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Buddhism in the United States

The term American Buddhism can be used to describe all Buddhist groups within the United States, including Asian-American Buddhists born into the faith, who comprise the largest percentage of Buddhists in the country. American Buddhists come from many national origins and ethnicities. In 2012, U-T San Diego estimated U.S. practitioners at 1.2 million people, of whom 40% are living in Southern California. In terms of percentage, Hawaii has the most Buddhists at 8% of the population, due to its large East Asian population.

U.S. states by Buddhist population
Hawaii has the largest Buddhist population by percentage, amounting to 8% of the state's population. California follows Hawaii with 2%. Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming have a Buddhist population of 1%.

Buddhism in American Overseas territories
The following is the percentage of Buddhists in the U.S. territories as of 2010:

Types of Buddhism in the United States
Buddhist American scholar Charles Prebish states there are three broad types of American Buddhism:
 * 1) The oldest and largest of these is "immigrant" or "ethnic Buddhism", those Buddhist traditions that came to America with immigrants who were already practitioners and that largely remained with those immigrants and their descendants.
 * 2) The next oldest and arguably the most visible group Prebish refers to as "import Buddhists", because they came to America largely in response to interested American converts who sought them out, either by going abroad or by supporting foreign teachers; this is sometimes also called "elite Buddhism" because its practitioners, especially early ones, tended to come from social elites.
 * 3) A trend in Buddhism is "export" or "evangelical Buddhist" groups based in another country who actively recruit members in the US from various backgrounds. Modern Buddhism is not just an American phenomenon.

This typology has been the subject of debate among scholars such as Wakoh Shannon Hickey, Chenxing Han, Scott Mitchell, Natalie Quli, and others who have noted the problematic nature of equating "ethnic" Buddhists with Asian immigrants which elides the ethnicity or cultural specificity of white American Buddhists.

Immigrant Buddhism
Buddhism was introduced into the US by Asian immigrants in the 19th century, when significant numbers of immigrants from East Asia began to arrive in the New World. In the United States, immigrants from China entered around 1820, but began to arrive in large numbers following the 1849 California Gold Rush.

Immigrant Buddhist congregations in North America are as diverse as the different peoples of Asian Buddhist extraction who settled there. The US is home to Sri Lankan Buddhists, Chinese Buddhists, Japanese Buddhists, Korean Buddhists, Thai Buddhists, Cambodian Buddhists, Vietnamese Buddhists and Buddhists with family backgrounds in most Buddhist countries and regions. The Immigration Act of 1965 increased the number of immigrants arriving from China, Vietnam and the Theravada-practicing countries of Southeast Asia.

Chinese immigration
The first Buddhist temple in America was built in 1853 in San Francisco by the Sze Yap Company, a Chinese American fraternal society. Another society, the Ning Yeong Company, built a second in 1854; by 1875, there were eight temples, and by 1900 approximately 400 Chinese temples on the west coast of the United States, most of them containing some Buddhist elements. Unfortunately a casualty of racism, these temples were often the subject of suspicion and ignorance by the rest of the population, and were dismissively called joss houses.

Japanese and Korean immigration
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 curtailed growth of the Chinese American population, but large-scale immigration from Japan began in the late 1880s and from Korea around 1903. In both cases, immigration was at first primarily to Hawai‘i. Populations from other Asian Buddhist countries followed, and in each case, the new communities established Buddhist temples and organizations. For instance, the first sanctioned Japanese temple in Hawai‘i, the Hāmākua Bukkyo Kaido (later renamed as the Hāmākua Jodo Mission), was built in 1896 by the Jōdo-shū school under the guidance of Reverend Gakuo Okabe. In 1898, Japanese missionaries and immigrants established a Young Men's Buddhist Association, and the Rev. Sōryū Kagahi was dispatched from Japan to be the first Buddhist missionary to Hawai‘i. The first Japanese Buddhist temple in the continental U.S. was built in San Francisco in 1899, and the first in Canada was built at the Ishikawa Hotel in Vancouver in 1905. The first Buddhist clergy to take up residence in the continental U.S. were Shuye Sonoda and Kakuryo Nishimjima, missionaries from Japan who arrived in 1899.

Buddhist Churches of America
The Buddhist Churches of America and the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii are immigrant Buddhist organizations in the United States. The BCA is an affiliate of Japan's Nishi Hongwanji, a sect of Jōdo Shinshū, which is, in turn, a form of Pure Land Buddhism. Tracing its roots to the Young Men's Buddhist Association founded in San Francisco at the end of the 19th century and the Buddhist Mission of North America founded in 1899, it took its current form in 1944. All of the Buddhist Mission's leadership, along with almost the entire Japanese American population, had been interned during World War II. The name Buddhist Churches of America was adopted at Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah; the word "church" was used similar to a Christian house of worship. After internment ended, some members returned to the West Coast and revitalized churches there, while a number of others moved to the Midwest and built new churches. During the 1960s and 1970s, the BCA was in a growth phase and was very successful at fund-raising. It also published two periodicals, one in Japanese and one in English. However, since 1980, BCA membership declined. The 36 temples in the state of Hawaii of the Honpa Hongwanji Mission have a similar history.

While a majority of the Buddhist Churches of America's membership are ethnically Japanese, some members have non-Asian backgrounds. Thus, it has limited aspects of export Buddhism. As involvement by its ethnic community declined, internal discussions advocated attracting the broader public.

Nichiren: Soka Gakkai International
Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is perhaps the most successful of Japan's new religious movements that grew around the world after the end of World War II. Soka Gakkai, which means "Value Creation Society", is one of three sects of Nichiren Buddhism that came to the United States during the 20th century. The SGI expanded rapidly in the US, attracting non-Asian minority converts, chiefly African Americans and Latino, as well as the support of celebrities, such as Tina Turner, Herbie Hancock, and Orlando Bloom. Because of a rift with Nichiren Shōshū in 1991, the SGI has no priests of its own. Its main religious practice is chanting the mantra Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō and sections of the Lotus Sutra. Unlike schools such as Zen, Vipassanā, and Tibetan Buddhism, Soka Gakkai Buddhists do not practice meditative techniques other than chanting. An SGI YouTube series called "Buddhist in America" has over a quarter million views in total as of 2015.

Taiwanese Buddhism
Another US Buddhist institution is Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, California. Hsi Lai is the American headquarters of Fo Guang Shan, a modern Buddhist group in Taiwan. Hsi Lai was built in 1988 at a cost of $10 million and is often described as the largest Buddhist temple in the Western hemisphere. Although it caters primarily to Chinese Americans, it also has regular services and outreach programs in English.

Import Buddhism
While Asian immigrants were arriving, some American intellectuals examined Buddhism, based primarily on information from British colonies in India and East Asia.

In the last century, numbers of Asian Buddhist masters and teachers have immigrated to the U.S. in order to propagate their beliefs and practices. Most have belonged to three major Buddhist traditions or cultures: Zen, Tibetan, and Theravadan.

Early translations
The Englishmen William Jones and Charles Wilkins translated Sanskrit texts into English. The American Transcendentalists and associated persons, in particular Henry David Thoreau took an interest in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. In 1844, The Dial, a small literary publication edited by Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, published an English version of a portion of the Lotus Sutra; it had been translated by Dial business manager Elizabeth Palmer Peabody from a French version recently completed by Eugène Burnouf. His Indian readings may have influenced his later experiments in simple living: at one point in Walden Thoreau wrote: "I realized what the Orientals meant by contemplation and the forsaking of works." The poet Walt Whitman also admitted to an influence of Indian religion on his writings.

Theosophical Society
An early American to publicly convert to Buddhism was Henry Steel Olcott. Olcott, a former U.S. army colonel during the Civil War, had grown interested in reports of supernatural phenomena that were popular in the late 19th century. In 1875, he, Helena Blavatsky, and William Quan Judge founded the Theosophical Society, dedicated to the study of the occult and influenced by Hindu and Buddhist scriptures. The leaders claimed to believe that they were in contact, via visions and messages, with a secret order of adepts called the "Himalayan Brotherhood" or "the Masters". In 1879, Olcott and Blavatsky traveled to India and in 1880, to Sri Lanka, where they were met enthusiastically by local Buddhists, who saw them as allies against an aggressive Christian missionary movement. On May 25, Olcott and Blavatsky took the pancasila vows of a lay Buddhist before a monk and a large crowd. Although most of the Theosophists appear to have counted themselves as Buddhists, they held idiosyncratic beliefs that separated them from known Buddhist traditions; only Olcott was enthusiastic about following mainstream Buddhism. He returned twice to Sri Lanka, where he promoted Buddhist education, and visited Japan and Burma. Olcott authored a Buddhist Catechism, stating his view of the basic tenets of the religion.

Paul Carus
Several publications increased knowledge of Buddhism in 19th-century America. In 1879, Edwin Arnold, an English aristocrat, published The Light of Asia, an epic poem he had written about the life and teachings of the Buddha, expounded with much wealth of local color and not a little felicity of versification. The book became immensely popular in the United States, going through eighty editions and selling more than 500,000 copies. Paul Carus, a German American philosopher and theologian, was at work on a more scholarly prose treatment of the same subject. Carus was the director of Open Court Publishing Company, an academic publisher specializing in philosophy, science, and religion, and editor of The Monist, a journal with a similar focus, both based in La Salle, Illinois. In 1894, Carus published The Gospel of Buddha, compiled from a variety of Asian texts which, true to its name, presented the Buddha's story in a form resembling the Christian Gospels.

Early spread
In 1887, The Buddhist Ray appeared, a Santa Cruz, California-based magazine published and edited by Phillangi Dasa, born Herman Carl (or Carl Herman) Veetering (or Vettering), a recluse about whom little is known. The Ray's tone was "ironic, light, saucy, self-assured ... one-hundred-percent American Buddhist". It ceased publication in 1894.

