A HISTORY OF BUDDHISM IN AUSTRALIA
1848 – 1988
PAUL CROUCHER
WAT BUDDHA DHAMMA
TEN MILE HOLLOW
WISEMANS FERRY 2255
N.S.W . AUSTRALIA
For over 100 year ‘ordinary’ Australian as well as prime ministers, writers and painters, dissatisfied with the answers provided by conventional religion, have turned to Buddhism, attracted by its universal message: that the solution to the problems of existence lies within each individual, requiring no external or supernatural aid.
This book chronicles the history of Buddhism in Australia and its influence on our poetry, art and religious life. It trace the threads of interest in 19th century spiritualism and theosophical Buddhism, through the establishment of the first ongoing Buddhist societies in the early 1950s, and beyond to the ‘happy’ trail and indo-Chinese refugees.
Ironically, in many ways this is a story of groups within the Buddhist movement strenuously opposed to each other, with rationalist pitted against transcendentalist, the vehemently anti-Christian against eclectics, iconoclasts against traditionalists, and more recently, the 12.000 or so Anglo-Australian Buddhist against their 70.000 ethnic brothers and sisters.
A colorful mosaic of eccentrics, charlatans, domineering personalities, together with the occasional saintly character, makes Buddhist in Australia an intriguing book of interest far beyond practising Buddhists.
“ Paul Croucher has managed to splice together the many strands of Buddhist influence on Australian life in a way that is never trivial or superficial. He has a particular sensitivity to the variety of underlying Buddhist traditions, and writes, in a style that is cool, lucid, fair minded, and thoroughly readable.”
Dr Ian Mabbett
Dept. of History,
MonashUniversity
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NOTES
OTHER SOURCES
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
INDEX