, the World Sutric and Tantric Buddhist Conference, the International Buddhist Academic Conference, and the Buddhist Youth Academic Conference. Hsing-yiin, 11.

The Fo Kuang publications include Buddhist sutras, commentaries, his- tories, philosophy, liturgical texts, reference materials, and a collection of Master Hsin-yun’s lectures and writings. Reference materials include the Fo Kuang Tripitaka, a four-volume Fo Kuang Dictionary of Buddhist terms and a table of important dates and events in Buddhist history. At present, Hsi Lai is creating a CD-ROM version of the Buddhist Tripitaka; Audio and video tapes featuring sermons, sutras, publications, songs, mu- sic, and televised programs are available in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Can- tonese, Hakka, and English. In 1995, over 250,000 audio and 35,000 video tapes are in circulation. Fo Kuang Shan, Our Report, 1995,8; Hsing-yiin, The Buddha’s International Association: Who Are We?, 1994.

The concept of religion as a consumer product and thus subject to con- sumer preference is in Peter Berger, The Heretical Imperative: Contempo- my Possibilities ofReligious Afirmation (New York Harper and Row, 1982.) For comparative studies, see Sara Bershtel and Allen Graubard, Saving Remnants: Feeling Jewish in America (New York The Free Press, 1992) for a discussion for how synagogues in the United States appeal to the cur-

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

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36.

37.

38. 39.

40.

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43.

44.

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rent social and cultural tastes of their clientele and more generally how Jewish Americans are choosing their identities, freely creating and in- corporating pieces of tradition, including varying degrees and elements of religious and ethnic identities.

See Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Reli- gion (New York: Doubleday, 1967), 45. Peter Berger asserts that worlds are socially constructed and socially maintained. Thus, a religion or mean- ing system requires a plausibility structure within which the reality, as defined by the religious tradition is taken for granted and within which successive generations of individuals are socialized in a way that the world, as defined by the religious tradition, will be real to them. Ibid., 46. Ibid., 49. Compare to religious monopolies of the past, ”[wlhen an en- tire society served as the plausibility structure for a religiously legiti- mated world, all important social processes within it served to confirm and reconfirm the reality of this world.” Ibid., 48. Hsing-yiin, 1987. David Yen-ho Wu, ”The Construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese Identi- ties,” in The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today, Tu Wei-ming, ed., (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 151. Also see Tu, 4 for a similar statement.

”The term ”Asian American” was adopted in order to allow a presumed ethnicity to achieve political identity and group solidarity.” Paul Wong, “The Emergence of Asian American Movement,” Bridge 2 (1972):32-39. Evelyn Kallen, The Western Samoan Kinship Bridge: A S t u d y in Migration, Social Change and N a u Ethnicity (Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1982), 30. The concept of old ethnicity refers to “any arbitrary classification of human populations utilizing the bio-cultural criterion of (actual or as- sumed) common ancestry in conjunction with the geo-cultural criterion of (common) ancestral territory and socio-cultural criterion of (common) ancestral heritage (culture and social institutions).” Ibid., 29. Ibid., 30. ibid. The concept of new ethnicity has developed “as a symbolic system which can be manipulated situationally so as to enable individuals and/or groups to maintain and revitalize their sense of ethnic belonging (roots) in context where this is valued and deemed advantageous, and to remain ethnically invisible when other interests and identities (occupation, po- litical affiliation and so forth) come to the fore.” Ibid., 31. See Lisa Lowe, “Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Marking Asian American Difference,” Diaspora 1 (1991) reference for the application of the concepts of heterogeneity, hybridity, and multiplicity to the character- ization of Asian American culture. See Bernard Wong, “Elites and Ethnic Boundary Maintenance: A Study of the Roles of Elites in Chinatown, New York City” Urban Anthropology 6:l (1977):l-22, for a discussion of these concepts. Shigeo H. Kanda argues in ”Recovering Cultural Symbols: A Case for Bud- dhism in the Japanese American Communities,” Journal of the American

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Academy of Religion 14 (4 supplement) 1978 : 445-475, that religious institu- tions, (especially Shinshu Buddhism [Buddhist Churches of America]) play a key role in sustaining, interpreting, and transmitting cultural symbols and values. He argues that Buddhism, more than Christianity, is an impor- tant receptacle for Japanese American tradition because of its bicultural and ethnic characters. Kanda calls for the need to recover cultural symbols and sees Buddhist symbols as capable of grafting on meanings from other sources of cultural traditions. In contrast to Kanda's view, the con- cept of "new ethnicity" involves constructing cultural identities, beyond just recovering cultural symbols and grafting meanings onto existing symbols. It also entails creating new cultural and/or religious symbols to reflect the heterogeneous needs of ethnic minorities in a new social con- text.