In 1893, the Parliament of the World's Religions hosted a number of Buddhist delegates, including the Zen master Soyen Shaku and the Sri Lankan Buddhist revivalist Anagarika Dharmapala. Shaku contrasted the idea of karma as a principle of causality with the "Prime Mover" nature of the Christian God, while Dharmapala challenged the idea of Christianity as a "universal religion" by comparing it to the more ancient and "universal" teachings of the Buddha.

In 1900 six white San Franciscans, working with Japanese Jodo Shinshu missionaries, established the Dharma Sangha of Buddha and published a bimonthly magazine, The Light of Dharma. In Illinois, Paul Carus wrote more books about Buddhism and set portions of Buddhist scripture to Western classical music.

Dwight Goddard
One American who attempted to establish an American Buddhist movement was Dwight Goddard (1861–1939). Goddard was a Christian missionary to China when he first came in contact with Buddhism. In 1928, he spent a year living at a Zen monastery in Japan. In 1934, he founded "The Followers of Buddha, an American Brotherhood", with the goal of applying the traditional monastic structure of Buddhism more strictly than Senzaki and Sokei-an. The group was largely unsuccessful: no Americans were recruited to join as monks and attempts failed to attract a Chinese Chan (Zen) master to come to the United States. However, Goddard's efforts as an author and publisher bore considerable fruit. In 1930, he began publishing ZEN: A Buddhist Magazine. In 1932, he collaborated with D. T. Suzuki on a translation of the Lankavatara Sutra. That same year, he published the first edition of A Buddhist Bible, an anthology of Buddhist scriptures focusing on those used in Chinese and Japanese Zen.

Japanese Rinzai
Zen was introduced to the United States by Japanese priests who were sent to serve local immigrant groups. A small group also came to study the American culture and way of life.

Early Rinzai-teachers
In 1893, Soyen Shaku was invited to speak at the Parliament of the World's Religions held in Chicago. During his talks, Shaku he challenged his mostly Christian audience's notions of religion and presented Zen Buddhism as rational, nontheistic, and compatible with modern science. In 1905, Shaku was invited to stay in the United States by a wealthy American couple. He lived for nine months near San Francisco, where he established a small zendo in the Alexander and Ida Russell home and gave regular zazen lessons, making him the first Zen Buddhist priest to teach in North America.

Shaku was followed by Nyogen Senzaki, a young monk from Shaku's home temple in Japan. Senzaki briefly worked for the Russells and then as a hotel porter, manager and eventually, owner. In 1922 Senzaki rented a hall and gave an English talk on a paper by Shaku; his periodic talks at different locations became known as the "floating zendo". Senzaki established an itinerant sitting hall from San Francisco to Los Angeles in California, where he taught until his death in 1958.

Sokatsu Shaku, one of Shaku's senior students, arrived in late 1906, founding a Zen meditation center called Ryomokyo-kai. One of his disciples, Shigetsu Sasaki, better known under his monastic name Sokei-an, came to New York to teach. In 1931, his small group incorporated as the Buddhist Society of America, later renamed the First Zen Institute of America. By the late 1930s, one of his most active supporters was Ruth Fuller Everett, an American socialite and the mother-in-law of Alan Watts. Shortly before Sokei-an's death in 1945, he and Everett would wed, at which point she took the name Ruth Fuller Sasaki.

D.T. Suzuki
D.T. Suzuki had a great literary impact. Through English language essays and books, such as Essays in Zen Buddhism (1927), he became a visible expositor of Zen Buddhism and its unofficial ambassador to Western readers. In 1951, Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki returned to the United States to take a visiting professorship at Columbia University, where his open lectures attracted many members of the literary, artistic, and cultural elite.

Beat Zen
In the mid-1950s, writers associated with the Beat Generation took a serious interest in Zen, including Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Kenneth Rexroth, which increased its visibility. Prior to that, Philip Whalen had interest as early as 1946, and D. T. Suzuki began lecturing on Buddhism at Columbia in 1950. By 1958, anticipating Kerouac's publication of The Dharma Bums by three months, Time magazine said, "Zen Buddhism is growing more chic by the minute."

Contemporary Rinzai
Contemporary Rinzai Zen teachers in United States have included Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi, Eido Tai Shimano Roshi, and Omori Sogen Roshi (d. 1994). Sasaki founded the Mount Baldy Zen Center and its branches after coming to Los Angeles from Japan in 1962. One of his students is the Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen. Eido Roshi founded Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-ji, a training center in New York state. Omori Roshi founded Daihonzan Chozen-ji, the first Rinzai headquarters temple established outside Japan, in Honolulu; under his students Tenshin Tanouye Roshi and Dogen Hosokawa Roshi and their dharma heirs, several other training centers were established including Daiyuzenji in Chicago and Korinji in Wisconsin.

In 1998 Sherry Chayat, born in Brooklyn, became the first American woman to receive transmission in the Rinzai school of Buddhism.

Soyu Matsuoka
In the 1930s Soyu Matsuoka-roshi was sent to America by Sōtōshū, to establish the Sōtō Zen tradition in the United States. He established the Chicago Buddhist Temple in 1949. Matsuoka-roshi also served as superintendent and abbot of the Long Beach Zen Buddhist Temple and Zen Center. He relocated from Chicago to establish a temple at Long Beach in 1971 after leaving the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago to his dharma heir Kongo Richard Langlois, Roshi. He returned to Chicago in 1995, where he died in 1998.

Shunryu Suzuki
Sōtō Zen priest Shunryu Suzuki (no relation to D.T. Suzuki), who was the son of a Sōtō priest, was sent to San Francisco in the late 1950s on a three-year temporary assignment to care for an established Japanese congregation at the Sōtō temple, Soko-ji. Suzuki also taught zazen or sitting meditation which soon attracted American students and "beatniks", who formed a core of students who in 1962 would create the San Francisco Zen Center and its eventual network of highly influential Zen centers across the country, including the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the first Buddhist monastery in the Western world. He provided innovation and creativity during San Francisco's countercultural movement of the 1960s but he died in 1971. His low-key teaching style was described in the popular book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, a compilation of his talks.

Tozen Akiyama
Ordained in 1974 in Japan by Tosui Ohta, came to the United States in 1983, initially posted to Zenshuji in Los Angeles. In 1985 he became the abbot of Milwaukee Zen Center, which he led and developed until 2000. He has three dharma heirs: Jisho Warner in California, abiding teacher of Stone Creek Zen Center; Tonen Sara O'Connor in Wisconsin, former head priest of Milwaukee Zen Center; and Toshu Neatrour in Idaho.

White Plum Sangha
Taizan Maezumi arrived as a young priest to serve at Zenshuji, the North American Sōtō sect headquarters in Los Angeles, in 1956. Maezumi received dharma transmission (shiho) from Baian Hakujun Kuroda, his father and high-ranked Sōtō priest, in 1955. By the mid-1960s he had formed a regular zazen group. In 1967, he and his supporters founded the Zen Center of Los Angeles. Further, he received teaching permission (inka) from Koryu Osaka – a Rinzai teacher – and from Yasutani Hakuun of the Sanbo Kyodan. Maezumi, in turn, had several American dharma heirs, such as Bernie Glassman, John Daido Loori, Charlotte Joko Beck, William Nyogen Yeo, and Dennis Genpo Merzel. His successors and their network of centers became the White Plum Sangha. In 2006 Merle Kodo Boyd, born in Texas, became the first African-American woman ever to receive Dharma transmission in Zen Buddhism.

Sanbo Kyodan
Sanbo Kyodan is a contemporary Japanese Zen lineage which had an impact in the West disproportionate to its size in Japan. It is rooted in the reformist teachings of Harada Daiun Sogaku (1871–1961) and his disciple Yasutani Hakuun (1885–1971), who argued that the existing Zen institutions of Japan (Sōtō and Rinzai sects) had become complacent and were generally unable to convey real Dharma.

Philip Kapleau
Sanbo Kyodan's first American member was Philip Kapleau, who first traveled to Japan in 1945 as a court reporter for the war crimes trials. In 1953, he returned to Japan, where he met with Nakagawa Soen, a protégé of Nyogen Senzaki. In 1965, he published a book, The Three Pillars of Zen, which recorded a set of talks by Yasutani outlining his approach to practice, along with transcripts of dokusan interviews and some additional texts. In 1965 Kapleau returned to America and, in 1966, established the Rochester Zen Center in Rochester, New York. In 1967, Kapleau had a falling-out with Yasutani over Kapleau's moves to Americanize his temple, after which it became independent of Sanbo Kyodan. One of Kapleau's early disciples was Toni Packer, who left Rochester in 1981 to found a nonsectarian meditation center, not specifically Buddhist or Zen.

Robert Aitken
Robert Aitken was introduced to Zen as a prisoner in Japan during World War II. After returning to the United States, he studied with Nyogen Senzaki in Los Angeles in the early 1950s. In 1959, while still a Zen student, he founded the Diamond Sangha, a zendo in Honolulu, Hawaii. Aitken became a dharma heir of Yamada's, authored more than ten books, and developed the Diamond Sangha into an international network with temples in the United States, Argentina, Germany, and Australia. In 1995, he and his organization split with Sanbo Kyodan in response to reorganization of the latter following Yamada's death. The Pacific Zen Institute led by John Tarrant, Aitken's first Dharma successor, continues as an independent Zen line.

Chinese Chán
There are also Zen teachers of Chinese Chán, Korean Seon, and Vietnamese Thien.

Hsuan Hua

In 1962, Hsuan Hua moved to San Francisco's Chinatown, where, in addition to Zen, he taught Chinese Pure Land, Tiantai, Vinaya, and Vajrayana Buddhism. Initially, his students were mostly westerners, but he eventually attracted a range of followers.

