Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2000
Characteristics of Buddhism in Australia
MICHELLE SPULER
ABSTRACT Research on Buddhism in Australia has tended to focus on demographics,
ethnic identity and the migrant experience, and history. This paper uses the literature
and material from Internet sites on Australian Buddhist groups to identify characteristics
of Buddhism in Australia; it aims to both contribute to the understanding of the
growth of Buddhism in Australia and to facilitate comparison with similar studies of
American and European forms of Buddhism. New information is presented on the
number of Buddhist groups in Australia, their geographical location, and the traditions
and lineages represented. It is made apparent that more detailed information is needed,
and suggestions are made for further research in a variety of areas.
Introduction
A number of recent studies have analysed common features of the diverse
Buddhist traditions in America and Europe with the aim of de® ning uniquely
American and European forms of Buddhism (Fields, 1987; Korn® eld, 1988;
Fields, 1992: 359± 380; Schiller, 1994; Baumann, 1995a; Kantowsky, 1995; Prebish,
1995). Similar studies of other Western countries are needed to further the
understanding of the expressions of Buddhism in individual countries and to
provide information for international comparisons (Baumann, 1997b). Such
research has not yet been undertaken on Buddhism in Australia. Existing
literature focuses mainly on demographics, ethnic identity and the migrant
experience, and history.1 As will be shown in this article, the analysis of this
information provides a starting point for analysing the characteristics of Buddhism
in Australia, allowing for comparison with international studies, but it
also demonstrates the scarcity of the information available.2
Demographics
In order to understand the phenomenon of Buddhism in Australia it is useful to
begin with some demographics; however, statistics are sparse. The major source
of information is the Australian Bureau of Statistics census. In the 1996 Australian
Bureau of Statistics census, 199,812 people or 1.1% of the Australian
population identi® ed themselves as Buddhist. This represents an increase of
42.9% from the 1991 census. The real ® gure may be higher. The religion question
on the census form provides no `Buddhism’ box to be ticked; Buddhists have to
write their religion in by hand, a possible deterrent for non-English speaking
respondents. In 1996, 1,604,749 people exercised their right not to answer the
religion question (Hughes, 1997: 72). Naturally, the ® gure for Buddhists in
Australia is well below those for the major Christian denominations: Catholics
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30 M. Spuler
(4,798,950), Anglicans (3,909,324) , Uniting Church (1,334,917), Presbyterians and
Reformed (675,534), Orthodox (474,921), Baptists (295,178) and Lutherans
(249,989) . However, Buddhists are now almost numerically equal with Muslims
(200,885) ; they outnumber Pentecostals (174,720) , Jehovah’s Witnesses (83,414),
Jews (79,805), Churches of Christ (75,023), Salvation Army (74,145), and Hindus
(67,279) (Hughes, 1997).
Other available census data on Buddhists in Australia includes gender, age,
marital status, occupation, birthplace, education and income levels, and geographical
spread.3 In 1996, nine people identi® ed themselves on the census as
both Buddhist and `clergy’, that is, as people whose primary occupation consisted
in providing ªmotivation, guidance and training in religious life for the
people of a congregation, parish or communityº (Australian Bureau of Statistics,
1996). This statistic gives a grossly inaccurate picture; in 1994, there were at least
twelve monks and two nuns from various Buddhist lineages resident in Brisbane
alone (Spuler, 1994). In addition, the census classi® cation does not allow for
inclusion of Buddhist teachers for whom such work is not their primary
occupation, as is the case with many lay teachers, and possibly some monastics.
The second major source of statistical information on Australian Buddhism are
published studies of Buddhist organisations. In 1995, Humphreys and Ward
identi® ed 156 Australian Buddhist organisations and classi® ed them by tradition/
lineage and geographical location (Humphreys & Ward, 1995). In 1996,
Adam and Hughes published similar information; they identi® ed 167 organisations
(Adam & Hughes, 1996). In January 1998, I sought to update this information
by synthesising data from a number of sources. The two most useful
listings of Australia Buddhist groups proved to be the Directory of the Buddhist
Council of New South Wales and the Index of Buddhist Organisations in Australia
of the BuddhaNet. These listed 260 and 233 groups, respectively.
I combined the information provided by these two databases with additional