Trajectories of East Asian Buddhism in South Africa: a comparative perspective

ABSTRACT

In this article I take my cue from Michel Clasquin-Johnson’s reflections on six main themes (lay practice, gender equality, adhesion to democratic principles, impact of Western psychology, social engagement, creation of a non-sectarian tradition) underlying the development of mainstream South African Buddhism to explore three forms of East Asian Buddhism operating in the country: the Dharma Centre (Korean Sŏn)—a representative of mainstream South African Buddhism—and the local branches of two large new religious movements—the Japan-based Soka Gakkai International (Nichiren Buddhism) and the Taiwan-based Foguangshan (Chinese Pure Land/Chan Buddhism)—which include a more diverse section of the South African population. Besides providing a detailed analysis of these forms of East Asian Buddhism in the country, I test the applicability of Clasquin-Johnson’s themes to the case studies and explore four further topics for the comparative study of South African Buddhism: interactions with local religions, proselytization, hybridization, the promise of worldly benefits.

KEYWORDS:

• East Asian Buddhism
• South Africa
• Kwan Um School of Zen
• Soka Gakkai International
• Foguangshan

Introduction

It is likely that Buddhist practices were first introduced to South Africa by the large community of Chinese sailors operating at the Cape Colony ruled by the Dutch East India Company. They were followed at the beginning of the twentieth century by thousands of Chinese immigrants contracted by the Witwatersrand gold mines and by the Indian laborers who joined the Natal Buddhist Society in Durban in small numbers (Wratten 1995, 168–185). However, the Buddhist practices of these minorities did not have a lasting impact on the South African religious landscape, where Buddhism took roots only many years later. In fact, it was not until the late 1960s that modernized forms of Buddhist practice were first introduced to the country.

In those years, Tibetan, Theravāda, and Zen Buddhism began to be adopted by several groups under the influence of Western Buddhism. In 1980, Louis van Loon opened the doors of the Buddhist Retreat Centre in Ixopo (near Durban) focused on Theravāda meditation and, in 1982, Rob Nairn inaugurated a retreat center affiliated to the Kagyu school in the Eastern Cape. At about the same time, Heila and Rodney Downey established the Dharma Centre in the Western Cape to promote the practice of Philip Kapleau’s Zen and later that of Korean Sŏn, two styles that have also been taught since the late 1980s at Antony Osler’s Poplar Grove in the Karoo. Also tracing back to the early 1980s is the arrival of Sōka Gakkai, while another large new religious movement, the Taiwanese Foguangshan, inaugurated its South African headquarters in 1993 (Clasquin and Krüger 1999; Wratten 2000; Clasquin 1999, 2002; Clasquin-Johnson 2017).

At present, a wide variety of Buddhist traditions is represented in South Africa, including Tibetan Buddhism (Kagyu and Gelug schools), Theravāda (Westernized and Burmese), Japanese Zen, and Korean Sŏn as well as new religious movements mainly based on East Asian Buddhism (Soka Gakkai International, Foguangshan, Tzu Chi Foundation). These forms of Buddhism operate within a religious landscape dominated by large African Independent¹ and Pentecostal churches and, to a lesser extent, by the Afrikaans-/English-speaking Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church. The two largest religious minorities are Islam (ca. 2%) and Hinduism (ca. 1%). Although official figures are lacking, it may be estimated that there are currently several thousand Buddhists in South Africa (cf. Schoeman 2017, 2), the majority of whom are not of Asian origin.

About two decades ago, the most prominent scholar of Buddhism in South Africa, Michel Clasquin-Johnson, provided an articulated reflection on the question whether Martin Baumann’s distinction of six main themes in the development of Western Buddhism (emphasis on lay practice, critical evaluation of women’s roles, application of democratic principles, close linkage to Western psychology, conceptualization of a socially engaged Buddhism, creation of a non-sectarian tradition) applies to Buddhism in the country (Clasquin 1999, 93–98, 2002, 160; cf. Baumann 2001, 23). Clasquin-Johnson argues that South African Buddhism emphasizes some of these themes more than others, the key factor being lay participation, as shown by the fact that most Buddhist groups in South Africa are composed of lay (white) members practising meditation in retreat centers or private homes.² Less prominent is the application of democratic principles, which is apparent in the “Western style system of committees that run most of the groups” and the impact of Western psychology. For Clasquin-Johnson, a critical perspective on gender is not “a matter of primary concern to South African Buddhists”, but this topic has been discussed within several groups and some of the Buddhist teachers are women. Finally, he notices a weak interest in socially engaged Buddhism and in ecumenical forms of Buddhism, with the latter having waned since the 1970s (Clasquin 1999, 93–96).

Clasquin-Johnson concludes that Buddhism in South Africa largely conforms to Baumann’s classification. He acknowledges a few notable exceptions, such as “the Indian, Burmese and Chinese ‘ethnic Buddhist’ populations” and, possibly, organizations such as Soka Gakkai International, “the only group to have attracted a significant number of black members”. However, he argues, “what we find in this country is an overwhelmingly Western Buddhism”, mainly practised by white middle-class people, which begs the question “whether or not Buddhism is able to come to grips with its existence in an African context” (Clasquin 1999, 90, 97, 2002, 161).