Sheng-yen
Sheng-yen first visited the United States in 1978 under the sponsorship of the Buddhist Association of the United States, an organization of Chinese American Buddhists. In 1980, he founded the Chán Meditation Society in Queens, New York. In 1985, he founded the Chung-hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies in Taiwan, which sponsors Chinese Zen activities in the United States.

Korean Seon
Seung Sahn was a temple abbot in Seoul. After living in Hong Kong and Japan, he moved to the US in 1972 (not speaking any English) to establish the Kwan Um School of Zen. Shortly after arriving in Providence, he attracted students and founded the Providence Zen Center. The Kwan Um School has more than 100 Zen centers on six continents.

Another Korean Zen teacher, Samu Sunim, founded Toronto's Zen Buddhist Temple in 1971. He is head of the Buddhist Society for Compassionate Wisdom, which has temples in Ann Arbor, Chicago, Mexico City, and New York City.

Hye Am (1884–1985) brought lineage Dharma to the United States. Hye Am's Dharma successor, Myo Vong founded the Western Son Academy (1976), and his Korean disciple, Pohwa Sunim, founded World Zen Fellowship (1994) which includes various Zen centers in the United States, such as the Potomac Zen Sangha, the Patriarchal Zen Society and the Baltimore Zen Center.

Recently, many Korean Buddhist monks have come to the United States to spread the Dharma. They are establishing temples and zen (Korean, 'Seon') centers all around the United States. For example, Hyeonho established the Goryosah Temple in Los Angeles in 1979, and Muil Woohak founded the Budzen Center in New York.

Vietnamese Thien
Vietnamese Zen (Thiền) teachers in America include Thích Thiên-Ân and Thích Nhất Hạnh. Thích Thiên-Ân came to America in 1966 as a visiting professor at UCLA and taught traditional Thiền meditation.

Thích Nhất Hạnh
Thích Nhất Hạnh was a monk in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. In 1966, he left Vietnam in exile and founded the Plum Village Monastery in France. In his books and talks, Thích Nhất Hạnh emphasizes mindfulness (sati) as the most important practice in daily life. His monastic students live and practice at three centers in the United States: Deer Park Monastery in Escondido, California, Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush, New York, and Magnolia Grove Monastery in Batesville, Mississippi.

Tibetan Buddhism
Perhaps the most widely visible Buddhist leader in the world is Tenzin Gyatso, the current Dalai Lama, who first visited the United States in 1979. As the exiled political leader of Tibet, he has become a popular cause célèbre, attracting celebrity religious followers such as Richard Gere and Adam Yauch. His early life was depicted in Hollywood films such as Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet. An early Western-born Tibetan Buddhist monk was Robert A. F. Thurman, now an academic supporter of the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama maintains a North American headquarters in Ithaca, New York.

The Dalai Lama's family has strong ties to America. His brother Thubten Norbu fled China after being asked to assassinate his brother. He was himself a Lama, the Takster Rinpoche, and an abbot of the Kumbum Monastery in Tibet's Amdo region. He settled in Bloomington, Indiana, where he later founded the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center and Kumbum Chamtse Ling Temple. Since the death of the Takster Rinpoche it has served as a Kumbum of the West, with the current Arija Rinpochere serving as its leader.

Dilowa Gegen (Diluu Khudagt) was the first lama to immigrate to the United States in 1949 as a political refugee and joined Owen Lattimore's Mongolia Project. He was born in Tudevtei, Zavkhan, Mongolia and was one of the leading figures in declaration of independence of Mongolia. He was exiled from Mongolia, the reason remains unrevealed to this day. After arriving in the US, he joined Johns Hopkins University and founded a monastery in New Jersey.

The first Tibetan Buddhist lama to have American students was Geshe Ngawang Wangyal, a Kalmyk-Mongolian of the Gelug lineage, who came to the United States in 1955 and founded the "Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America" in New Jersey in 1958. Among his students were the future western scholars Robert Thurman, Jeffrey Hopkins, Alexander Berzin and Anne C. Klein. Other early arrivals included Dezhung Rinpoche, a Sakya lama who settled in Seattle, in 1960, and Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, the first Nyingma teacher in America, who arrived in the US in 1968 and established the "Tibetan Nyingma Meditation Center" in Berkeley, California, in 1969.

A well known Tibetan Buddhist lama to live in the United States was Chögyam Trungpa. Trungpa, part of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, moved to England in 1963, founded a temple in Scotland, and then relocated to Barnet, Vermont, and then Boulder, Colorado, by 1970. He established what he named Dharmadhatu meditation centers, eventually organized under a national umbrella group called Vajradhatu (renamed Shambhala International in February 2000). He developed a series of secular techniques he called Shambhala Training. Following Trungpa's death, his followers at the Rocky Mountain Shambhala Center built the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya, a traditional reliquary monument, near Red Feather Lakes, Colorado, consecrated in 2001.

There are four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism: the Gelug, the Kagyu, the Nyingma, and the Sakya. Of these, the greatest impact in the West was made by the Gelug, led by the Dalai Lama, and the Kagyu, specifically its Karma Kagyu branch, led by the Karmapa. In 1974 Trungpa Rinpoche and Kalu Rinpoche invited the 16th Karmapa to the united States. As of the early 1990s, there were several significant strands of Kagyu practice in the United States: Chögyam Trungpa's Shambhala movement; Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, a network of centers affiliated directly with the Karmapa's North American seat in Woodstock, New York; a network of centers founded by Kalu Rinpoche; a number of centers dedicated to mahamudra study and practice founded by Thrangu Rinpoche. The Drikung Kagyu lineage also has an established presence in the United States. Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen arrived in the US in 1982 and planted the seeds for many Drikung centers across the country. He also paved the way for the arrival of Garchen Rinpoche, who established the Garchen Buddhist Institute in Chino Valley, Arizona. In 1990, Mahamudra Meditation Center was founded by Peter F. Barth, under the guidance of Thrangu Rinpoche and Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen.

Diamond Way Buddhism founded by Lama Ole Nydahl and Hannah Nydahl, and under the spiritual guidance of Thaye Dorje, is also active in the US. The focus is on making Karma Kagyu teachings and methods available to modern and independent thinkers in the West. In 1972, the 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje requested Lama Ole Nydhal and Hannah Nydhal to establish Buddhist centers of the Karma Kagyu lineage in the Western world. Lama Ole Nydahl offered Buddhist refuge to tens of thousands of people and founded 640 Buddhist centers around the world.

In the 21st century, the Nyingma lineage is increasingly represented in the West by both Western and Tibetan teachers. Lama Surya Das is a Western-born teacher carrying on the "great rimé", a non-sectarian form of Tibetan Buddhism. The late Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche founded centers in Seattle and Brazil. Gochen Tulku Sangak (sometimes spelled "Sang-Ngag") Rinpoche is the founder and spiritual director of the first Ewam International Center located in the US. He is also the spiritual director of the Namchak Foundation in Montana and a primary lineage holder of the Namchak lineage. Khandro Rinpoche is a female Tibetan teacher who has a presence in America. Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo is the first Western woman to be enthroned as a Tulku, and established Nyingma Kunzang Palyul Choling centers in Sedona, Arizona, and Poolesville, Maryland.

The Gelug tradition is represented in America by the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), founded by Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa. Gelugpa teacher Geshe Michael Roach, the first American to be awarded a Geshe degree, established centers in New York and at Diamond Mountain University in Arizona.

Sravasti Abbey is the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery for Western monks and nuns in the U.S., established in Washington State by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron in 2003. It is situated on 300 acres of forest and meadows, 11 miles (18 km) outside of Newport, Washington, near the Idaho state line. It is open to visitors who want to learn about community life in a Tibetan Buddhist monastic setting. The name Sravasti Abbey was chosen by the Dalai Lama. Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron had suggested the name, as Sravasti was the place in India where the Buddha spent 25 rains retreats (varsa in Sanskrit and yarne in Tibetan), and communities of both nuns and monks had resided there. This seemed auspicious to ensure the Buddha's teachings would be abundantly available to both male and female monastics at the monastery.

Sravasti Abbey is notable because it is home to a growing group of fully ordained bhikshunis (Buddhist nuns) practicing in the Tibetan tradition. This is special because the tradition of full ordination for women was not transmitted from India to Tibet. Ordained women practicing in the Tibetan tradition usually hold a novice ordination. Venerable Thubten Chodron, while faithfully following the teachings of her Tibetan teachers, has arranged for her students to seek full ordination as bhikshunis in Taiwan.

In January 2014, the Abbey, which then had seven bhikshunis and three novices, formally began its first winter varsa (three-month monastic retreat), which lasted until April 13, 2014. As far as the Abbey knows, this was the first time a Western bhikshuni sangha practicing in the Tibetan tradition had done this ritual in the United States and in English. On April 19, 2014, the Abbey held its first kathina ceremony to mark the end of the varsa. Also in 2014 the Abbey held its first Pavarana rite at the end of the varsa. undefined In October 2015 the Annual Western Buddhist Monastic Gathering was held at the Abbey for the first time; it was the 21st such gathering.

In 2006, Geshe Thupten Dorjee, educated at Drepung Loseling Monastery, and poet Sidney Burris founded the Tibetan Cultural Institute of Arkansas, which began offering two weekly meditation courses and bringing monks and scholars to give lectures to the community at large. In 2008, the TEXT (Tibetans in Exile Today) Program at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville began an oral history project to help archive the stories of Tibetans currently living in exile in India. In June 2011, a month after the Dalai Lama visited, TCIA received a donation to build a retreat center and stupa near Crosses, Arkansas.

