Old Wisdom in the New World: Americanization in Two Immigrant Theravada Buddhist Temples

The Religion in Urban America Program at the University of Illinois in Chicago has sponsored a number of research projects around the country to investigate immigrant religious communities that have been established since the 1965 liberalization of American immigration law. Old Wisdom in the New World provides insight into two such Theravada Buddhist organizations: the Wat Dhammaram, a Thai temple and community center in Chicago, and Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara, a Sinhalese temple in Los Angeles. The former was established in 1976, the latter in 1980. Both evolved from earlier institutions, and Numrich explains in rather painstaking detail the various organizational peregrinations that resulted in the current institutions. He also provides a description of primary activities held at each center and profiles the people who attend.