The Annual Leslie S. Kawamura Memorial Lecture

Local Stories, Global Buddhism: Centering Rural Alberta’s Shin Buddhism

By Dr. John Harding, University of Lethbridge

Raymond’s Buddhist temple was surprisingly significant in the formative history of Buddhism in Canada and across transnational networks. Officially known as Raymond Buddhist Church due to pressures of assimilation decades before Canadian policies of pluralism and multiculturalism, Raymond’s temple, the first in Canada beyond British Columbia, was also closely linked to Leslie Kawamura as his birthplace and a community hub where his father served as minister from 1934-40. The first sixty years of the history of Buddhism in Canada is dominated by Jōdo Shinshū (aka Shin), so when Raymond emerged as the Canadian center for this Japanese Pure Land tradition in the 1940s, it became the center for Buddhism in Canada. In addition to connections to Leslie Kawamura and local Buddhist history, this talk is linked to collaborations with my colleagues Victor Sōgen Hori and Alexander Soucy exploring interaction between local case studies and global trends they influence and instantiate. Titles of our 2010, 2014, and 2020 edited volumes (Wild Geese: Buddhism in Canada, Flowers on the Rock: Global and Local Buddhisms in Canada, and Buddhism in the Global Eye: Beyond East and West respectively) reflect our increasing emphasis on accounting for dynamic, multi-directional global forces as necessary for studying Buddhism in Canada or anywhere. Additionally, centering this local story of influences rippling out from rural southern Alberta provides a case study applicable to recent projects — ranging from a contrasting example for how Buddhism developed in Europe to an illustrative case supporting ongoing movements to retell narratives for religious developments to better account for transnational networks and global circulations.

About the Speaker:
John S. Harding is a Professor in the Department of History and Religion, former Chair of Religious Studies, and founding Coordinator of Asian Studies at the University of Lethbridge. His research includes Japanese Buddhism and the cross-cultural exchanges within and beyond Asia that have shaped developments of modern and global Buddhism in Japan, North America, and worldwide in the past 160 years. Along with books, articles, and conferences focused on these interests, his collaborative scholarship also extends to textbooks and readers devoted to the academic study of religion and Buddhism. He loves to ski with his family, play volleyball and tennis, and relax at home with Lisa and their three dogs.

Reception to follow lecture