In the following I will take my cue from Clasquin-Johnson’s reflections to explore three groups related to East Asian Buddhism that operate in South Africa: the Dharma Centre (Korean Sŏn), which is a suitable candidate to represent Clasquin-Johnson’s mainstream South African Buddhism, and the local branches of two new religious movements with a large international network—the Japan-based Soka Gakkai International (Nichiren Buddhism) and the Taiwan-based Foguangshan (Chinese Pure Land and Chan Buddhism)—which, besides representing the large majority of East Asia-related Buddhists in the country, include a more diverse section of the South African population. I will first provide an overview of these groups and then approach them comparatively to test the applicability of the six aforementioned themes. Stretching a bit further Clasquin-Johnson’s framework, I will introduce and explore four more themes for the comparative study of East Asian Buddhism in South Africa: interactions with local religions, proselytization, hybridization, the promise of worldly benefits.³

The Dharma Centre

Originally established in 1981 in Somerset West (Cape Town), the Dharma Centre has earned over the years the reputation of being “the leading Zen-based organisation” in the country (Clasquin 2002, 156). Founders Heila and Rodney Downey, a South African couple, trained for many years under Philip Kapleau (1912–2004) at the Rochester Zen Center in New York before becoming interested in 1990 in the teachings of Seung Sahn (1927–2004), a Korean Master of Sŏn (the Korean word for Zen) Buddhism who had established the Kwan Um School of Zen in the United States in 1983. In 1996, Heila Downey completed her kong’an (‘puzzles’ used in Sŏn’s meditational practice; Jp. koan) training within this school, thus earning “dharma transmission” (Kr. inga) and the title “Master Dharma Teacher”, while Rodney Downey became a “Senior Dharma Teacher” and the abbot of the Dharma Centre. Seung Sahn’s Sŏn is characterized by a strong focus on the “Don’t Know Mind”, revolving around the practice of meditation, kong’an, chanting, and prostrations. While presenting himself as the seventy-eighth patriarch in an unbroken lineage, the Korean master introduced innovations such as the substitution of the traditional practice of a single kong’an for a “step-by-step practice”, the development of a “unique lay teacher system and Dharma transmission to lay people”, and the incorporation of the practice of the 108 prostrations from the popular tradition of Korean Buddhism (Jang 2014, 39–43; Mu 1998, 122). Thus, his school established in North America partakes of both Buddhist modernism and Western Buddhism and largely qualifies for inclusion in the category of new religious movements.

Although the Dharma Centre became an independent organization in 2007, it still follows the Kwan Um School’s style, both at the headquarters (which were moved to Robertson in the Cape Winelands in 1995) and at the local branches in Cape Town, Knysna, and Stanford. The weekly meditation sessions include chanting in Korean (Evening Bell Chant, Homage to the Three Jewels, Korean Heart Sutra, The Great Dharani) and English (English Heart Sutra) and sitting/walking meditation for about 90 minutes. Retreats follow a tighter schedule, as is the case of the “7-Day Zen Intensive” silent retreat conducted by Heila and Rodney Downey in Robertson, which starts every morning at around 5:00 am with the 108 prostrations and includes two sessions of chanting, four sessions of sitting and walking meditation, and work sessions, before ending at around 8:30 pm with the uttering of the “Four Great Vows” of the bodhisattva. Shorter retreats are also offered in Robertson and other branches, some of which combine meditation with yoga. Although the Dharma Centre counts a small number of hardcore members, a larger community of a few hundred occasional practitioners, mostly middle-class white South Africans, revolves around these activities and retreats taking place throughout the year.

The Sŏn practice of this organization has a strong ethical component, which also finds expression in the “Dharma Centre Guidelines” featuring in the official Chanting Book. Here, detailed behavioral instructions are provided on aspects such as “Keeping the Bodhi Mind”, “Conduct”, and “Speech” (The Dharma Centre 2002). This emphasis largely reflects Seung Sahn’s understanding of the “Don’t Know Mind” as the unconditional openness “to all that presents itself to us” in each moment, to be able to “perceive clearly and act with our natural compassion and wisdom to benefit all beings” (Kwan Um School of Zen 2018). Mindfulness cannot go without “kindfulness”, Heila Downey affirms, because “the more you practice mindfulness, the more the ‘kindness factor’ naturally develops. You become more aware of the consequences of your actions, and your heart opens.” (Ross 2018) This approach has only sporadically found application in outreach activities, such as the “Mindfulness Awareness in Action Programme”, started in 1998, to introduce prison inmates to mindful awareness and the teaching of meditation for students at the University of Cape Town.

SGI South Africa

Soka Gakkai International (SGI) was established in 1975 by the Japanese new religious movement Sōka Gakkai (“Value Creation Society”) as an umbrella organization for its worldwide activities. Its president Ikeda Daisaku (b. 1928) served until 1979 as the third president of Sōka Gakkai, which had been initiated in the 1930s as the lay arm of Nichiren Shōshū Buddhism and seen exponential growth in the post-war years as a result of the aggressive conversion (Jp. shakubuku) campaign launched by second president Toda Jōsei (1900–1958). In 1964, Sōka Gakkai extended its influence to the political arena with the establishment of a party, the Kōmeitō, with which it still has links despite the separation from the religious organization in 1970. Sōka Gakkai is an independent organization since the excommunication in 1991 by Nichiren Shōshū, with a membership of just over 10 million, a small percentage of whom is affiliated to the centers operated by SGI in about 200 countries. Sōka Gakkai’s Buddhism revolves around Nichiren’s (1222–1282) interpretation of the Lotus Sutra and its main religious practices are chanting the daimoku—the phrase nam-myōhō-renge-kyō (“Homage to the Sutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Dharma”), the recitation of the gongyō (portions of the Lotus Sutra) in Japanese while facing the gohonzon (the calligraphy of nam-myōhō-renge-kyō), the study of the Gosho (Nichiren’s writings) through Ikeda’s authoritative interpretation, and the zadankai (discussion meetings) (McLaughlin 2018, 1–67). All these practices are aimed to disclose individuals’ Buddha nature, thus allowing a ‘human revolution’ that progresses from interiority to social change. SGI is listed as an NGO by the United Nations and promotes educational, fund-raising, and lobbying activities especially focused on peace, human rights, and ecology (Clarke 2000, 280–287; Métraux 2010, 423–426). Because of its social (and political) activism, coupled with “a vigorous ethic and a critical stance toward contemporary culture”, SGI’s Nichiren Buddhism can be positioned within the stream of Buddhist modernism (McMahan 2009, 265).

