We tend to think that the various forms of Buddhism are ethnic in nature, as if the practitioners of a certain Buddhist tradition are either non-Asian converts or Asians from a particular ethnic group. This is not borne out by the study of Buddhist groups in Ontario. Language and cultural identity may have been a barrier in the past for people who wished to follow a Buddhist tradition other than that practised within their own nationality. However, as more and more people are able to speak more than one language, and as Buddhism becomes more of a spiritual practice rather than a cultural identity, the barriers between cultures and languages recede. For example, not only can we observe many Chinese immigrants going to Vietnamese Buddhist temples, and receiving guidance and instruction toward initiation under Vietnamese monks, we can also observe Japanese attending the Korean Zen temple, Chinese learning Tibetan Buddhism, or Vietnamese following Japanese Rinzai Zen training. This paper studies the development of the diverse ethnic Buddhist groups in Ontario, with emphasis on the roles that language and cultural identity play in that development.