In 2010 the first Tibetan Buddhist nunnery in North America was established in Vermont, called Vajra Dakini Nunnery, offering novice ordination. The abbot of this nunnery is an American woman named Khenmo Drolma who is the first "bhikkhunni", a fully ordained Buddhist nun, in the Drikung Kagyu tradition of Buddhism, having been ordained in Taiwan in 2002. She is also the first westerner, male or female, to be installed as a Buddhist abbot, having been installed as abbot of Vajra Dakini Nunnery in 2004.

Theravada
Theravada is best known for Vipassana, roughly translated as "insight meditation", which is an ancient meditative practice described in the Pali Canon of the Theravada school of Buddhism and similar scriptures. Vipassana also refers to a distinct movement which was begun in the 20th century by reformers such as Mahāsi Sayādaw, a Burmese monk. Mahāsi Sayādaw was a Theravada bhikkhu and Vipassana is rooted in the Theravada teachings, but its goal is to simplify ritual and other peripheral activities in order to make meditative practice more effective and available both to monks and to laypeople.

American Theravada Buddhists
In 1965, monks from Sri Lanka established the Washington Buddhist Vihara in Washington, DC, the first Theravada monastic community in the United States. The Vihara was accessible to English-speakers with Vipassana meditation part of its activities. However, the direct influence of the Vipassana movement would not reach the U.S. until a group of Americans returned there in the early 1970s after studying with Vipassana masters in Asia.

Joseph Goldstein, after journeying to Southeast Asia with the Peace Corps, lived in Bodhgaya as a student of Anagarika Munindra, the head monk of Mahabodhi Temple and himself a student of Māhāsai Sayādaw. Jack Kornfield also worked for the Peace Corps in Southeast Asia, and then studied and ordained in the Thai Forest Tradition under Ajahn Chah, a major figure in 20th-century Thai Buddhism. Sharon Salzberg went to India in 1971 and studied with Dipa Ma, a former Calcutta housewife trained in vipassana by Māhāsai Sayādaw. The Thai Forest Tradition also has a number of branch monasteries in the United States, including Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery (Ajahn Pasanno, Abbot), Metta Forest Monastery (with Thanissaro Bhikkhu as Abbot) and Jetavana Temple Forest Monastery.

Goldstein and Kornfield met in 1974 while teaching at the Naropa Institute in Colorado. The next year, Goldstein, Kornfield, and Salzberg, who had very recently returned from Calcutta, along with Jacqueline Schwarz, founded the Insight Meditation Society on an 80-acre (324,000 m2) property near Barre, Massachusetts. IMS hosted visits by Māhāsi Sayādaw, Munindra, Ajahn Chah, and Dipa Ma. In 1981, Kornfield moved to California, where he founded another Vipassana center, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, in Marin County. In 1985, Larry Rosenberg founded the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Another Vipassana center is the Vipassana Metta Foundation, located on Maui. "When a Retreat Center course is in progress, anyone who is not already participating in the retreat is welcome to attend the evening talks about the teachings, known as Dharma talks. Those with insight meditation experience are also welcome to attend group sittings." Dharma talks are available for free download, a service provided by Dharma Seed.

In 1989, the Insight Meditation Center established the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies near the IMS headquarters, to promote scholarly investigation of Buddhism. Its first director was Mu Soeng, a former Korean Zen monk.

In the early 1990s, Ajahn Amaro made several teaching trips to northern California. Many who attended his meditation retreats became enthusiastic about the possibility of establishing a permanent monastic community in the area. In the meantime, Amaravati Monastery in England received a substantial donation of land in Mendocino County from Chan Master Hsuan Hua. The land was allocated to establish a forest monastery. Abhayagiri Monastery was established and placed in the hands of a group of lay practitioners, the Sanghapala Foundation. Ajahn Pasanno moved to California on New Year's Eve of 1997 to share the abbotship of Abhayagiri Monastery, Redwood Valley, California, with Ajahn Amaro.

In 1997 Dhamma Cetiya Vihara in Boston was founded by Ven. Gotami of Thailand, then a 10 precept nun. Ven. Gotami received full ordination in 2000, at which time her dwelling became America's first Theravada Buddhist bhikkhuni vihara. "Vihara" translates as monastery or nunnery, and may be both dwelling and community center where one or more bhikkhus or bhikkhunis offer teachings on Buddhist scriptures, conduct traditional ceremonies, teach meditation, offer counseling and other community services, receive alms, and reside. More recently established Theravada bhikkhuni viharas include: Mahapajapati Monastery where several nuns (bhikkhunis and novices) live together in the desert of southern California near Joshua Tree, founded by Ven. Gunasari Bhikkhuni of Burma in 2008; Aranya Bodhi Hermitage founded by Ven. Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni in the forest near Jenner, CA, with Ven. Sobhana Bhikkhuni as Prioress, which opened officially in July 2010, where several bhikkhunis reside together along with trainees and lay supporters; and Sati Saraniya in Ontario, founded by Ven. Medhanandi in appx 2009, where two bhikkhunis reside. In 2009 Aloka Vihara Forest Monastery in the Sierra Foothills of California was created by Ayya Anandabodhi and Ayya Santacitta. (There are also quiet residences of individual bhikkhunis where they may receive visitors and give teachings, such as the residence of Ven. Amma Thanasanti Bhikkhuni in 2009–2010 in Colorado Springs; and the Los Angeles residence of Ven. Susila Bhikkhuni; and the residence of Ven. Wimala Bhikkhuni in the mid-west.)

In 2010, in Northern California, four novice nuns were given the full bhikkhuni ordination in the Thai Theravada tradition, which included the double ordination ceremony. Bhante Gunaratana and other monks and nuns were in attendance. It was the first such ordination ever in the Western hemisphere.

Bhante Gunaratana is currently the abbot of the Bhavana Society, a monastery and meditation retreat center that he founded in High View, West Virginia.

S. N. Goenka
S. N. Goenka was a Burmese-born meditation teacher of the Vipassana movement. His teacher, Sayagyi U Ba Khin of Burma, was a contemporary of Māhāsi Sayādaw's, and taught a style of Buddhism with similar emphasis on simplicity and accessibility to laypeople. Goenka established a method of instruction popular in Asia and throughout the world. In 1981, he established the Vipassana Research Institute in Igatpuri, India, and his students built several centers in North America.

Association of American Buddhists
The Association of American Buddhists was a group which promotes Buddhism through publications, ordination of monks, and classes.

Organized in 1960 by American practitioners of Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Buddhism, it does not espouse any particular school or schools of Buddhism. It respects all Buddhist traditions as equal, and encourages unity of Buddhism in thought and practice. It states that a different, American, form of Buddhism is possible, and that the cultural forms attached to the older schools of Buddhism need not necessarily be followed by westerners.

Women and Buddhism
Rita M. Gross, a feminist religious scholar, claims that many people converted to Buddhism in the 1960s and 1970s as an attempt to combat traditional American values. However, in their conversion, they have created a new form of Buddhism distinctly Western in thought and practice. Democratization and the rise of women in leadership positions have been among the most influential characteristics of American Buddhism. However, another one of these characteristics is rationalism, which has allowed Buddhists to come to terms with the scientific and technological advances of the 21st century. Engagement in social issues, such as global warming, domestic violence, poverty and discrimination, has also shaped Buddhism in America. Privatization of ritual practices into home life has embodied Buddhism in America. The idea of living in the "present life" rather than focusing on the future or the past is also another characteristic of American Buddhism.

American Buddhism was able to embed these new religious ideals into such a historically rich religious tradition and culture due to the high conversion rate in the late 20th century. Three important factors led to this conversion in America: the importance of religion, societal openness, and spirituality. American culture places a large emphasis on having a personal religious identity as a spiritual and ethical foundation. During the 1960s and onward, society also became more open to other religious practices outside of Protestantism, allowing more people to explore Buddhism. People also became more interested in spiritual and experiential religion rather than the traditional institutional religions of the time.

The mass conversion of the 60s and 70s was also occurring alongside the second-wave feminist movement. While many of the women who became Buddhists at this time were drawn to its "gender neutral" teachings, in reality Buddhism is a traditionally patriarchal religion. These two conflicting ideas caused "uneasiness" with American Buddhist women. This uneasiness was further justified after 1983, when some male Buddhist teachers were exposed as "sexual adventurers and abusers of power." This spurred action among women in the American Buddhist community. After much dialogue within the community, including a series of conferences entitled "The Feminine in Buddhism", Sandy Boucher, a feminist-Buddhist teacher, interviewed over one hundred Buddhist women. She determined from their experiences and her own that American Buddhism has "the possibility for the creation of a religion fully inclusive of women's realities, in which women hold both institutional and spiritual leadership."

In recent years, there is a strong presence of women in American Buddhism, and many women are even in leadership roles. This also may be due to the fact that American Buddhism tends to stress democratization over the traditional hierarchical structure of Buddhism in Asia. One study of Theravada Buddhist centers in the U.S., however, found that although men and women thought that Buddhist teachings were gender-blind, there were still distinct gender roles in the organization, including more male guest teachers and more women volunteering as cooks and cleaners.

In 1936, Sunya Gladys Pratt was ordained as a Buddhist minister in the Shin tradition in the Tacoma, Washington.

In 1976, Karuna Dharma became the first fully ordained female member of the Buddhist monastic community in the U.S.

In 1981, Ani Pema Chodron, an American woman, was ordained as a bhikkhuni in a lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Pema Chödrön was the first American woman to be ordained as a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

In 1988, Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, an American woman formerly called Catharine Burroughs, became the first Western woman to be named a reincarnate lama.

In 1998, Sherry Chayat became the first American woman to receive transmission in the Rinzai school of Buddhism.

In 2002, Khenmo Drolma, an American woman, became the first bhikkhuni in the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Buddhism, traveling to Taiwan to be ordained. In 2004 she became the first westerner of either sex to be installed as an abbot in the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Buddhism, being installed as the abbot of the Vajra Dakini Nunnery in Vermont (America's first Tibetan Buddhist nunnery) in 2004.