SGI’s Buddhism was first introduced to South Africa in the early 1980s by a few independent practitioners, including some Japanese and British expatriates, and operated as a sub-chapter of SGI United Kingdom until 2001, when SGI South Africa (SGI-SA) was acknowledged by the Japanese headquarters as an independent branch and registered as a non-profit organization under South African law (SGI South Africa 2012). Since then, SGI-SA has been under the leadership of Loren Braithwaite—an Afro-American attorney who had moved to South Africa for the first democratic elections in 1993 as one of the organizers of the Free Elections Fund—and currently claims just under 1,000 followers, the majority of whom are black, coloured, and Indian/Asian South Africans.⁴ SGI-SA’s national center is in Johannesburg, but there are branches in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Mpumalanga.

The main religious activities (chanting, gongyō, study of the Gosho, discussion meetings) are carried out in private homes or at larger meetings organized by districts and chapters, during which newsletters and study materials are made available to members. The organization promotes various social activities in the main urban centers, including exhibitions on environmental protection (“Seeds of Change” in 2002; “Seeds of Hope” in 2011) and human rights (“Gandhi, King, Ikeda: A Legacy of Building Peace” in 2004) as well as public talks (the series “Hope Talks”) with the participation of high-profile guests. SGI-SA’s most committed members have promoted outreach activities in some of the urban townships, such as the “Origami for Africa” program for school children in Westbank (Cape Town). These forms of social engagement and the participation in public celebrations on national holidays have provided SGI-SA with the opportunity to introduce Buddhism to a significant number of black, coloured, and Indian/Asian South Africans.⁵

Foguangshan South Africa

Foguangshan (“Buddha’s Light Mountain”) is a new religious movement established in Taiwan in 1967 by the Chinese Buddhist Master Xingyun (b. 1927). From its huge headquarters in Southern Taiwan, it currently operates about 300 centers worldwide and claims a membership of several million, including about 1,300 monastics. Foguangshan is an expression of “Humanistic Buddhism” (Ch. renjian fojiao), a stream of Buddhist modernism tracing back to the work of the Chinese reformers Taixu (1889–1947) and Yinshun (1906–2005), according to whom Buddhists should be concerned with this world and actively participate in society. Master Xingyun’s Buddhism is a combination of the Pure Land and Chan traditions, with a strong emphasis on the need to ‘build’ the Pure Land in this world, through the action of both monastics and laypeople, and on Chan meditation as something that “must be integrated into everyday living if it is to have any relevance” (Chandler 2004, 45–46, 78–117).

Foguangshan was introduced to South Africa in the early 1990s after the city of Bronkhorstspruit near Pretoria donated a large plot of land to this Buddhist organization to attract Taiwanese business ventures. In 1993, the local headquarters were erected, which coordinate all sub-branches in South Africa (Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Bloemfontein, Ladybrand, Newcastle), and, in 2005, the Nanhua Temple, a large complex including the Main Hall as well as the Avalokiteśvara (Ch. Guanyin) and Kṣitigarbha (Ch. Dizang) shrines, was inaugurated on the same site.

Foguangshan South Africa is under the leadership of the abbot of the Nanhua Temple, Ven. Huifang, who manages religious and organizational matters with the support of the small community of monastics residing at the temple (seven nuns and four monks). Most of the ca. 1,000 lay members belong to the “Buddha’s Light International Association” (BLIA), the lay arm of Foguangshan that was recognized in 2003 as an NGO by the United Nations and operates at local sub-branches. Foguangshan’s membership in South Africa consists mainly of Taiwanese and Chinese immigrants (ca. 95%, according to internal sources), who also provide most of the donations to the organization. A small minority of South Africans and international members participate in the BLIA’s activities.

The main religious practices are chanting in Chinese, which is performed daily at the Samantabhadra (Ch. Puxian) Shrine within the headquarters (and on Sundays during the “Dharma function”, which mainly consists of chanting sutras, at the Guanyin Shrine) and focuses on texts such as the Amitabha Sutra and the Diamond Sutra, shorter verses, and the recitation of the Buddha’s name as well as Chan meditation, which is practised individually by nuns and monks. Meditation retreats for beginners and intermediate learners are offered at the main temple and other sub-branches, which attract a wide audience and are usually booked out several months in advance.

Monastics and laypeople are engaged in various social activities financed by local donations and exceptionally by the Taiwanese headquarters. Among these, the “Nanhua Academy Computer Class”, established in 2010, offers a three-month training program to prepare for an online examination certified by Microsoft and has graduated several thousand students mainly coming from rural Gauteng. Within the “Arts Performing Group”, founded in 2013, young female students are trained in Chinese and African traditional dance, drumming, and singing. Since 2014, the Nanhua Temple operates a Scouts Group with a membership of a few hundred children coming especially from the townships, promotes a wheelchair donation program, and has recently launched an after-school care program in a nearby school. Other activities at the crossroads between outreach and tourism include the Chinese New Year festival, which has become a mass event with the participation of thousands of non-members, and the baby-blessing ceremonies for non-members.

East Asian Buddhism in South Africa and Clasquin-Johnson’s six themes

The three case studies reveal the interplay of Buddhism with a cross-section of post-Apartheid South African society that is broader than that encompassed by Clasquin-Johnson’s mainstream South African Buddhism. Therefore, it is of considerable interest to ascertain the extent to which his interpretive framework can contribute to the comparative analysis of the Dharma Centre, SGI-SA, and Foguangshan. In the following, I explore the relevance of his six themes to the three groups.

