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"Most Vietnamese practice Pure Land, a form of Mahayana Buddhism. Pure Land is prevalent in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam but is less familiar in the United States, where the scholarly and popular literature has focused on Zen and Theravada Buddhism. Rituals such as chanting sutras, reciting the names of buddhas and bodhisattvas, and making merit so one may be reborn in the Pure Land or Western Paradise associated with Amitabha Buddha defy what many Americans understand as Buddhism. Pure Land, Home Land explores intertwining spiritual orientations utilized by Vietnamese in the United States as they deal with loss and sacrifice experienced during the war in their homeland and in adjusting to life in a new place, while seeking refuge in Buddhist centers as a collective expression of staying Vietnamese. The book contributes to critical refugee studies by showing how the key Buddhist practice of "seeking refuge" in the Three Jewels-the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha-is of both spiritual and political significance to Vietnamese American communities. This ethnographic study of immigrant communities in the American Gulf South, from Louisiana to Florida, shows how Vietnamese refugees draw on Buddhist ideals and rituals to make sense of the aftermath of war and to rebuild their lives in diaspora"--
About the author
Allison J. Truitt is associate professor of anthropology at Tulane University and author of
Dreaming of Money in Ho Chi Minh City.
