Cambodian Buddhism in the United States , livre ebook

State University of New York Press - Carol A. Mortland

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206 pages

English

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Cambodian Buddhism in the United States is the first comprehensive anthropological study of Khmer Buddhism as practiced by Khmer refugees in the United States. Based on research conducted at Khmer temples and sites throughout the country over a period of three and a half decades, Carol A. Mortland uses participant observation, open-ended interviews, life histories, and dialogues with Khmer monks and laypeople to explore the everyday practice of Khmer religion, including spirit beliefs and healing rituals. This ethnography is enriched and supplemented by the use of historical accounts, reports, memoirs, unpublished life histories, and family memorabilia painstakingly preserved by refugees. Mortland also traces the changes that Cambodians have made to religion as they struggle with the challenges of living in a new country, learning English, and supporting themselves. The beliefs and practices of Khmer Muslims and Khmer Christians in the United States are also reviewed.
Preface
Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. Khmer Buddhism Beliefs

3. Rituals of Khmer Buddhism

4. Non-Buddhist Cambodians

5. Rebuilding Khmer Buddhism

6. Temple Expansion

7. Religious Personnel

8. Temple Organization

9. Beyond the Temple

10. Congregation

11. Temple Contributions

12. Temple Difficulties

13. Additional Difficulties

14. Epilogue

Appendix: Khmer Buddhist Temples in the United States
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

Buddhism

Ethnic studies

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Publié par	State University of New York Press
Date de parution	25 juillet 2017
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781438466651
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1698€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Cambodian Buddhism in the United States
Cambodian Buddhism in the United States
CAROL A. MORTLAND
Cover photo of the Minnesota temple taken by JoAnn Amberg
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2017 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Diane Ganeles
Marketing, Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mortland, Carol A. (Carol Anne), 1945– author.
Title: Cambodian Buddhism in the United States / Carol A. Mortland.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016048646 (print) | LCCN 2016049369 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438466637 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438466651 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Buddhism—Cambodia. | Buddhists—United States. | Cambodian Americans—Religion.
Classification: LCC BQ454 .M67 2017 (print) | LCC BQ454 (ebook) | DDC 294.309596/0973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016048646
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Judy Ledgerwood.
And to the Khmer refugees who established new lives in America, many of whom have shared their lives, experiences, and knowledge with me.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Khmer Buddhism Beliefs Chapter 3 Rituals of Khmer Buddhism Chapter 4 Non-Buddhist Cambodians Chapter 5 Rebuilding Khmer Buddhism Chapter 6 Temple Expansion Chapter 7 Religious Personnel Chapter 8 Temple Organization Chapter 9 Beyond the Temple Chapter 10 Congregation Chapter 11 Temple Contributions Chapter 12 Temple Difficulties Chapter 13 Additional Difficulties Chapter 14 Epilogue Appendix Khmer Buddhist Temples in the United States
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Preface
America’s involvement in the conflicts of Southeast Asia in the mid-twentieth century introduced unfamiliar people, resources, and ideas to both the Asian peninsula and America, and left a legacy of damage in both regions. The bloodbath predicted for a communist takeover in Vietnam occurred instead in Cambodia in 1975. In the aftermath, America resettled over a million refugees from the area, including approximately 150,000 Cambodians. By 2010, over a quarter of a million residents of America were of Khmer descent.
Cambodian Buddhists in the United States looks at the resettlement of Cambodians in America and the reestablishment of Khmer Buddhism by Cambodians in their new lives in a new land. For most Cambodians in the United States, the daily practice of Khmer religion has been vitally important as they struggled to retain their lives as Cambodians by reestablishing traditional relationships, customs, and rituals while working to survive economically. Decades later, most first-generation Cambodians continue to spend most or all of their free time with one another, socializing in Khmer, eating traditional food, and observing their traditions. Most second-generation Cambodian Americans do not share their parents’ experiences or understand their beliefs and practices, but they continue to consider themselves Khmer, usually following the religion of their parents.
Notes for Reading the Book
“Khmer Buddhism” refers to the form of Buddhism practiced by Cambodians, and “Khmer Buddhists” to those practitioners. “Khmer” refers to the ethnicity, language, and culture of the majority of Cambodians now residing in Cambodia and those resettled in America, and the terms “Khmer” and “Cambodian” are used interchangeably in this book. “First-generation” Cambodians refers to Cambodians who were resettled as adults or older adolescents, while “second-generation” Cambodian Americans refers to Khmer refugees who arrived in the United States as small children or to people of Khmer descent who were born in America. “Cambodian” is generally used to refer to first-generation refugees, and “Cambodian Americans” is used for their children. Khmer authors are listed in citations and references cited in the Khmer style: the family name followed by the given name. “Lay” or “laity” refers to nonreligious personnel, and “cadre” refers to individual members and the collective of the Khmer Rouge.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the Cambodians who have shared their lives with me, including the Oum and Pong families, Hin Sithan, the Venerable Ouch Chanmony, Korath Norin, and the late Narith Kong and Thom Thach. I am grateful also to my sister, Annette Gililland, for editorial assistance, and to her and the rest of my family for everything. Thank you to the reviewers of the manuscript and the editors at SUNY Press.
1