Emphasis on lay practice

In his discussion of the six themes in the development of South African Buddhism, Clasquin-Johnson (1999, 93) maintains that the first theme, emphasis on lay practice, plays a pivotal role. The Dharma Centre reflects this feature, as it is based on the practice of meditation (and chanting) in retreat/meditation centers by a community of lay practitioners under the guidance of a lay master. Lay practice strongly contributes to SGI’s religious identity, especially after the excommunication by Nichiren Shōshū in 1991 over issues of religious authority. A compilation on “The Nichiren Shoshu Priesthood Issue in South Africa” (SGI South Africa 2009) is still among the reading materials made available by SGI-SA to members, in which Nichiren Shōshū’s priests are harshly criticized. Lay members play an important role in Foguangshan, as shown by the activities of the BLIA at various local branches, but the leadership and the core of ritual life rest upon the abbot and the small community of Taiwanese monastics.

Critical evaluation of women’s roles

Clasquin-Johnson (1999, 94) argues that, although the issue of gender equality is less emphasized, its relevance is reflected by the discussions on this topic within various groups and by the presence of some women among the most prominent teachers. The Dharma Centre largely confirms these observations, since its leader is a woman who was involved in the construction of the new laws in 2006 governing civil unions and is certified to officiate at heterosexual and same sex civil union ceremonies, but otherwise the sensitivity toward gender issues mainly remains in the background of the Buddhist practice. Incidentally, most of the teachers and committee members are male, which also reflects the fact that most of the hardcore practitioners are male. Following a well-established pattern in Taiwan and other countries (cf. Chandler 2004, 83–85), most of Foguangshan’s monastics in South Africa are nuns, who also play key roles in the administration (although this branch has always been led by abbots) and women occupy leading positions within the BLIA. The majority of SGI-SA members (as is common in SGI) are female; not only is the general director a woman, but attention is also consistently paid to the empowerment of South African women with the pledge against discrimination in SGI’s Charter. However, this emphasis is partially undermined by a gendered division of labor, given men’s, women’s, young men’s, and young women’s divisions, that to some extent paradoxically perpetuates the gender bias in traditional Japanese culture.

Application of democratic principles

Clasquin-Johnson (1999, 95) assigns to this theme a significant role in the development of South African Buddhism, as shown especially by the widespread system of committees. Once again, these dynamics are well exemplified by the case of the Dharma Centre with its Committee and annual general meeting where Committee members can make their voices heard. As suggested by Clasquin-Johnson (1999, 95), there are instances in mainstream South African Buddhism where actual authority is exercised by the founding members—in this case by Heila Downey regarding matters of religious practice—but local branches of the Dharma Centre enjoy a large degree of freedom, provided the basic practices remain unchanged. Understandably, such adhesion to democratic principles is suspended within the context of silent retreats, where all activities are strictly supervised by the Master and the other teachers.

Foguangshan South Africa reflects the hierarchical structure of the mother organization (Laliberté 2005, 67–74), with a leadership of monastics who also supervise the activities of the BLIA. However, due to the low number of nuns and monks, local chapters are generally operated by lay members of the BLIA.

As elsewhere within SGI (cf. Dobbelaere 2006, 108; Welsch 2018, 35–36), while the decentralized practice within groups may project the image of a horizontal organization, SGI-SA reflects the rigid hierarchy of this new religious movement under the charismatic leadership of Ikeda. The South African branch may enjoy some degree of autonomy but is still under the supervision of the Japanese and regional headquarters, which can also intervene to restrict members’ liberties (e.g. by prohibiting them to volunteer for interviews related to academic research). It is also worth mentioning that the current general director has been uninterruptedly in office since 2001.

Close linkage to Western psychology

Within the Dharma Centre, the psychologization of Buddhism is not emphasized by the leaders. An interest in the mental and psychological aspects of meditation is noticeable among a few members, but there are also those who lament a tendency to psychologize Buddhism among “people in the West” and see the need to distinguish clearly the scope of meditation (“making sense of the bigger questions”) from that of psychology (“easing the suffering”).⁶ The impact of a psychologized view of Buddhism seems very weak in both Foguangshan and SGI-SA, whose members are encouraged to focus on the orthodox interpretations of Buddhism promoted by the institutions.

Conceptualization of a socially engaged Buddhism

Clasquin-Johnson (1999, 95–96) observes that social engagement is far less developed in South African than in Western Buddhism. The Dharma Centre was actually more oriented toward social engagement in the 1990s than it is now, with leaders and members participating as monitors for the International Electoral Commission in the first democratic elections, training as counselors for the Truth and Reconciliation hearings (cf. Wratten 2000, 458–459), and launching the “Mindfulness Awareness in Action” (MAIA) program within the prison system of the Western Cape to teach meditation to groups of inmates (which was suspended after some years). The Master and various members still engage in some form of social work, but on an individual basis and not as part of the Dharma Centre.

Foguangshan, too, started a prison project in 1996 involving meditation classes, counselling, and the distribution of books, which was discontinued in 2015 due to the shortage of teachers. Consistent with its identity as ‘Humanistic Buddhism’, Foguangshan promotes, however, a wide range of educational and social welfare activities, including the aforementioned Nanhua Academy Computer Class, the Arts Performing Group, the Nanhua Scouts Group, and charitable work. Local centers are also engaged in activities such as wheelchair, money, and blanket donations as well as computer training through the work of the BLIA’s volunteers.

In line with SGI’s overall approach, SGI-SA’s social engagement revolves almost exclusively around educational activities such as exhibitions on peace and human rights meant to promote a gradual social change. One of the consequences of the focus on inner transformation is, however, that SGI-SA’s social engagement has a low impact on the immediate needs of deprived South Africans.