In 2003, Ayya Sudhamma Bhikkhuni became the first American-born woman to gain bhikkhuni ordination in the Theravada school in Sri Lanka.

In 2006, for the first time in American history, a Buddhist ordination was held where an American woman (Sister Khanti-Khema) took the Samaneri (novice) vows with an American monk (Bhante Vimalaramsi) presiding. This was done for the Buddhist American Forest Tradition at the Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center in Missouri. Also in 2006, Merle Kodo Boyd, born in Texas, became the first African-American woman ever to receive Dharma transmission in Zen Buddhism.

In 2010, the first Tibetan Buddhist nunnery in America (Vajra Dakini Nunnery in Vermont), offering novice ordination in the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Buddhism, was officially consecrated.

In 2022, Terri Omori is appointed the first female president of the 12,000 member strong Buddhist Churches of America.

Engaged Buddhism
Socially engaged Buddhism has developed in Buddhism in the West. While some critics assert the term is redundant, as it is mistaken to believe that Buddhism in the past has not affected and been affected by the surrounding society, others have suggested that Buddhism is sometimes seen as too passive toward public life. This is particularly true in the West, where almost all converts to Buddhism come to it outside of an existing family or community tradition. Engaged Buddhism is an attempt to apply Buddhist values to larger social problems, including war and environmental concerns. The term was coined by Thích Nhất Hạnh, during his years as a peace activist in Vietnam. The Buddhist Peace Fellowship was founded in 1978 by Robert Aitken, Anne Aitken, Nelson Foster, and others and received early assistance from Gary Snyder, Jack Kornfield, and Joanna Macy. Another engaged Buddhist group is the Zen Peacemaker Order, founded in 1996 by Bernie Glassman and Sandra Jishu Holmes. In 2007, the American Buddhist scholar-monk, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, was invited to write an editorial essay for the Buddhist magazine Buddhadharma. In his essay, he called attention to the narrowly inward focus of American Buddhism, which has been pursued to the neglect of the active dimension of Buddhist compassion expressed through programs of social engagement. Several of Ven. Bodhi's students who read the essay felt a desire to follow up on his suggestions. After a few rounds of discussions, they resolved to form a Buddhist relief organization dedicated to alleviating the suffering of the poor and disadvantaged in the developing world. At the initial meetings, seeking a point of focus, they decided to direct their relief efforts at the problem of global hunger, especially by supporting local efforts by those in developing countries to achieve self-sufficiency through improved food productivity. Contacts were made with leaders and members of other Buddhist communities in the greater New York area, and before long Buddhist Global Relief emerged as an inter-denominational organization comprising people of different Buddhist groups who share the vision of a Buddhism actively committed to the task of alleviating social and economic suffering.

Misconduct
A number of groups and individuals have been implicated in scandals. Sandra Bell has analysed the scandals at Vajradhatu and the San Francisco Zen Center and concluded that these kinds of scandals are most likely to occur in organisations that are in transition between the pure forms of charismatic authority that brought them into being and more rational, corporate forms of organization".

Ford states that no one can express the "hurt and dismay" these events brought to each center, and that the centers have in many cases emerged stronger because they no longer depend on a "single charismatic leader".

Robert Sharf also mentions charisma from which institutional power is derived, and the need to balance charismatic authority with institutional authority. Elaborate analyses of these scandals are made by Stuart Lachs, who mentions the uncritical acceptance of religious narratives, such as lineages and dharma transmission, which aid in giving uncritical charismatic powers to teachers and leaders.

Following is a partial list from reliable sources, limited to the United States and by no means all-inclusive.
 * In 1983, the San Francisco Zen Center experienced a sex scandal resulting in the resignation of abbot Richard Baker.
 * Taizan Maezumi slept with several of his students at the Zen Center of Los Angeles and he died of alcoholism.
 * In 1988, Seung Sahn had sexual affairs with several of his students in the Kwan Um School of Zen.
 * Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa openly had sexual relationships with numbers of female members of his sangha, and died of health complications from his quite public alcoholism.
 * Trungpa's Dharma heir Ösel Tendzin contracted and later died from complications of the AIDS virus. Knowing himself to be infected, Tendzin had unprotected sex with at least two of his male students. One of them later died of AIDS.
 * In 2010, Shasta Abbey abbot and successor to Houn Jiyu-Kennett Eko Little resigned and subsequently disrobed after admitting to forming a sexual relationship with one of the members of the lay congregation.
 * In 2010, Eido Tai Shimano retired from the Zen Studies Society after admitting to sexual liaisons.
 * In 2011 because of sexual misconduct, Dennis Merzel said he would disrobe as a Buddhist priest and resign as an elder of the White Plum Asanga.
 * Several women have accused Joshu Sasaki of making sexual advances over the course of decades, and scandal struck the Cimarron Zen Center in Los Angeles.

Accreditation
Definitions and policies may differ greatly between different schools or sects: for example, "many, perhaps most" Soto priests "see no distinction between ordination and Dharma transmission". Disagreement and misunderstanding exist on this point, among lay practitioners and Zen teachers alike.

James Ford writes, "[S]urprising numbers of people use the titles Zen teacher, master, roshi and sensei without any obvious connections to Zen [...] Often they obfuscate their Zen connections, raising the very real question whether they have any authentic relationship to the Zen world at all. In my studies I've run across literally dozens of such cases."

James Ford claims that about eighty percent of authentic teachers in the United States belong to the American Zen Teachers Association or the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and are listed on their websites. This can help a prospective student sort out who is a "normative stream" teacher from someone who is perhaps not, but of course twenty percent do not participate.

Numbers of Buddhists
Accurate counts of Buddhists in the United States are difficult. Self-description has pitfalls. Because Buddhism is a cultural concept, individuals who self-describe as Buddhists may have little knowledge or commitment to Buddhism as a religion or practice; on the other hand, others may be deeply involved in meditation and committed to the Dharma, but may refuse the label "Buddhist". In the 1990s, Robert A. F. Thurman estimated there were 5 to 6 million Buddhists in America.

In a 2007 Pew Research Center survey, at 0.7% Buddhism was the third largest religion in the US after Christianity (78.4%), no religion (10.3%) and Judaism (1.7%). In 2012 on the occasion of a visit from the Dalai Lama, U-T San Diego said there are 1.2 million Buddhist practitioners in the U.S., and of them 40% live in Southern California.

In 2008 the "Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life Religious Landscape Survey" estimated American Buddhists at 0.7% of the American population. During the same year the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), estimated this same figure at 0.5%. ARIS estimated that the number of adherents rose by 170% between 1990 and 2000, reaching 1.2 million followers in 2008. According to William Wilson Quinn "by all indications that remarkable rate of growth continues unabated." But according to Robert Thurman, "Scholars are unsure whether the reports are accurate, as Americans who might dabble in various forms of Buddhism may not identify themselves as Buddhist on a survey. That makes it difficult to quantify the number of Buddhists in the United States."

Others argued, in 2012, that Buddhists made up 1 percent of the American population (about three million people). By the year 2050 Buddhism is projected to become the third largest major religious group in North America, after Christianity and Islam.

Demographics of Buddhist Converts
A sociological survey conducted in 1999 found that relative to the US population as a whole, Buddhist converts are proportionately more likely to be white, upper middle class, highly educated, and left-leaning in their political views. In terms of race, only 10% of survey respondents indicated they were a race other than white, a matter that has been cause of some concern among Buddhist leaders. Nearly a third of the respondents were college graduates, and more than half held advanced degrees. Politically, 60% identified themselves as Democrats, and Green Party affiliations outnumbered Republicans by 3 to 1. Buddhist converts were also proportionately more likely to have come from Catholic, and especially Jewish backgrounds. More than half of these adherents came to Buddhism through reading books on the topic, with the rest coming by way of martial arts and friends or acquaintances. The average age of the respondents was 46. Daily meditation was their most commonly cited Buddhist practice, with most meditating 30 minutes a day or more.

In 2015 a Pew Foundation survey found 67% of American Buddhists were raised in a religion other than Buddhism. 61% said their spouse has a religion other than Buddhism. The survey was conducted only in English and Spanish, and may under-estimate Buddhist immigrants who speak Asian languages. A 2012 Pew study found Buddhism is practiced by 15% of surveyed Chinese Americans, 6% of Koreans, 25% of Japanese, 43% of Vietnamese and 1% of Filipinos.

Ethnic divide
Although the 2008 Pew Landscape Study suggested white Americans made up the majority of Buddhists in the United States, subsequent research has refuted this conclusion, first on the study's small data set, second on significant methodological errors, and third on subsequent research published by Pew in the 2012 survey of religious life of Asian Americans. Based on this latter study's data, Asian American Buddhists make up approximately 67–69% of all Buddhists in the United States.

Discussion about Buddhism in America has sometimes focused on the issue of the visible ethnic divide separating ethnic Buddhist congregations from import Buddhist groups. Although many Zen and Tibetan Buddhist temples were founded by Asians, they now attract fewer Asian-Americans. With the exception of Sōka Gakkai, almost all active Buddhist groups in America are either ethnic or import Buddhism based on the demographics of their membership. There is often limited contact between Buddhists of different ethnic groups.

However, the cultural divide should not necessarily be seen as pernicious. It is often argued that the differences between Buddhist groups arise benignly from the differing needs and interests of those involved. Convert Buddhists tend to be interested in meditation and philosophy, in some cases eschewing the trappings of religiosity altogether. On the other hand, for immigrants and their descendants, preserving tradition and maintaining a social framework assume a much greater relative importance, making their approach to religion naturally more conservative. Further, based on a survey of Asian-American Buddhists in San Francisco, "many Asian-American Buddhists view non-Asian Buddhism as still in a formative, experimental stage" and yet they believe that it "could eventually mature into a religious expression of exceptional quality".

