Goes to show that (for Westerners, I think) Buddhism is a big rorschach test in terms of ones preexisting beliefs and inclinations. Part of that mystique of the mysterious East, donchaknow.
Shrug You’ve got that, you’ve got your virgin birth of Jesus, you’ve got your Muhammad ascending to Heaven. All of this goes toward explaining why I can never get into any organized religion no matter the stripe.
Many Westerners who come here end up disappointed by the reality, for others it’s better than they thought. For an unlucky few, it’s downright dangerous, as some tourists have been raped or murdered by the “holy man” who was really a drug addict who’d entered the monkhood to dry out or evade the police.
But, those religions are supposed to be about the supernatural.
The pastor of my Unitarian church once adopted a teenage girl from Thailand – and was rather disappointed to find out he knew a lot more about Buddhism than she did. To most lay Buddhists in Thailand, apparently, the Buddha is just a god to worship; they no more think about the whole thing than the average American Evangelical Protestant thinks about theology.
Buddhism in Thailand – and other nearby countries, such as Cambodia – is actually blended with indigenous animism. It’s a very, very superstitious religion as practiced here. The few monks who try to point out that that’s not right are given short shrift by the followers.
Oh, and if you liked Makha Bucha, we also have a religious holiday called Wisakha Bucha, which commemorates the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and passing away, all of which by some sort of divine providence supposedly happened on the same day of different years.
New doctoral dissertation idea! It occurs to me that no country has ever wound up being exclusively Buddhist. It’s always (Buddhism + Thai indigenous animism) (as I now learn) or (Buddhism + Taoism) or (Buddhism + Tibetan Bon shamanism) or (Buddhism + Shinto). Seems to me that the non-theistic features that make Buddhism intellectually appealing to some, also make it spiritually unsatisfying to the larger population in any culture.
I suppose it’s the same with all religions. Look at the different flavors of Islam. And even Christianity. Catholicism alone blends many elements of the Aztec religion in Mexico, I learned in Anthropology class way back when. For example, the exceptionally bloody Jesus on the cross you see there is a direct descendant of the Aztec sacrificial rite. A heavier emphasis on the Mother Mary than seen elsewhere seems to be taken from the Aztec religion, too, I seem to remember.
“This is the Body of Christ . . . :dubious: Yes, yes, I know it tastes like Tenapactli the cacao merchant! It’s really the Body of Christ, OK?! Eat it!”
Point taken, though in the heyday of Christianity’s spread (not to mention Islam’s), you’d hardly see a church of the new religion standing side by side with a temple to the old pagan gods and spirits–the way you did (and still do) with Buddhism on the one hand and Taoism and Shintoism on the other.
Boy, did I ever read this wrong the first time through.
“It is time to begin our sexual practices. Please remove your frock.”
Well, I have heard stories.
Well, Buddhists always (?) regarded other faiths as merely mistaken or incomplete or suboptimal-compared-to-Buddhism – not as abominations in the eyes of the Lord or demon-inspired paths to damnation.
They are masters of self-congratulation, however. That aside, what intrests me is how society receives Buddhism. Regardless of what the Buddhist missionary thinks, it seems that society always keeps a fallback supernatural faith in reserve, while at the same time bending non-theistic Buddhism into a deity-driven form that might be hardly recognizable to old Prince Gautama. I’d suspect that the general population wants a faith of ghosts and hellfire, and that old om mani padmi hom just ain’t satisfying on its own.
Are there many Buddhist missionaries? I’ve heard of one, but they seem to be rare. That one I was featured years ago in a US news story because he was so rare. That’s one thing I like about hanging out with Buddhists: Not one has ever tried to push his religion on me, ever.
Heh-heh-heh . . . and that’s exactly why . . .
NO ONE expects the Buddhist Inquisition! 
Please deliver to rear entrance
Buddhist missionaries are very important to my current strategy in Civilization IV, I’ll have you know sir.
As for the real world: I can see that certain Buddhist organizations have significant influence in their communities and make their presence known (donations welcome), though I’m sure they’d deny that they’re proselytizing.
(Note that I’m talking mainly about the Chinese-language community in the US and Taiwan.)
ETA: In Taiwan you see monks and nuns on the street every day, though whether any out there to proselyze is hard for me to tell.
Sure. How do you think Buddhism spread throughout Southeast and East Asia? For instance, the Pala state in what’s now Bangladesh sponsored Buddhist missionaries that converted Tibet, Nepal, Burma, Indonesia, etc. Thailand was converted by missionaries from Ceylon. And so on.
So why’d they stop? That I don’t know. You just never see Buddhist missionaries in other countries like you see Christian missionaries here and everywhere else. It just doesn’t seem to be a proselytizing religion anymore.
This very morning, Mexicans flocked to the shrine of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe to celebrate her miraculous appearance in 1531. She is the dark-skinned patroness of Mexico & her image is still powerful–even to many who don’t buy the whole story. Celebrations include singing of Las mañanitas–the Mexican birthday song–a sign of tender affection. The site of her appearance was formerly sacred to the Aztec goddess Tonantzin.
But many sites formerly sacred to goddesses are now dedicated to Our Lady. Spain’s Virgin of Guadalupe is one of the famous Black Madonnas. Lots of worshippers would rather ask their Mother for help than asking The Old Guy–hey, read the Old Testament! Jesus is better–but one wonders if he’s gotten over how shabbily he was treated. The Holy Ghost is just too weird–leave him/her/it to the mystics. (And many cultures had sacrificed gods who influenced the Jesus story. The Aztecs were just extra good at that bloody stuff.)
But the Catholic Church generally overthrew the old gods & goddesses and only let them back in disguise. Buddhism has often been more tolerant, even within the different Buddhist variants. The first time the Dalai Lama visited Houston, he dropped by a pagoda where Vietnamese refugees worshipped. Sort of like the Pope visiting a little Baptist Church; even if he’d wanted to go, they wouldn’t have let him in!
(Yes, I’ve studied Anthropology, too. You started it!)