Creation of a non-sectarian tradition

Clasquin-Johnson (1999, 96) argues that this theme was quite popular in the 1970s but has lost its strength. The Dharma Centre took part in forms of inter-Buddhist cooperation until the early 2000s, when some leaders of other groups expressed, seemingly, concern about the risk of ‘contaminating’ their practices. Although its relationships with other South African Buddhists remain good, the Dharma Centre does not presently promote any exchanges with other traditions or the establishment of anything resembling a ‘South African Buddhist federation’. A similar lack of interactions with other Buddhist groups is found in Foguangshan and SGI-SA, which not only have a strong sectarian identity but also place considerable emphasis on their own ‘orthodox’ interpretations of Buddhism (cf. Chandler 2004, 140; Reinke 2018; McLaughlin 2018, 82, 93). For SGI, this is also a legacy of the exclusivist tendencies within Nichiren Buddhism and the post-war shakubuku campaign.

Four further themes for the comparative study of East Asian Buddhism in South Africa

The analysis of the fieldwork data regarding the Dharma Centre, SGI-SA, and Foguangshan indicates that there are at least four more themes that can be meaningfully applied to the comparative study of East Asian Buddhism in South Africa. These refer to the interactions with local religions, proselytization, hybridization, and the promise of worldly benefits, which I explore in the following sub-sections.

Interactions with local religions

The first additional theme emerging from the analysis of the three groups concerns their relationship with local religions. Although the Dharma Centre had meaningful interactions with Unitarians, Christians, and Muslims in the early years, it is no longer engaged in these activities, also because, seemingly, of the indifference shown by most local churches in the Robertson area.

Master Xingyun’s belief that Buddhism is “the most profound expression of religious faith” (Chandler 2004, 141–142) has not prevented Foguangshan from participating in various interreligious activities, although this area is not among its main priorities in South Africa. Attempts to invite Christian leaders to the Nanhua Temple in the past years have been not very successful, because mainstream churches were not particularly interested in a dialogue with a religious minority group. However, interfaith cooperation can take place ‘in the field’ within the context of specific social welfare activities organized by the temple or local BLIA centers. Pockets of local fundamentalism have shown their hostility to this ‘foreign’ religion, including the extreme right-wing Boeremag group (responsible for a bomb explosion at the Nanhua Temple in 2002) and occasional vandals (e.g. some years ago the writing “I love God” was found on one of the pillars at the temple’s main entrance).⁷

SGI-SA has been involved in some interreligious activities, such as the “Freedom Park Interfaith Committee” in Pretoria and the “Prayers for the City” organized by the “Cape Town Interfaith Initiative”. Like other outreach activities conducted by this new religious movement, these revolve around the idea and practice of kōsen rufu, the ‘wide declaration’ of the teaching of the Lotus Sutra “to enhance the value of human dignity” (SGI South Africa 2008, ix, 18, 2009, 13–14). Although SGI-SA is eager to specify that what is “widely declared and spread” is not “a single religion” but rather “a single view on the value of life”, kōsen rufu is clearly underlain by the strong belief that other religions do not have “equal power to make people happy” (ibid), which poses some limitations to the reach of its interreligious activities.

Proselytization

As far as proselytization is concerned, joining the Dharma Centre is generally a matter of choice for middle-class white people mainly interested in their own spiritual growth. The meditation retreats which are open to the public are also an opportunity for the Dharma Centre to spread Buddhism. However, within this context, Sŏn Buddhism is generally presented as a way of life, rather than as a religion, that does not enter in competition with other religions and does not necessarily require conversion.

The early activities of Foguangshan in South Africa were characterized by a heavily funded missionary program centered on the African Buddhist Seminary for aspirant monks from various parts of Africa. Although only two out of about 300 of these novices were eventually ordained, many keep their connections with the temple. Since the seminary was closed in 2010, Foguangshan has turned to low-profile proselytization within the context of other outreach activities (e.g. introductions to Buddhist ‘philosophy’ or meditation are provided to students at the Nanhua Academy and the Arts Performing Group), but its outreach outside the Taiwanese-Chinese community has thus far been rather modest.

A stronger commitment to spreading Buddhism in South Africa can be found in the case of SGI-SA, which has launched since the early post-Apartheid years various campaigns to increase its membership. SGI-SA’s meetings and activities are characterized by a strong missionary flavor, with frequent references to the idea of ‘kōsen-rufu for Africa’ and conversion experiences. Shakubuku is usually conducted among relatives/acquaintances or within the context of outreach activities and is supported by the system of ‘home visits’ aimed to strengthen ties with members or sympathizers and by the use of an “Intro pack”. Also thanks to a simple, not time-consuming, and inexpensive practice (chanting the daimoku) as well as to the dynamism of committed members among disadvantages communities, SGI-SA has been more effective than other Buddhist groups in reaching out to black and, secondarily, coloured and Indian/Asian South Africans, who currently make up about half of its membership.

Hybridization

As noted by Clasquin-Johnson, one major challenge for Buddhism in South Africa is whether this religion “is able to come to grips with its existence in an African context”. According to him, because of its general configuration as “a form of the emergent Western Buddhism”, Buddhism in the country has only been able to make some superficial concessions to local culture (Clasquin 2002, 161). The Dharma Centre seems to confirm this trend. Heila and Rodney Downey acknowledge that Zen in South Africa will have to “change” and “evolve”, but at present their priority is to “keep it in the traditional form” so that the next generation of teachers might rely on solid foundations to adapt it to a “South African way”. Although they have occasionally adopted a simplified approach to their teaching of meditation (e.g. within the context of the MAIA program), they still follow the Kwan Um School’s style, with no attempts to indigenize the practice of Sŏn. While concurring with Heila and Rodney Downey on the need to teach the ‘classic approach’, some of the teachers at local branches have already introduced small changes, such as less chanting and no wearing of robes during retreats.