Additional questions come from the demographics within import Buddhism. The majority of American converts practicing at Buddhist centers are white, often from Christian or Jewish backgrounds. Only Sōka Gakkai has attracted significant numbers of African-American or Latino members. A variety of ideas have been broached regarding the nature, causes, and significance of this racial uniformity. Journalist Clark Strand noted
 * …that it has tried to recruit [African-Americans] at all makes Sōka Gakkai International utterly unique in American Buddhism.

Strand, writing for Tricycle (an American Buddhist journal) in 2004, notes that SGI has specifically targeted African-Americans, Latinos and Asians, and other writers have noted that this approach has begun to spread, with Vipassana and Theravada retreats aimed at non-white practitioners led by a handful of specific teachers.

A question is the degree of importance ascribed to discrimination, which is suggested to be mostly unconscious, on the part of white converts toward potential minority converts. To some extent, the racial divide indicates a class divide, because convert Buddhists tend to be more educated. Among African American Buddhists who commented on the dynamics of the racial divide in convert Buddhism are Jan Willis and Charles R. Johnson.

A Pew study shows that Americans tend to be less biased towards Buddhists when compared to other religions, such as Christianity, to which 18% of people were biased, when only 14% were biased towards Buddhists. American Buddhists are often not raised as Buddhists, with 32% of American Buddhists being raised Protestant, and 22% being raised Catholic, which means that over half of the American Buddhists were converted at some point in time. Also, Buddhism has had to adapt to America in order to garner more followers so that the concept would not seem so foreign, so they adopted "Catholic" words such as "worship" and "churches".

Buddhist education in the United States
Chögyam Trungpa founded Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, a four-year Buddhist college in the US (now Naropa University) in 1974. Allen Ginsberg was an initial faculty member, christening the institute's poetry department the "Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics". Now Naropa University, the school offers accredited degrees in a number of subjects, many not directly related to Buddhism.

The University of the West is affiliated with Hsi Lai Temple and was previously Hsi Lai University. Soka University of America, in Aliso Viejo California, was founded by the Sōka Gakkai as a secular school committed to philosophic Buddhism. The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is the site of Dharma Realm Buddhist University, a four-year college teaching courses primarily related to Buddhism but including some general-interest subjects. The Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California, in addition to offering a master's degree in Buddhist Studies acts as the ministerial training arm of the Buddhist Churches of America and is affiliated with the Graduate Theological Union. The school moved into the Jodo Shinshu Center in Berkeley.

The first Buddhist high school in the United States, Developing Virtue Secondary School, was founded in 1981 by the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association at their branch monastery in the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Ukiah, California. In 1997, the Purple Lotus Buddhist School offered elementary-level classes in Union City, California, affiliated with the True Buddha School; it added a middle school in 1999 and a high school in 2001. Another Buddhist high school, Tinicum Art and Science now The Lotus School of Liberal Arts, which combines Zen practice and traditional liberal arts, opened in Ottsville, Pennsylvania, in 1998. It is associated informally with the World Shim Gum Do Association in Boston. The Pacific Buddhist Academy opened in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 2003. It shares a campus with the Hongwanji Mission School, an elementary and middle school; both schools affiliated with the Honpa Hongwanji Jodo Shinshu mission.

Juniper Foundation, founded in 2003, holds that Buddhist methods must become integrated into modern culture just as they were in other cultures. Juniper Foundation calls its approach "Buddhist training for modern life" and it emphasizes meditation, balancing emotions, cultivating compassion and developing insight as four building blocks of Buddhist training.

title: Buddhism in the United States


text:
Detling Hill

Detling Hill is a hill forming part of the North Downs in Kent, north-east of Maidstone, and is situated in the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The typical southern escarpment of the North Downs is found here, and produces dramatic views over the Low Weald. The North Downs Way passes along the hill just south of the summit.

The area around the summit has recently become the White Horse Wood, where over 20,000 trees (oak, ash, silver birch, wild cherry and crab apple) have been planted, and five hectares have been seeded to create an area of open grassland. The trig point has been made the centrepiece of a view-finder; the highest point is a few hundred metres away to the north-west.

Nearby are located the remains of the medieval Thurnham Castle, as well as traces of an Iron Age settlement. The name, taken from the village of Detling that sit at the foot of the hill, derives from Old English and means "hill at the settlement of the family of a man called Dyttel".

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Detling Hill


text:
Josef August Schultes

Josef (Joseph) August Schultes (15 April 1773 in Vienna – 21 April 1831 in Landshut) was an Austrian botanist and professor from Vienna. Together with Johann Jacob Roemer (1763–1819), he published the 16th edition of Linnaeus' Systema Vegetabilium. In 1821, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was the father of Julius Hermann Schultes (1804–1840).

In 1796, he received his doctorate at Vienna, where he was a student of Johann Peter Frank (1745–1821). Later on, he served as a professor of botany and natural history at the Theresianum in Vienna, followed by professorships at the Universities of Krakow (1806) and Innsbruck (1808). In 1809, he succeeded Franz von Paula Schrank (1747–1835) at the University of Landshut as a professor of natural history and botany. At Landshut, he also served as a medical director. Swedish botanist Carl Peter Thunberg commissioned Schultes to edit the first complete edition of his Flora Capensis, which was published in 1823.

Publications

 * 'Flora Austriaca, 1794 (two volumes) - Flora of Austria.
 * Ausflüge nach dem Schneeberg, 1802 - Trips to Schneeberg.
 * Catalogus plantarum primus horti botanici Cracoviensis Universitatis 1807, secundus 1808; (a study of the botanical garden in Krakow).
 * Reisen durch Oberösterreich, 1809 (two volumes) - Travels through Upper Austria.
 * Grundriss einer Geschichte und Literatur der Botanik von Theophrastos Eresics bis auf die neuesten Zeiten, 1817 - Outline of a history and literature of botany from Theophrastus to the latest times.
 * Flora Capensis, 1823.
 * Reise auf den Glockner, 1824 - Trip to the Grossglockner.

title: Josef August Schultes


text:
Lectern

A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of support. To facilitate eye contact and improve posture when facing an audience, lecterns may have adjustable height and slant. People reading from a lectern, called lectors, generally do so while standing.

In pre-modern usage, the word lectern was used to refer specifically to the "reading desk or stand ... from which the Scripture lessons (lectiones) ... are chanted or read." One 1905 dictionary states that "the term is properly applied only to the class mentioned [church book stands] as independent of the pulpit." By the 1920s, however, the term was being used in a broader sense; for example, in reference to a memorial service in Carnegie Hall, it was stated that "the lectern from which the speakers talked was enveloped in black."

Academic use
Lecterns used in academia—generally in seminar rooms and lecture theatres—may have certain features that common lecterns lack, based on the technological sophistication of the venue. These features usually include a microphone stand, audio-visual controls, sometimes even an integrated computer and recording system. Lecterns of this sort are generally attached or integrated into a large desk, as the amount of support material tends to be larger in academic contexts than in straightforward public talks.

Christianity

In the Christian Church, the lectern is usually the stand on which the Bible or other texts rest and from which the "lessons" (scripture passages, often selected from a lectionary) are read during the service. The lessons may be read or chanted by a priest, deacon, minister, or layperson, depending upon the liturgical traditions of the community. The lectern is normally set in front of the pews, so that the reader or speaker faces the congregation.

Lecterns are often made of wood. They may be either fixed in place or portable. A lectern differs from a pulpit, the latter being used for sermons though, especially historically, many pulpits include a built in lectern, for example Siena Cathedral Pulpit (Nicola Pisano, 1268). Churches that have both a lectern and a pulpit will often place them on opposite sides. The lectern will generally be smaller than the pulpit, and both may be adorned with antipendia in the color of the liturgical season.

In monastic churches and cathedrals, a separate lectern is commonly set in the centre of the choir. Originally this would have carried the antiphonal book, for use by the cantor or precentor leading the singing of the divine office. Eagle-shaped lecterns are common, though some, rather rarely, instead take the form of a pelican, or an angel.

In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, a lectern on which icons or the Gospel Book are placed for veneration is called an analogion. It may also be used for reading from liturgical books during the divine services.

Judaism
Because the Torah scrolls are generally large, the central feature of the bimah in a synagogue is a table large enough to hold an open Torah along with a tikkun or Chumash (reference books used to check the reading). In some synagogues, this table may resemble a large lectern. The Hebrew term for this article of furniture is amud (עמוד).

In traditional yeshivas and some synagogues, students and members of the congregation may use small desks called shtenders (שטענדער). These closely resemble conventional lecterns, and indeed, one shtender may be used as a lectern by the hazzan leading the service. Each study group in a yeshivah may have its own shtender and in some older synagogues individual members of the congregation may have their own shtenders.

Traditional shtenders frequently incorporate a locker under the desktop where prayer books and study material may be locked when not in use, and many feature a footrest for comfort during extended study sessions or standing prayers. Some older synagogues have large collections of shtenders.

Political use
Lecterns are used in political debates on stage, as well as for political speeches. Notable instances of these lecterns include the several types of American Presidential lecterns, of which the most secure is the "Blue Goose", a bulletproof lectern used by the president of the United States, its smaller counterpart the Falcon, and the series of lecterns used for statements outside 10 Downing Street.

title: Lectern


text:
Hixon rail crash

On 6 January 1968, a low-loader transporter carrying a 120-ton electrical transformer was struck by a British Rail express train on a recently installed automatic level crossing at Hixon, Staffordshire, England.

The collision resulted in 11 deaths and 45 people injured, and led to improvements in signage around automatic level crossings.

