Carol A. Mortland - Cambodian Buddhism in the United States

Cambodian Buddhism
in the United States

CAROL A. MORTLAND

Cover photo of the Minnesota temple taken by JoAnn Amberg

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

2017 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

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Production, Diane Ganeles

Marketing, Michael Campochiaro

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Mortland, Carol A. (Carol Anne), 1945 author.

Title: Cambodian Buddhism in the United States / Carol A. Mortland.

Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016048646 (print) | LCCN 2016049369 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438466637 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438466651 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: BuddhismCambodia. | BuddhistsUnited States. | Cambodian AmericansReligion.

Classification: LCC BQ454 .M67 2017 (print) | LCC BQ454 (ebook) | DDC 294.309596/0973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016048646

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To Judy Ledgerwood.

And to the Khmer refugees who established new lives in America, many of whom have shared their lives, experiences, and knowledge with me.

Americas involvement in the conflicts of Southeast Asia in the mid-twentieth century introduced unfamiliar people, resources, and ideas to both the Asian peninsula and America, and left a legacy of damage in both regions. The bloodbath predicted for a communist takeover in Vietnam occurred instead in Cambodia in 1975. In the aftermath, America resettled over a million refugees from the area, including approximately 150,000 Cambodians. By 2010, over a quarter of a million residents of America were of Khmer descent.

Cambodian Buddhists in the United States looks at the resettlement of Cambodians in America and the reestablishment of Khmer Buddhism by Cambodians in their new lives in a new land. For most Cambodians in the United States, the daily practice of Khmer religion has been vitally important as they struggled to retain their lives as Cambodians by reestablishing traditional relationships, customs, and rituals while working to survive economically. Decades later, most first-generation Cambodians continue to spend most or all of their free time with one another, socializing in Khmer, eating traditional food, and observing their traditions. Most second-generation Cambodian Americans do not share their parents experiences or understand their beliefs and practices, but they continue to consider themselves Khmer, usually following the religion of their parents.

Khmer Buddhism refers to the form of Buddhism practiced by Cambodians, and Khmer Buddhists to those practitioners. Khmer refers to the ethnicity, language, and culture of the majority of Cambodians now residing in Cambodia and those resettled in America, and the terms Khmer and Cambodian are used interchangeably in this book. First-generation Cambodians refers to Cambodians who were resettled as adults or older adolescents, while second-generation Cambodian Americans refers to Khmer refugees who arrived in the United States as small children or to people of Khmer descent who were born in America. Cambodian is generally used to refer to first-generation refugees, and Cambodian Americans is used for their children. Khmer authors are listed in citations and references cited in the Khmer style: the family name followed by the given name. Lay or laity refers to nonreligious personnel, and cadre refers to individual members and the collective of the Khmer Rouge.

I am grateful to the Cambodians who have shared their lives with me, including the Oum and Pong families, Hin Sithan, the Venerable Ouch Chanmony, Korath Norin, and the late Narith Kong and Thom Thach. I am grateful also to my sister, Annette Gililland, for editorial assistance, and to her and the rest of my family for everything. Thank you to the reviewers of the manuscript and the editors at SUNY Press.

Most resettled Cambodians are ethnic Khmer, but they include Cambodians who have Chinese, Lao, Thai, or Vietnamese ancestry. Although most Khmer refugees were formerly subsistence rice farmers in Cambodia, some were prominent in business, government, and the military and a few were urban students and workers. The approximately 150,000 Khmer refugees resettled in the United States after the mid-1970s included Theravada Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Mahayana Buddhists, and practitioners of tribal religions. The majority of Khmer refugees were resettled in urban areas, and many continue to live there. Long Beach, California, has the largest population of people of Cambodian ancestry outside Cambodia, and communities of Khmer reside in other urban centers across the country, particularly in southern California, eastern Massachusetts, and the Puget Sound region of the Pacific Northwest. Over the decades, Cambodian Americans have increased in number, scattering to even more suburbs and towns. By 2010, over 275,000 people of Khmer descent resided in America (United States Census 2011).

The vast majority of resettled Cambodians are Theravada Buddhists, as over 90 percent of Cambodians have been for centuries. The daily practice of Khmer religion has been vitally important to the great majority of resettled Cambodians as they struggled to cope with the experiences that caused them to become refugees and attempted to survive economically and retain and reestablish traditional relationships, customs, and rituals. Decades later, the majority of first-generation Cambodians continue to spend most or all of their free time with one another, socializing in Khmer, eating traditional food, and observing their traditions. Most second-generation Cambodian Americans do not share their parents experiences or understand their beliefs and practices, but they continue to consider themselves Khmer and follow the religion of their parents.

Cambodian Buddhists in the United States explores the ways Cambodian refugees reestablished the rituals, personnel, and physical facilities of their traditional faith in America as they began arriving in the mid-1970s. To provide a context for discussing the establishment of Khmer Buddhism in America, this chapter briefly reviews the history of Khmer refugees, previous research with Cambodians, and my contacts with Cambodians since 1981.

For millennia, present-day Cambodia was home to hunters, gatherers, and fishermen who anthropologists think paid homage to spirits of the ancestors and the earth. Ancient rituals surviving into the modern era indicate that as the domestication of crops and animals became the dominant survival strategy and residents began living in permanent villages and engaging in networks of trade, they continued practicing rituals to appease the spirits around them (Pore-Maspero 19621969). With the development of a sophisticated and productive trading and social polity with high population density, high rice production, and a complex canal system, Funan was established in southern Cambodia around 2,000 years ago (Bizot 1976). Left behind is evidence of both Hinduism, a 4,000-year-old Indian religion consisting of numerous gods, texts, and rituals, and Buddhism, founded by the Buddha about 2,500 years ago.