Within Foguangshan, there are neither South African monastics nor BLIA’s lay members qualified as Dharma teachers and only a few attempts have been made to promote interactions with local culture, such as the decoration of parts of the Nanhua Temple with African motifs and the tailoring of meditation retreats for non-members (cf. Reinke 2020, 5, 11). Despite Master Xingyun’s wish that African temples should be managed by native leaders, Foguangshan South Africa, rather than “localizing”, maintains its role “as a bridge back to the Chinese cultural homeland” (Chandler 2004, 293, 300). If anything, some small indications of cultural hybridization come from the experiences of South African practitioners, such as Bokang, a young black male who combines active membership in a large African Independent Church with a strong interest in Buddhism. He not only believes that “Jesus took some of his words from the Buddha” but also finds some resonances between the Buddhist idea of rebirth and the traditional African belief that the soul “lived years before” in the ancestors. Enzokuhle, a lay member with a strong Muslim background, meditates every morning (also during Ramadhan) and tries “to apply Buddhist principles to everyday life”. He explained that Buddhism changed his attitude toward Islam (“all religions are ultimately about the search for inner peace”) and that he now simply followed a spiritual path to find happiness.

Attempts to link SGI to South African culture are customarily justified in terms of the principle of zuihō bini (adapting to local customs), which allows practitioners to follow “local customs and practices” provided that they respect “the inherent dignity and sanctity of human life” (SGI South Africa 2008, 115). However, despite smalls signs of adaptation (e.g. some Buddhist songs inspired by local music), this principle remains at the rhetorical level. In this connection, one may think of Ikeda’s slogan “The 21st century will be the century of Africa”, through which SGI’s Buddhism is presented as a key player in the transformation of the suffering Africa to a “Continent of Happiness”, starting from South Africa (SGI South Africa 2010), and the attempts to coopt Nelson Mandela’s (1918–2013) legacy by establishing a parallel between his “deep sense of mission and commitment based on a personal vow” and the practice of the bodhisattva (Ikeda 2014, 5). The aforementioned participation of SGI-SA in the Interfaith Committee at the Freedom Park, the national memorial established in Pretoria in 2004 to honor those who had sacrificed their lives for freedom, is integral to the strategy of fitting SGI into the new narrative of post-Apartheid South Africa. Some scattered indications of religious hybridization emerge from the experiences of individual practitioners, such as Likuwe, who has found a way to interlace traditional religion with Nichiren Buddhism by using the silent prayers recited at the end of the gongyō to venerate his African ancestors, and Lesedi, another black South African member and traditional storyteller, who thinks that the daimoku plays an active role in her creative process, in that it is through chanting that the songs that come to her in dreams can be instantly recollected and performed.

The promise of worldly benefits

Another relevant theme concerns the extent to which the three forms of East Asian Buddhism are seen by practitioners as capable of ensuring access to a set of worldly benefits (which may or may not be intermingled with the ideal goal of Buddhist awakening). Many of the Dharma Centre’s members revealed that one of the main benefits of the Buddhist practice is being able to find a balance in their lives. For Steve, meditation “really centers you” and, for David, it allows one “not to get caught in all that stuff” that complicates one’s daily life. Jack, although more focused on the core aspect of “letting go” (of the self) of the practice, acknowledged that it “creates more space” and carries “physical benefits”. Louis said that the Sŏn practice not only brings about a “physical shift” but also helps to release “stress, anxiety, and anger”. He was not particularly interested in Buddhism as a belief and ethical system, but he acknowledged that “the real social benefit is how you interact with people”. The ethical implications of the practice, consistent with the orientation of the Dharma Centre, were emphasized by Steve, who said that “I am learning how to be more compassionate”, and Emily, who noticed a big change in her “value judgements”.

For many Taiwanese and Chinese followers of Foguangshan, the worldly benefits related to the practice refer to the traditional blessings received from the buddhas and bodhisattvas, which contribute to a sense of security in life. This is also apparent in the sphere of funerals and memorial rites performed by monastics, which can provide solace to the bereaved through merit accumulation on behalf of the deceased. However, for members of the Taiwanese and Chinese community, the Buddhist practice can also provide access to other kinds of benefits, such as the joy of ‘making other people happy’ through social work, or the answer to the fundamental questions of life and death, as emphasized by Lin and May, respectively. For some of the South African members, meditation brings about a range of benefits already seen in the case of the Dharma Centre. For Jaco, for example, it “clears the mind and keeps you calm” and, for Sifiso, it helps you to overcome “your frustrations, stresses, and depressions”. Similarly, Rosalie found that the religious practice, besides relating her to the universal truth of Buddhism, “energizes” her and allowed her to “look at things clearly”.

As is typical within SGI, in SGI-SA, the practice of Nichiren Buddhism is consistently presented as a means for self-empowerment and the idea that one has “limitless and immense potential” (SGI South Africa 2008, 69) is often reiterated in official publications and meetings. This aspect also finds expression in the narratives of members, many of whom encountered SGI during life crises. John affirmed, for example, that “because of Nichiren Buddhism, I was able to change the course and direction of my life” and “to bring out the full potential within me”. Similarly, Leah said that through practising she was able to overcome her “fear and weaknesses”. Such self-empowerment tends to be seen as a gateway to social redemption, especially by members from socially deprived areas, such as in Elijah’s case, who was able, through SGI-SA, to overcome his alcoholism and improve his working conditions. The determination required by the Buddhist practice can also provide the framework for a work ethic that is encouraged by SGI-SA’s leaders. This is exemplified by the story of Amahle, who claimed that, through her discipline and integrity at work, cultivated through chanting, she was able to earn the esteem of her boss and to be one of the few employees that survived the restructuring of the company. For many members, such transformation goes together with the attainment of benefits such as improved family relationships and health conditions.