Background
In the 1950s, British Railways found that the cost of manning 2,400 level crossings had risen past £1 million per annum, with some locations seeing a tenfold increase. In the post-war labour market it was often difficult to recruit crossing keepers, the job itself being a responsible but rather dull occupation. In addition, manually operated crossings often caused long delays to road traffic because of the need to close the gates and clear the distant signal before the approaching train reached it.

In October 1956, senior members of Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate (HMRI) embarked on a fact-finding trip to the Netherlands, Belgium and France, to investigate the practice of automating level crossings. Their subsequent report recommended the introduction of automatically operated crossings with half-barriers, known as AHBs. This was projected to give considerable cost savings through the withdrawal of crossing keepers and would also speed up the flow of road traffic; the crossing being closed for less than a minute as opposed to 3 or 4 minutes at staffed crossings.

"We consider that some of the Continental methods of operating level crossings will prove suitable for adoption in Great Britain without prejudice to safety ... also, automatic and remote operation might be adopted at selected crossings after satisfactory trials."

Safety requirements were drawn up in 1957, but it was not until 1961 that the first automatic crossing in Britain was installed at Spath, near Uttoxeter. The crossing was designed to give a minimum of 24 seconds warning for the fastest train on that line.

By January 1968 there were 207 automatic crossings in Britain including the one at Hixon, which had been converted to automatic half-barrier operation in July 1967. Incidentally, Hixon was only eight miles (13 km) from the pioneering installation at Spath.

Low-loader movements
On 6 January 1968, a 120-ton electrical transformer was to be moved from the English Electric works at Stafford to a storage depot at the disused RAF Hixon airfield. The airfield was on Station Road, adjacent to the Manchester branch of the West Coast Main Line and approximately three miles (5 km) north of Colwich Junction.

To carry out this move a huge transporter vehicle, 148 ft long and with a 32-wheeled trailer, was chartered. It had a gross weight of 162 tons, was impelled by a tractor unit at each end, and had a crew of five. In charge of the vehicle was B. H. Groves, who occupied the leading cab. The journey was not an unusual procedure as six other abnormal loads belonging to the English Electric Company had passed over the automatic crossing in the preceding months.

The transporter and its police escort left Stafford at approximately 09:30 on the morning of Saturday 6 January. Although Hixon was only six miles (10 km) from Stafford, the nature of the load meant that it needed to travel south out of the town and then along a somewhat laborious route north via the M6 motorway, the A34 to Stone and finally the A51 to Hixon. This route had been approved by the Ministry of Transport, but the map of the route made no mention of the level crossing at Hixon; the description of the route in the Order merely ended with "Weston to junc class III road approx 2 mi past Hixon turn left class III road turn left access road to English Electric Works and destination". J. H. Preston, Chief of Heavy Transport at English Electric, had mentioned the level crossing to Groves – but only as a landmark.

At around 12:20 the transporter turned off the A51 into Station Road and slowed to walking pace as it approached the crossing. It stopped for a moment while the police car went over the crossing to check where the entrance to the airfield was; on its return, one of the police officers told Groves that "this is the place" and proceeded back over the level crossing.

The trailer needed to be raised by the crew to negotiate the track, but, in addition, it needed to be low enough to clear the overhead lines. While this was taking place the transporter slowed to around 2 mi/h. At this speed, it would take approximately one minute to traverse the crossing.

Crash
At 12:26, the leading tractor had traversed the two railway tracks and the main bulk of the transporter was astride them when the 11:30 express train from Manchester to London Euston activated the crossing sequence by operating a treadle 1000 yd away. The warning lights began to flash and the bells began to ring, with the barrier descending onto the forward part of the transformer. At about the same time Groves, who had not heard the bells and could not see the lights, saw the train approaching from his left and, realising that it would not stop, shouted a warning to his crew. He then accelerated and so did the driver of the tractor at the rear, A. L. Illsley, although this meant that Illsley was deliberately bringing himself into the direct path of the train.

As a result of these actions, the train hit only the rear seven or eight feet (2.1 to 2.4 m) of the transformer at approximately 75 mi/h, sheared through the trailer and threw the transformer forward and to the left of the line. The train consisted of a Class AL1 electric locomotive No. E3009 and twelve Mark 1 and Mark 2 coaches. The locomotive and the first five coaches of the train were destroyed, and the following three coaches were derailed. Both railway lines were destroyed for a length of 120 yd and the overhead lines were brought down.

Eleven people (eight passengers and three railwaymen) were killed, with 45 being injured, six of them seriously. The relatively small number of casualties was due to the sturdy steel construction of the coaches and the first class carriages at the front being only lightly occupied. The three railwaymen were all in the cab of the locomotive but the second class coaches were filled to capacity, with standing room only, after a large number of sixth form students boarded after a conference at Keele University.

Investigation
The circumstances of the accident, and the subsequent public reaction, led to an Order being made on 16 January for a judicial inquiry under Section 7 of the Railways Act 1871; required because HMRI which would normally hold an accident inquiry was involved in the programme of automating level crossings. The findings of this inquiry would be presented to Parliament by the Minister for Transport. This was the first Section 7 inquiry since the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879. It was chaired by Mr F. B. Gibbens QC.

The haulage company
The inquiry identified the directors of the haulage company, Robert Wynn and Sons Ltd, as being chiefly to blame. It transpired that, on 8 November 1966, one of their transporters had narrowly avoided disaster when it became grounded on an automatic crossing at Leominster. A catastrophe was only avoided after its driver violently revved the engine and let the clutch in.

Wynn's had pointed out their concern at the short warning time given in a letter to British Railways, but received a terse reply from the assistant general manager of the Western Region, and therefore did not press the matter further. BR's reply to them said, "I must emphasise ... that the hazard was of your firm's making and it is fortunate that it was not more than a hazard". This was described as being "remarkable for its arrogance and lack of insight".

Despite this incident, no instructions regarding automatic crossings had ever been given to Wynn's drivers (or the police escort), and at Hixon the driver assumed that it was safe to cross because the police car had already done so.

The role of the police
Neither of the police officers who were escorting the load had been to Hixon before. They had both been posted to traffic duties in the Stone Division five days earlier and they were unaware of the presence of a main railway line. Although both officers knew about the existence of automatic crossings in Staffordshire, they were not aware of the comparatively short warning time that the crossing gave, one of them later telling the inquiry, "I was absolutely astounded by the speed of the whole process."

Leaflets had been distributed to local police stations when the crossing was automated the previous July, although they were only on display for the public to pick up. The inquiry described them as "mere flotsam".

British Rail
Both British Rail and the Ministry of Transport also received criticism for their lack of foresight and failure to adequately point out that drivers of slow or heavy loads were required to use the telephone provided before crossing the line. There was a warning notice at Hixon crossing to this effect, but it was almost impossible to read from a passing vehicle. The telephones at some crossings were installed by BR despite the HMRI being opposed to their provision.

Aftermath
From 1969, improved warning signs were introduced, informing drivers of large or slow vehicles that they should telephone the signalman for permission to cross the line, and telephones were provided at most crossings. The crossing equipment was also modified so that an amber light was exhibited before the red flashing lights operated. Even so, the automation of level crossings ground almost to a halt; from 207 in 1968, to 234 in 1978.

In 1977, the Railway Inspectorate again examined the question of automating level crossings and once again a working party visited mainland Europe. This time, as well as relaxing the requirements, they recommended the introduction of an automatic crossing with only the warning lights, known as an Automatic Open Crossing (AOCR). However, history repeated itself in the Lockington rail accident of 1986, which involved a newly installed AOCR.

The level crossing at Hixon was replaced in 2002 by a bridge costing £2 million.

Two carriages involved in the collision (Mark 1 Tourist Second Opens 4963 and 4973) are now preserved. Marshalled behind the Restaurant Kitchen Buffet car, they derailed, coming to rest alongside the wrecked transformer, receiving light damage. The undamaged Mark 2 TSO 5191 is also preserved.

In 2017, a book The Hixon Railway Disaster was published by Richard Westwood, whose father Jack Westwood was a BR signal technician at Leominster who phoned the signalman to set the distant and home signals to danger thus avoiding an earlier (1966) accident with a slow Wynn's transporter. He highlighted friction between railway managers and HMRI on fears expressed by the former regarding potential safety hazards, and lack of anticipation of the potential hazard from slow-moving heavy vehicles even after the Leominster near-miss. Likewise, Fraser Pithie has criticised the role of the HMRI which was 'in the driving seat' with the installation of AHB (automatic half barriers), not BR. Colonel McMullen had stated in 1957 that if they were adopted "the principle must be recognised that it is the responsibility of the individual to protect himself from the hazards of the railway in the same way as from the hazards of the road". Colonel Reed of the HMRI was put in charge of AHB introduction in 1961, and he opposed the provision of telephones or signal protection. But some BR managers still ensured that a telephone was provided at AHB crossings, and Hixon had a telephone.

, the former airfield continues to be the site of various industrial units, known as the Hixon Airfield Industrial Estate.

Commemorations
On 6 January 2018, on the fiftieth anniversary of the disaster, a memorial in Hixon village churchyard was dedicated to those who died.

On 19 August 2021, CrossCountry train 220009 was named Hixon at Stafford railway station in memory of the accident.

title: Hixon rail crash


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Nimcha

A Nimcha (نمشة) is a single-handed sword from north Africa, especially used in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. It is classified as a type of scimitar or saif. Becoming popular in north Africa during the 16th century, surviving nimcha are usually from the late 18th century onward and are notable for often using older blades. Stylistically they often bore Arabian type handles with tugrah inscribed on the blade.

Characteristics
Blades on Nimcha came in a variety of forms, and were often imported from Europe. Always of a single edge variety the two main forms were either a short generally more deeply curved 'cutlass style', or a longer more slender form that sometimes bore a clipped point.

