Calling Asian American Buddhists!

Thanks to a post over on the Angry Asian Man, I learned about the recently débuted Indian American Story blog.

HomeSpun: The Smithsonian Indian American Heritage Project is a national grassroots effort to create an exhibit chronicling the history of both immigrants from India and their descendants in America. Though Indian Americans number more than 2.7 million in the United States, the history, contributions, challenges and perspectives of this vibrant community have yet to be told at the Smithsonian Institution, the largest museum and research complex in the world.

To borrow a leaf from the Smithsonian, I’m going to start posting the voices of other Asian American Buddhists over at the group blog, Dharma Folk. We make up the majority of American Buddhists, and it’s time for us to throw our thoughts and experiences into the mix. Dharma Folk needs more diverse writing anyway. If you’re interested, just leave me a comment below!

One thought on “Calling Asian American Buddhists!

  1. Archivist’s Note: Comments have been preserved from the original website for archival purposes; however, comments are now closed.


    TivomeJuly 15, 2009 at 11:26 AM
    I never thought about it this way, but Asian-American Buddhist is a bit of a rarity. If you’re Asian and Buddhist, it seemed that you should just join the Sangha of your native country. My parents came from Taiwan, where you can find Sutras in front of 7/11s. When I became a Tibetan Buddhist, I felt totally out of place in the sea of whiteness that is American Buddhism. I became close with many of the resident lamas – in fact I am closer to them than many of their students. Eventually I see myself more of a sangha based in Taiwan than anything else (I still have Chinese language ability), yet I am an anomaly there too. I feel really isolated where I am, as I don’t agree to many of the ways white people view Buddhism or their attempts at changing it. The only redeeming thing is that I have a great Guru who has students all over the globe, and I do meet a few white Buddhist that defies the “norm”. I especially respect white people who became true monks or nuns (not those I’ll-live-with-my-gf-while-being-a-monk type of hippy “monks”).

    I’m glad I’ve found this blog, but I don’t quite agree with the title… Buddhist usually see anger as one of the three basic kleshas and won’t use it to describe themselves… but I can see how you’re trying to be humorously ironic.

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