D. Mitra Barua's Seeding Buddhism with Multiculturalism, an ambitious and meticulously researched study of dhamma education programs at two Canadian Sri Lankan Buddhist temples in the Toronto area, represents an important contribution to the emerging literature on North American Buddhist communities and to the study of Sri Lankan Theravāda Buddhism. In contrast to recent studies of Theravāda educational practice focusing on monastic education, Barua's analysis explores educational programs aimed at transmitting Buddhist teachings and practices to the second generation of Sri Lankan Canadian Buddhists within the context of Canada's federal policy of multiculturism. Foregrounding his 2008–09 ethnographic research, Barua contextualizes these lay educational programs within the longer history of dhamma education in Sri Lanka beginning in the nineteenth century.
Barua brings to this study a unique positionality: born in Bangladesh, he received much of his predoctoral education in Sri Lanka as an ordained Sri Lankan Buddhist monk and served...
