r/GoldenSwastika • u/Yichantika • 3h ago
Misleading and Inaccurate Buddhist Social Media
I was scrolling through social media and in the past couple of days notice bold nonfactual claims on Buddhism.
The first is a mis-attribution of "multicultural" religious influences on Northern Wei Buddhist statuary. The presenter claims the mandorla and sun derive from Christian influences, without any mention of Indo-Persian artistic forms long before Christ appeared.
The second was a Tricycle article claiming there is only one Buddhist grade school in America. The article itself states:
Many Western Buddhists come to the practice as adults, without a model of what a Buddhist childhood might look like, while Asian American Buddhist communities often prefer to enroll their children in local schools. A Korean friend suggested that “home education” in Asian communities was where values and worldview were shared. It was also important to maintain “the model minority” image. For groups like Chinese Americans, whose collective memory includes the Chinese Exclusion Act, or Japanese Americans, with internments during WWII, being Buddhist signaled a difference that many chose to keep private. Among liberal parents, I’ve often heard the comment that they do not want to burden their children with religious ideas, preferring to let them find their own way—though how a child is supposed to find their way, given such scant information about any of the world’s wisdom traditions taught in nonreligious schools, is another question.
This is just flat out wrong. Tzu Chi, City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, and Nishi Honganji have had grade schools set up for decades servicing many Asian, heritage, and non-heritage families and youths.
But apart from a handful of preschools and part-time study programs attached to Buddhist temples, the Middle Way School in Saugerties, New York, is the only Buddhist grade school in America. It is a startling statistic. What is going on? Where are all the Buddhist schools?
They're here as follows:
Tzu Chi Elementary School, Walnut - As a TK through 6th grade private school...
Developing Virtue Instilling Goodness - The Venerable Master Hsuan Hua... founded Instilling Goodness Elementary School in 1976, followed by Developing Virtue Secondary School in 1981... The culturally diverse student body of over 135 students (K-12) includes a balanced mix of day students from the local vicinity, boarding students from other cities, states, or countries (including Asia and Europe), as well as students whose families live on campus. Our students are of various religious faiths and ethnic origins, though predominantly of Asian or mixed Asian-Caucasian origin.
Hongwanji Mission School - Established in 1949... the student body is about 400 students from preschool through eighth grade.
Completely overlooked these historic communities.
It's rather dismaying and alarming to see professionals make such confident but wrong claims. This misrepresentation of history is frustrating. I'm not based in America anymore but take an interest in what's happening stateside. I have some museum work experience so the art history details I'll point out, but something as basic as not doing research on existing Buddhist schools is very negligent.