Conclusions

The three case studies present different features not only in terms of their practices/doctrines and organizational structure/scale, but also in terms of membership demographic. The Dharma Centre’s members are usually middle-class white South Africans. Foguangshan’s members are mostly Taiwanese and Chinese immigrants, although it would be inaccurate to categorize it as an ‘ethnic’ (in the sense of ‘traditional’ or ‘baggage’) Buddhism because of its modernized approach and the fact that many members from the People’s Republic of China have joined it in South Africa (cf. Reinke 2020).⁸ SGI-SA is, by and large, a mission-oriented group with a majority of South African converts and a minority of Japanese and international members.

The differences notwithstanding, all groups have been influenced by the Buddhist modernism shaped by a constellation of reform movements in Asia since the nineteenth century, largely as a response to Western modernity. It has been observed that this modernism is broadly characterized by features, such as “emphasis on rationality, ethics, meditation, science, creativity, activism, and increased participation by women and laity”, that have been adopted in different ways by different Buddhist traditions and schools (McMahan 2012, 173). This common ground in Buddhist modernism helps to explain some of the convergences across the case studies on the themes for comparison illustrated above.

Firstly, there is a shared emphasis on lay participation, especially in the Dharma Centre and SGI-SA, but to a lesser extent in Foguangshan (because of the monastic leadership). Such lay-oriented Buddhism is presumably the most compatible with the South African context, due to the problems posed by the requirement of celibacy—both for its substantial extraneity to indigenous culture and the predominance of Protestant Christianity. Another similarity across the three groups regards the critical evaluation of women’s roles, which is often included among the key features of Buddhist modernism. Gender equality carries some relevance to all groups, as also shown by the fact that the Dharma Centre’s and SGI-SA’s leaders are women and that nuns and lay women play key roles in Foguangshan. While this pattern of emancipation is potentially appealing to South African women living in a culture which is still significantly patriarchal, one cannot but notice some ambiguities especially in SGI-SA (e.g. the gendered division of labor) and Foguangshan (e.g. the leader has always been an abbot and the African Buddhist Seminary was for monks only). Perhaps even more apparent is the convergence of the three groups regarding the promise of mundane benefits, a feature that is consistent with the “this-worldly bent” of Buddhist modernism (McMahan 2012, 173). Irrespective of the modest size of these groups, I have shown that this kind of religious offer, ranging from self-empowerment to good health, can potentially match the needs of both middle-class and disadvantaged South Africans.

Moreover, there are three areas of convergence across the three groups that cannot be explained by reference to Buddhist modernism: the low level of hybridization, the disinterest in non-sectarian Buddhism, the weak interactions with local religions. Regarding hybridization, with its low incidence can concur factors such as the strong focus on a specific Buddhist practice, the cultural distance between East Asia and South Africa, and the relatively short history of Buddhism in the country. A rather strong sectarian identity (especially for SGI-SA and Foguangshan) also helps to explain the shared indifference toward an ecumenical form of Buddhism and the limited interactions with local religions, although the latter is constrained by a certain diffidence from mainstream South African religions. One would perhaps expect a stronger impact of Western psychological concepts within the Dharma Centre, but this aspect is not emphasized, presumably because of the Centre’s strong focus on Sŏn, which is also the case within SGI-SA and Foguangshan, probably due to their rather rigid structure that leaves little room for ‘unorthodox’ views of Buddhism.

There are also three areas of divergence across the three groups that set apart the Dharma Centre from the other two. To the hierarchical structure of SGI-SA and Foguangshan may also be related the fact that their application of democratic principles—a very sensitive topic in South Africa because of the Apartheid legacy—is much less developed than in the Dharma Centre. The second major divergence concerns proselytization, another sensitive topic, not only because a very high percentage of South Africans (ca. 74%) deem religion (mostly Christianity) important (Schoeman 2017, 2), but also because of the history of colonial religion in South Africa. Proselytization is not emphasized by the Dharma Centre but is vital for Foguangshan and even more so for SGI-SA as part of their worldwide dynamism and missionary impetus. Finally, the Dharma Centre also diverges from Foguangshan and SGI-SA in terms of social engagement. As illustrated above, although Master Heila Downey has been involved in different forms of social activism since its formative years, social engagement is not among the Dharma Centre’s priorities. This feature matches the observations on the weakness of South African engaged Buddhism made by Darrel Wratten, although it can only be partially explained in terms of the “demographic status of the small, white, middle-class, and generally conservative Buddhist community in the country” (Wratten 2000, 462), given the social engagement of several members outside the framework of the Dharma Centre. Conversely, SGI-SA and notably Foguangshan promote a wide range of activities on behalf of disadvantaged South Africans, based on a modernist view of Buddhism aimed to transform society and as part of their missionary program. Thus, the six themes highlighted by Clasquin-Johnson are largely present in the Dharma Centre, with the exception of the weaker impact of Western psychology. In addition, two of the themes—emphasis on lay practice and gender equality—are also relevant to SGI-SA and Foguangshan as part of the legacy of Buddhist modernism.

What does this comparative analysis tell us about the place of South African East Asian Buddhism within the global flows of religion? It is apparent that these dynamics confirm the role of East Asian Buddhist traditions as “carriers of globalization” (Dessì 2013, 83–97), capable of traversing “geographical and cultural space”, as suggested by Thomas Csordas, by four basic means: “missionization”, which is evident in the case of SGI-SA; “migration”, which is crucial in the case of Foguangshan; the “mobility of individuals”, which explains how Sŏn Buddhism was brought to South Africa by the Dharma Centre; “mediatization”, which is one of the main factors underlying the relative popularity of East Asian Buddhism among middle-class South Africans. It is also evident, however, that, despite their reliance on “portable practices” (Csordas 2007, 261), such as meditation and chanting, the inroads made by the three groups in South Africa have been rather modest, since they presently concern 2,000–3,000 individuals among a population of about 59 million.

