Immigrants often face considerable challenges when it comes to preserving their cultural and reli- gious teachings. D. Mitra Barua argues that the Sri Lankan Buddhist community in Toronto has main- tained its coherence and integrity not despite but because of the need for cultural adaptations. Drawing on survey data, over fifty in-depth in- terviews with temple monks, educators, parents, and children, and fieldwork conducted in Toronto and Colombo, Sri Lanka, Seeding Buddhism with Multiculturalism examines how a religious tradi- tion is transmitted from one generation to the next in a new cultural setting, and what happens during that process of transmission. Barua demonstrates that Buddhists have passed on Buddhist beliefs, attitudes, and practices to their Canadian-born youth, who in turn have constructed their own dis- tinct Buddhist identity, influenced by the individual- istic, egalitarian, and secular cultural ambience in Toronto. Through creative fieldwork and translocal analysis – taking into account migrants’ geographi- cal, cultural, and familial ties to multiple locales – this book further explains that pre-migration expe- riences often shape and determine the success or failure of intergenerational transmission. An ethnographic religious study with an un- common depth of perspective, Seeding Buddhism with Multiculturalism shows that first- and sec- ond-generation Sri Lankan Buddhists in Toronto are successfully practising a Theravāda Buddhism within a Canadian context. D. Mitra Barua is Annette and Hugh Gragg Post- doctoral Fellow in Trans-national Asian Studies at Rice University’s Chao Center for Asian Studies. 2 7 M Q U P S P R I N G 2 0 1 9 S P E C I F I C AT I O N S £Cmo8$t8: crdCt03 t8 w0.t:t98 c02t03 May 2019 -5,7a755pl7lnl575 4phi-l£ bAU1 4phi-l£ Dc1 ksni-- 6o602 -5,7a755pl7lnln7a 4Ssaiaac bAU1 4Ssaiaac Dc1 k-niaa $.9ru n B - sln66 h 6u9r931 Ss roN.031 S Cto:2ox 0g99T omot.oN.0 R E L I G I O U S S T U D I E S • A N T H R O P O L O G Y Seeding Buddhism with Multiculturalism The Transmission of Sri Lankan Buddhism in Toronto d. mitra barua How Buddhist immigrants in Toronto transmit their teachings and traditions to the next generation.