Tibetan Buddhism, American interests: Influences upon the lay and monastic relationship in New York's Tibetan Buddhist immigrant communit

The dissertation has three theoretical issues: the Tibetan Buddhist immigrant lay-monastic relationship, identity formation and acculturation. It is grounded in the theoretical works of Anthony Giddens, Stephen Warner and proponents of the New Paradigm for religion in America. Diasporic Tibetans in the New York City area are engaged in a continuous project of identity. The project takes shape within the American environment of pluralism and religious competition, and many of its aspects are direct results of a changed lay-monastic relationship in which traditional norms of close interaction and interdependence are broken. Tibetan lay people are excluded from many Tibetan Buddhist areas in America, including publishers' markets, meditation centers and cultural preservationism. Because of the "American occupation" of Tibetan Buddhism, monastic community members do not interact regularly with lay community members. Two Tibetan Buddhisms in America are distinguished. In one, non-Tibetan Americans find self-help topics are emphasized in sometimes costly meditation centers. In another, the Tibetan immigrant laity finds self-reliance without a sangha and an emerging identity in which Buddhist, political and cultural elements are combined to facilitate activism for Tibet. Innovation is key for the Tibetan project of identity, exhibited in the dynamic symbols of the Dalai Lama and rang-btsan. Internal community differentiations, and thus communal vitality, are evident through varying definitions of these symbols. Outside global and societal influences bear on the Tibetan project of identity. Tibetans at once strive to affect and are deeply affected by global politics surrounding their homeland. American popular culture takes a special interest in Tibet's situation and culture but also constructs Tibet's situation and culture to fulfill its own commercial and preservationist ends. Acculturation is in the Tibetan case a matter of praxis, daily practical activity, which enables the immigrant population to better thrive in the new host culture's environment and on the global front, as well.