HEARTWOOD: The First Generation of Theravada Buddhism in America

Cadge, assistant professor of sociology at Bowdoin College, presents a carefully considered ethnography examining "how Buddhism arrived in the United States and is... adapting" to its new context.Specifically, she focuses on Theravada Buddhism, the branch practiced in such Southeast Asian countries as Thailand and Sri Lanka. She begins with an overview of the history of Theravada Buddhism and its establishment in the U.S. by both Asian immigrants and—separately—American-born converts who had studied in Asia. She spends the bulk of the book focusing on Wat Phila, a Thai temple near Philadelphia founded and attended by native Thais, and the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center (CIMC), founded and attended primarily by white Americans. Drawing on extensive field work, Cadge compares and contrasts gender roles in each center, how each center creates identity as a community and how, despite common roots, each defines the "heartwood," or core of being Buddhist, differently. (Wat Phila consciously emphasizes the centrality of ritual, while CIMC consciously de-emphasizes it.) Although Cadge's descriptions of Wat Phila's and CIMC's practices and people are often detailed and her theses are clearly articulated, her approach is academic (the project began as her doctoral dissertation). The result is an informative study that will appeal more to the scholarly set than to rank-and-file Buddhist practitioners. (Jan.)