Afterword

Abstract

The preceding collection of studies of Buddhism and international aid is a significant and original resource for research on contemporary Buddhism, full of valuable observations, and new insights. The eight chapters cover a variety of contrasting situations: local Buddhist organizations in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar providing aid in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami (Falk, Harris) and of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008 (Jaquet and Walton); new Buddhist organizations or movements in Hong Kong and Taiwan developing a focus on global aid (Sik, Wang), the growth of a new culture of social service and international aid among Japanese Buddhism (Mukhopadhyaya, Kawanami); and a mainly European and American Buddhist organization, the FPMT, providing aid to non-Buddhists in North India (Goldberg). In some of these situations, we see indigenous Buddhist organizations in developing societies (Thailand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar) responding to a local and immediate situation of crisis (Falk, Harris, Jaquet, and Walton). In others we see Buddhist organizations among the advanced economies responding either to crisis situations or to the ongoing need for international aid, mainly, though not exclusively, in other, less privileged parts of the world (Sik Fa Ren, Wang, Mukhopadhyaya, Kawanami, Goldberg).KeywordsCivil SocietyRelief WorkRelief SupplyEast Asian StudyBuddhist MonkThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.