An interrelated issue is the extent to which global Buddhist modernism, whose “remarkable adaptability” has been explicitly acknowledged (McMahan 2009, 18–21), can work as a ‘hybridizing’ force in the South African case. The three case studies show that strategies of adaptation have been either deliberately neglected (Dharma Centre) or weakly articulated (SGI-SA and Foguangshan) by the religious institutions. From the perspective of the theory of religion under globalization that I have illustrated elsewhere (Dessì 2017), this reveals a reluctance of these forms of Buddhism to allow local ‘updates’ to two parts of their religious systems—the “constellation of goods” (worldly or other-worldly) that they offer to their followers and, more decisively, their “structure of legitimation”, that is, the specific ways in which these goods are related to the main source of religious authority (the Buddhist Dharma) through religious practices and narratives (Dessì 2017, 29–34). Whether this reluctance is related to the fear of undermining the Buddhist message, the excessive control exercised by religious leaders and a strong sectarian identity, the need of preserving the tradition as an identity marker or problems of cultural translation, the result is that, about 40 years after the introduction of East Asian Buddhism to South Africa, its globalization is largely characterized by a one-way model centered on cultural homogenization rather than hybridization/glocalization. If anything, some scattered indications of religious experimentation emerge from the experiences of individual practitioners, but it is still unclear whether they can be interpreted as initial signs of a more substantial South-Africanization of East Asian Buddhism.

Acknowledgements

This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant (agreement No 793853). I would like to express my gratitude to Max Deeg for all his support during my stay at Cardiff University within the School of History, Archaeology and Religion (2018–2020) and to the Department of Religious Studies and colleagues at the University of Cape Town for kindly hosting me as Honorary Research Associate (2014–2020) and as Honorary Associate Professor (since 2021) in their vibrant academic environment. I wish to thank Michel Clasquin-Johnson for his invaluable feedback on parts of the manuscript, other members of the Association for the Study of Religion in Southern Africa (ASRSA) for their comments on an early draft of this paper presented at the conference in Pretoria (University of South Africa) in 2019, and Elisabetta Porcu and the anonymous reviewers of the Journal of Contemporary Religion for their valuable suggestions. I would also like to thank warmly Heila and Rodney Downey and Andy Ropes (Dharma Centre), Francesca Romana Perazzelli, Andrea Gaffé, Kayo Fusejima, Kyoko Kimura, Mary Butlin, and Cecil Plaatjies (SGI-SA), and Ven. Huifang, Ven. Miaolung, and Sipho Segubudy (Foguangshan) for facilitating my fieldwork.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ugo Dessì

Ugo Dessì is currently a FWF (Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftichen Forschung) Professorial Fellow in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria, and Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Publications on the interplay of Japanese Religions with global dynamics include Japanese Religions and Globalization (2013) and The Global Repositioning of Japanese Religions: An Integrated Approach (2017). The most recent book Religioni e globalizzazione: un’introduzione (2019) is a critical introduction to the comparative study of religion under globalization. CORRESPONDENCE: Department of Religious Studies, University of Vienna, Schenkenstraße 8-10, 1010 Vienna, Austria.

Notes

1 Black Christian Churches independent from European missions established since the late nineteenth century.

2 Concerning the use of terminology in South Africa, this article follows the context-specific conventions in using ‘white’ (lower case), ‘black’ (lower case), and ‘coloured’ (lower case, British spelling).

3 This article is about these three groups related to East Asian Buddhism and their followers and does not explore Buddhism in South Africa as an ‘informal spirituality’ (which could be the object of a separate article). As will become clear in the following, my focus on Clasquin-Johnson’s six themes and the identification of four additional themes for comparison is also a strategy to assess the extent of the (admittedly marginal) impact of Buddhism on South African society. Unless otherwise specified, the data analyzed in this article were collected during my fieldwork in South Africa (July 2018–October 2019) at the Dharma Centre, SGI South Africa, and Foguangshan South Africa. Qualitative research has mainly relied on participant observation, document search, and informal and in-depth interviews. In the case of the Dharma Centre and Foguangshan, I conducted a total of 28 semi-structured in-depth interviews with religious leaders and lay practitioners at their centers in Robertson, Cape Town, and Stanford (Dharma Centre) and Bronkhorstspruit and Johannesburg (Foguangshan). An initial sample of interviewees was identified through existing networks and desk research, then enlarged through the snowball effect. In the case of SGI South Africa, since both the SGI headquarters for Africa and local leaders did not allow in-depth interviews with members, my exploration of their ‘faith’ experiences had to rely mainly on participant observation at their center in Cape Town and an extensive number of individual narratives already published in SGI-SA internal newsletters (cf. Dessì 2020). The names of all interviewees, except for the leaders, have been anonymized.

4 This classification in ‘population groups’ remains a marker of ‘quasi-racial identity’ for most South Africans in the post-Apartheid period and is still used in the national censuses.

5 For a more detailed analysis of SGI in South Africa, see Dessì 2020.

6 Unless otherwise specified, quotes are extracted from interviews with members or from confidential/unpublished material.

7 The Boeremag (“Boer Force”) was a white paramilitary separatist group that detonated bombs in Soweto and Bronkhorstspruit in 2002; its members were arrested in the same year.

8 On the limits of the category ‘ethnic/baggage Buddhism’, see e.g. Hickey (2010) and Mitchell (2016, 207–209).