Asian Religions in America A Documentary History

Asian religions have a long and intriguing history in America. For over two centuries, Asian immigrants have been coming to America and bringing their religions with them. Some Americans have reacted with alarm to the arrival of heathen religions on American shores, while others have takenrefuge in lamas from Tibet, yogis from India, and Zen masters from Japan. Asian Religions in America: A Documentary History is the first text to show the breadth and depth of the American encounter with Asian religions. Ranging from 1784 to the present, it features over one hundred excerpts and dozens of illustrations drawn from literature, art, music, sports,philosophy, theology, politics, and law. Selections discuss Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Shinto, Confucianism, and Taoism and their places in the American religious landscape. Martial artist Bruce Lee, Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, Beatles star John Lennon, Chinese-Americanwriter Amy Tan, African-American activist Frederick Douglass, Vietnamese Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh, and dozens of lesser-known immigrants and Asian Americans are all represented. The editors have provided a general historical introduction, an overview of Asian religions, four section introductions,and concise explanatory headnotes for each entry. The volume is further enhanced by helpful reference materials including a detailed chronology, suggestions for further reading, and an index. Asian Religions in America: A Documentary History serves as an exceptional text for courses in Asian religions, world religions, and religion in America, and is also enlightening reading for academics and general readers.

PrefaceThomas A. Tweed: General IntroductionIntroduction to Asian ReligionsPART I. ORIENTATIONS, 1784 TO 1840Introduction1. VIEWS FROM ABROADAmasa Delano, Narrative of Voyages and Travels (1817)Christian Disciple, An Account of the Sikhs in India (1814)Robert Morrison''s Letter from China (1809)Adoniram and Ann Judson, A Mission in Burma (1832)2. VIEWS FROM HOMEBenjamin Franklin''s Oriental Tale (1788)Joseph Priestley, A Comparison of the Institutions of Moses with Those of the Hindoos and Other Ancient Nations (1799)John Adams to Thomas Jefferson (1813-14)William Bentley on Asian Trade in Salem (1794-1804)Hannah Adams, A Dictionary of All Religions (1817)Charles A. Goodrich, Religious Ceremonies and Customs (1832)PART II. ENCOUNTERS, 1840 TO 19243. EAST TO AMERICA: IMMIGRANT LANDINGSFrederick Douglass, Our Composite Nationality (1869)Fung Chee Pang, The Confucian Sage and the Mongolian Bible (1876) Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)Frederick J. Masters, Pagan Temples in San Francisco (1892)Shuye Sonoda, Buddhism in the Kingdom of Liberty (1899)Saint Nihal Singh, The Picturesque Immigrant From India''s Coral Strand (1909)Swami Paramananda, Christ and Oriental Ideals (1923) United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923)4. ROMANCING THE ORIENT: LITERARY ENCOUNTERSRalph Waldo Emerson, Plato and Brahma (1857, 1850)Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849)Bret Harte, The Heathen Chinee (1870)Walt Whitman, Passage to India (1870)T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922)5. JOURNEYS IN THE STUDYWebster''s Dictionary on Hinduism and Buddhism (1828, 1849, 1864)Lydia Maria Francis Child, The Progress of Religious Ideas (1855)James Freeman Clarke, Ten Great Religions (1871)6. POSTCARDS FOR THE PEWS: MISSIONARIES AND THEIR CRITICSM. L. Gordon, An American Missionary in Japan (1892)Mark Twain, The United States of Lyncherdom (1901)Myra E. Withee, Is Buddhism to Blame? (1902)7. THE WORLD''S PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONSJohn Henry Barrows, Words of Welcome (1893)Swami Vivekananda, Hinduism (1893)Anagarika Dharmapala, The World''s Debt to Buddha (1893)Soyen Shaku, Reply to a Christian Critic (1896)8. TURNING EAST: SYMPATHIZERS AND CONVERTSHenry Steel Olcott, Old Diary Leaves and the Buddist Catechism (1900, 1881)Sister Christine, Memories of Swami Vivekananda (1945)Paul Carus, The Dharma (1898)Marie de Souza Canavarro, Insight into the Far East (1925)William Sturgis Bigelow to Kwanryo Naobayashi (1895)PART III. EXCLUSION, 1924 to 1965Introduction9. CLOSED PORTS AND OPEN CAMPSAsian Exclusion Act (1924)President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Executive Order No. 9066 (1942)Nyogen Senzaki, Like a Dream, Like a Fantasy (1978)Shigeo Kikuchi, Memoirs of a Buddhist Woman Missionary in Hawaii (1991)Julius Goldwater, Wartime Buddhist Liturgy (1940s)10. HINDU CROSSINGS: GURUS AND DISCIPLESKrishnalal Shridharani, Hindus are Human Beings (1941)Swami Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi (1946)Krishnamurti, The Turning Point (1975)John Yale, What Vendanta Means to me (1960)11. BUDDHIST CROSSINGS: MASTERS AND STUDENTSDaisetz Teitaro Suzuki, What is Zen? (1959)Dwight Goddard, Followers of Buddha: An American Brotherhood (1934)Jack Kerouac, Dharma Bums (1958)Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Zen: A Method for Religious Awakening (1959)Elson B. Snow, Entry into the Dharma Gate (1994)12. ARTISTS, PREACHERS, AND MISSIONARIESE. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Indian Road (1925)Mersene Sloan, The Indian Menace (1929)Howard and Sue Bailey Thurman Meet Mahatma Gandhi (1936)John Cage, Lecture on Nothing (1949)PART IV. PASSAGES, 1965 TO THE PRESENTIntroduction13. COUNTERCULTURAL APPROPRIATIONSAlan Watts, Beginning a Counterculture (1972)Timothy Leary, The Buddha as Drop-Out (1968)Ram Dass, The Only Dance There Is (1974)14. ASIAN INDIAN GURUS, CONVERTS, AND MOVEMENTS A TM Catechism (1975)The Beatles and A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Pradhupada, Search for Liberation (1981)Yogi Bhajan, Awakening the Mind to Prayer (1984)Margaret Simpson, An Experience of Siddha Yoga Meditation (1991)S