For comparative studies, see Albanese, 43-47, for a discussion of how the traditional Native American religions have served as vehicles for main- taining Native American identity and encouraging political action. For comparative studies see Robert N. Bellah, "Epilogue," Religion and Progress in Modern Asia (New York Free Press, 1965), 1W229. Bellah argues that Japan faces four prospects of modernization, conversion to Christian- ity, reformism, pure traditionalism, and neo-traditionalism. See Charles H. Hambrick's analysis, "Tradition and Modernity in the New Religious Movments of Japan," Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1:2-3 (1974), 217- 253, of tradition and modernity in new Japanese religious movements where he argues that they adapt a traditional myth-symbol system to a modern situation, assuming the role of folk "neo-traditionalism."

Hsing-yiin, Perfectly Willing, 3. The forest refers to the old Buddhist ideal of the wandering renunciate of the forests vs. a newer ideal of settled monastics in the villages. See Reginald A. Ray, Buddhist Saints in India in India: A Study of Buddhist Values and Orientations (Oxford: Oxford Uni- versity Press, 1994).

Hsing-yiin, The Buddha'a Light International Association: Who Are We?, 3; Hsing-yun, Perfectly Willing, 132-136. Yung Kai, ed., "Buddhist Sacred Places of the World (3)," Buddhist's Light Newsletter (October 1992) 1:6. This characterization of Fo Kuang Shan as a sacred place can be extended to Hsi Lai due to its claim to be a Pure Land on Earth and a site housing a bone relic of the historical Sakyamuni Buddha.

Compare Hsi Lai as a "megatemple '' to Calvary Chapel, an Evangelical "megachurch in Santa Ana, California, that also provides a broad net- work and activities for its members. See Randall Balmer, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America (New York Oxford University Press, 1993), 12-30.

Yen Le Espiritu, Asian American Punethnicity: Bridging Institutions and lden- tities (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992). Compare Espiritu, who distinguishes between the institutionalization of the pan-ethnic con- sciousness as a political resource and pan-ethnic consciousness in terms of common culture, language, and religion with William Wei, The Asian

47.

48.

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American Movement (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993), who does not make such a distinction, but instead speaks of the existence of Asian American consciousness from the presence of the Asian American movement.

Despite the profile of an African American member appearing in the March-April (1994) issue of Hsi Lai News, African American members remain very few at Hsi Lai. May Lui, “Age-old Alms-Round Reenacted on Sangha Day,” Hsi Lai News, September-October 1944, 1.

Hsing-yiin, The Buddha‘s Light lntwnational Association: Who Are We?, 7. The three major forms of Buddhism are TheravZda (popular in South- east Asia), Mahayana (dominant in China and Japan), and Vajrayka (no- table in Tibet and Japan). Vajrayiina is often seen as simply a part of MahZySna. Chinese Buddhist organizations are primarily Mahayma and secondarily Vajrayana. See Albanese, 1992; Hsing-yun, The Buddha‘s Light International Association: Who Are We?, 1994, 7; Our Report, 1995,41. Hsi Lai’s activities present a very effective mobilization of laity and re- sources. Because of the proliferation of construction projects activities, and rituals sponsored by Hsi Lai Temple requiring massive capital and manpower, the members who support Hsi Lai are generally from the middle or upper middle class, with a significant number from the upper class. These members have the financial or time resources to contribute to or participate in the frequent and diverse Hsi Lai events. Hsi Lai Temple recently added an Eighteen Arhats (Buddhist saints) garden and a Kuan- shih-yin (he who observes the sounds of the world, the Bodhisattva of compassion) garden; members and potential members are given the option of participating in rituals by mailing in a donation in order for their names to be read during the ritual ceremonies. In this way, those who cannot come to the temple can equally receive blessings; According to the Abess, Ven. I-kung, although construction of Hsi Lai was financed primarily by donations from Taiwanese supporters, current operating expenses of the Temple are covered by donations from U.S. supporters.

“Primary socialization is the first socialization an individual undergoes in childhood, through which he becomes a member of society.” Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (New York Anchor Books, 1966), 130; “Secondary Socialization is any subsequent process that inducts an already social- ized individual into new sectors of the objective world of his society,“ ibid.

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