Introduction
Most resettled Cambodians are ethnic Khmer, but they include Cambodians who have Chinese, Lao, Thai, or Vietnamese ancestry. Although most Khmer refugees were formerly subsistence rice farmers in Cambodia, some were prominent in business, government, and the military and a few were urban students and workers. The approximately 150,000 Khmer refugees resettled in the United States after the mid-1970s included Theravada Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Mahayana Buddhists, and practitioners of tribal religions. The majority of Khmer refugees were resettled in urban areas, and many continue to live there. Long Beach, California, has the largest population of people of Cambodian ancestry outside Cambodia, and communities of Khmer reside in other urban centers across the country, particularly in southern California, eastern Massachusetts, and the Puget Sound region of the Pacific Northwest. Over the decades, Cambodian Americans have increased in number, scattering to even more suburbs and towns. By 2010, over 275,000 people of Khmer descent resided in America (United States Census 2011).
The vast majority of resettled Cambodians are Theravada Buddhists, as over 90 percent of Cambodians have been for centuries. The daily practice of Khmer religion has been vitally important to the great majority of resettled Cambodians as they struggled to cope with the experiences that caused them to become refugees and attempted to survive economically and retain and reestablish traditional relationships, customs, and rituals. Decades later, the majority of first-generation Cambodians continue to spend most or all of their free time with one another, socializing in Khmer, eating traditional food, and observing their traditions. Most second-generation Cambodian Americans do not share their parents’ experiences or understand their beliefs and practices, but they continue to consider themselves Khmer and follow the religion of their parents.
Cambodian Buddhists in the United States explores the ways Cambodian refugees reestablished the rituals, personnel, and physical facilities of their traditional faith in America as they began arriving in the mid-1970s. To provide a context for discussing the establishment of Khmer Buddhism in America, this chapter briefly reviews the history of Khmer refugees, previous research with Cambodians, and my contacts with Cambodians since 1981.
A Brief History of Cambodia
For millennia, present-day Cambodia was home to hunters, gatherers, and fishermen who anthropologists think paid homage to spirits of the ancestors and the earth. Ancient rituals surviving into the modern era indicate that as the domestication of crops and animals became the dominant survival strategy and residents began living in permanent villages and engaging in networks of trade, they continued practicing rituals to appease the spirits around them (Porée-Maspero 1962−1969). With the development of a sophisticated and productive trading and social polity with high population density, high rice production, and a complex canal system, Funan was established in southern Cambodia around 2,000 years ago (Bizot 1976). Left behind is evidence of both Hinduism, a 4,000-year-old Indian religion consisting of numerous gods, texts, and rituals, and Buddhism, founded by the Buddha about 2,500 years ago.
By the ninth century CE, power in the region had shifted from Funan to Angkor and, from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries, King Jayavarman II and his Angkor successors oversaw an expansion of agriculture and population. Until the twelfth century CE, Hinduism was the state religion of the Khmer Empire, but waxed and waned in influence along with Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism, with temples ( wat ) alternating as ritual sites and displaying both Hindu and Buddhist elements (Chandler 1983). Buddhism developed in part in reaction to Hindu tradition and rigidity, providing its followers relief from the caste system. Over the centuries, Buddhism developed into Mahayana Buddhism, a branch of Buddhism emphasizing celestial Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and magical rites.
Theravada Buddhism arose later as a reform sect focused on countering the spirit beliefs and extravagances some perceived in Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism (Lester 1973). In contrast to Mahayana Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism focuses on worship with a community of monks and encourages believers in acquiring wisdom, discipline, and deliverance from life’s suffering. Cambodians molded Indian ideas into a unique form, with Khmer-style images of the Buddha prevalent as early as the seventh century. Two Indian gods often blended to become one, such as Shiva and Vishnu becoming Haraihara, a favorite god of the Angkorean kings, and local sprits were sometimes given the names of Indian gods (Chandler 1983). Khmer kings also named themselves after Hindu gods and the Buddha while claiming they were desce