Nimcha also have distinct hilts that sport forward pointing quillions, which end in a 'bud' style. The wooden handles are flat sided and squared off at an almost 90 degree "hooked" pommel. The blade and hilt are attached by a stud located on the top of the pommel The cross guard will often have a knuckle guard which starts beneath the quillions and runs to the bottom of the pommel in a distinct 'squared off' fashion; on the opposite side of the hilt this path is normally continued into a 3rd quillion.

Use
Nimcha were popular both on the land and among sailors. As a result of seafarers this style of sword was popularized in far off southern Arabia, Yemen, and Zanzibar. Each of these areas had Nimchas which varied slightly in design, for example Zanzibari swords have more sharply bent handles, a finger guard shaped like a "D", and a turtle shaped cap on the pommel securing the blade and hilt.

In Arabia Nimchas were regularly used as a gift.

Barbary corsairs also preferred this sword, and army units such as the Black Guard and the Odjak of Algiers also equipped their troops with nimchas.

title: Nimcha


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William S. Booze

William Samuel Booze (January 9, 1862 – December 6, 1933) was a U.S. Representative from the third district of Maryland.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Booze attended the public schools in Baltimore and graduated from Baltimore City College in 1879. Afterwards attended the University of Maryland School of Medicine and graduated with a degree in medicine from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, in 1882.

Booze practiced his profession in Baltimore until 1896, when he was elected to Congress, he previously unsuccessfully contested the election of Harry Welles Rusk to the Fifty-fourth Congress, as a Republican to the Fifty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1897 - March 3, 1899). After this term, Booze was not a candidate for renomination in 1898, he instead engaged in banking and in the brokerage business in Baltimore until 1915, when he again engaged in the practice of medicine. He was selected as a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1904 and 1908.

Booze died in Wilmington, Delaware, while en route to his home from a trip to South America. He is interred in Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore.

title: William S. Booze


text:
Talk:Norman Sherry

Untitled
Is Professor Sherry actually American? Having taken a course from him, I can attest to his thick upper-class British accent.

title: Talk:Norman Sherry


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Hixon, Staffordshire

Hixon is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Staffordshire.

Location
The village is 7.8 mi east of the town of Stafford, 9.9 mi southeast of the town of Stone, 6.4 mi northwest of the town of Rugeley and 8.6 mi south west of Uttoxeter. The nearest railway station is at Rugeley. The nearest main roads are the A518 which skirts 1.3 mi north of the village, and the A51 which runs to the west.

Etymology
The genesis of the village name is said to be of Scandinavian origin. The first part, Hus is thought to be the Viking word for house. The last part Dun is an old English word for Hill, so giving the origins as The House on the Hill. Another school of thought originates the name from a person known as Hyht with the following es indicating it in the possession and can be interpreted as Hyht's hill. Over the years the village has been recorded under the names Huchtesdona in 1130, Huhtesdon and Huytesdon.

The Domesday Book
Hixon is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. In the survey the village has the name Hustedone. and was described as being very small with five households. The village assets included two ploughs, a meadow and 3 acres. The head of the manor was Haywood. In 1066 the lord of the manor was the Bishop of Chester. In 1086 the lord of the manor was Nigel of Stafford and the Bishop of Chester was now the tenant-in-chief. The survey also states that the value of the parish was 10s 9d.

RAF Hixon
During the Second World War, Hixon was the location of a Royal Air Force Station built for RAF Bomber Command. The station opened in 1942 on a site located 0.9 mi north west of the village and had the station identification code of HX. Three intersecting concrete runways were built on the station, which were surfaced with tarmac for use by Class-A bombers. The station building and technical site were located on the south east of the station and included accommodation and communal facilities for 2,938 RAF personnel. There were also four T-2 type hangars and one MAP B-1 aircraft hangar. Overseeing the station was a 1941 pattern control tower which still survives and is currently being used as industrial offices. During the war bomber aircraft that used the airfield included Vickers Wellingtons, Avro Lancasters and Bristol Blenheims. Other types that operated from the station included Curtiss P40 Tomahawks, Miles M.9 Masters, Miles M.25 Martinets and Hawker Hurricanes which were mainly used for training.

Hixon rail crash
On 6 January 1968 a 120-ton transformer was being moved from the English Electric factory at Stafford to storage on the disused airfield at Hixon. The road train grounded on the level crossing in New Road (aka Station Road), Hixon. An express train from Manchester London Road to Euston ran into the transformer. Eleven people were killed and twenty seven seriously injured. Following this accident the requirements for telephones at automatic crossings were increased greatly and their position and signage improved. The level crossing was eventually replaced by a bridge in 2002 following the tragic death of local man Tony Heasman whose vehicle was struck on the crossing.

Public houses
The village has only one public house, The Bank House, since the demolition of the former Green Man in September 2020 The Bankhouse Inn used to have a butchers and brew house attached. This pub has been extended and now includes a seating area for meals however the bar and lounge are still very old with timbers and open fires.

The Green Man was used for many public events such as the annual fireworks that raise money for the Charity for Hixons Elderly Folk (CHEF) and CHEF fest which are very well supported. The Green Man closed in November 2019 having been sold to a private developer, with planning permission granted for a mix of residential and commercial property. This was despite the best efforts of the local community who presented viable options to the owner at the time Steve Rabjons.

Organisations
Hixon Community Association (HCA) is an umbrella group that collaborates with many smaller groups and organisations. Its main focus is to help pool resources and work with other groups to achieve their goals.

HCA has shared interests with the following groups:

 * St Peters PTFA
 * Wellington Fields Allotments Association
 * Hixon Memorial Hall
 * Hixon Green and Clean
 * Friends of Hixon
 * The Charity for Hixon Elderly Folk (CHEF)
 * Millennium Green Trust

CHEF continues to raise money through CHEF Fest music festival. CHEF Fest is an annual festival helping to raise money for the old folks Christmas Party. Following the demolition of the Green Man public house, the music festival has relocated to the Millennium Green in Hixon.

The Parish Church of Saint Peter
The 19th century parish church of Saint Peter is a Grade II listed building, in the Early English Gothic style. and was designed and built by the English Gothic revival architect George Gilbert Scott.

The site for the church was given by Lord Talbot and had previously been occupied by a windmill: this gives the church an unusual location on high ground, away from the road, on the edge of the village. The foundation stone was laid by the Marchioness of Lothian in July 1846. The Church was consecrated on St. Peter's Day 1848 (Tuesday, 29 June) by the then Bishop of Lichfield, John Lonsdale.

The church is part of the combined Mid-Trent Churches benefice of the Diocese of Lichfield, covering ten churches across eight parishes.

Adjacent to the church stands the old St.Peters school and the St.peters school house. Originally home to the Headmaster and Headmistress and their family. Mr. & Mrs. Harrison. ( 1960's )

Hixon Halt and the railway
The village was connected to the rail network when the North Staffordshire Railway was routed through the area along the Trent Valley. The station was called Hixon Halt and it was opened in 1847 two years after the railway line had first been opened in 1845. Hixon Halt was located half a mile south of the village but was closed for passengers in 1947.

Bus services
Chaserider run one main bus service to Stafford and Uttoxeter which use 5 different stops in the village with the main two being on Martins Way and Back Lane opposite the Bankhouse Inn. D&G Bus operate service X41 to Drayton Manor theme park during the summer which passes through the village.

D&G formerly operated 842 to Great Haywood and Rugeley but this was withdrawn due to County Council funding.

People of note

 * Wilmot Martin, MBE, (1875-1963), a farmer, charitable fundraiser and entertainer who performed under the name 'The Staffordshire Harry Lauder'. Buried in St Peter's Church, Hixon.

title: Hixon, Staffordshire


text:
List of municipalities of the Province of Cuneo

The following is a list of the 249 municipalities (comuni) of the Province of Cuneo, Piedmont, Italy.


text:
Árbol del Tule

El Árbol del Tule (Spanish for The Tree of Tule) is a tree located in the church grounds in the town center of Santa María del Tule in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, approximately 9 km east of the city of Oaxaca on the road to Mitla. It is a Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum), or ahuehuete (meaning "old man of the water" in Nahuatl). It has the stoutest tree trunk in the world. In 2001, it was placed on a UNESCO tentative list of World Heritage Sites, but was removed from the list in 2013.

Dimensions and age
In 2005, its trunk had a circumference of 42.0 m, equating to a diameter of 14.05 m, an increase from a measurement of 11.42 m m in 1982. However, the trunk is heavily buttressed, giving a higher diameter reading than the true cross-sectional of the trunk represents; when this is taken into account, the diameter of the 'smoothed out' trunk is 9.38 m. This is slightly wider than the next most stout tree known, a giant sequoia with a 8.90 m diameter.

The height is difficult to measure due to the very broad crown; the 2005 measurement, made by laser, is 35.4 m, shorter than previous measurements of 41 - 43 m.

It is so large that it was originally thought to be multiple trees, but DNA tests have proven that it is only one tree. This does not rule out another hypothesis, which states that it comprises multiple trunks from a single individual.

The age is unknown, with estimates ranging between 1,200 and 3,000 years, and even one claim of 6,000 years; the best scientific estimate based on growth rates is 1,433–1,600 years. Local Zapotec legend holds that it was planted about 1,400 years ago by Pechocha, a priest of the Aztec wind god Ehecatl - this age is in broad agreement with the scientific estimate; its location on a sacred site (later taken over by the Roman Catholic Church) would also support this.

The tree is occasionally nicknamed the "Tree of Life" from the images of animals that are reputedly visible in the tree's gnarled trunk. As part of an official project local schoolchildren give tourists a tour of the tree and point out shapes of creatures on the trunk, including jaguars and elephants.

In 1990, it was reported that the tree is slowly dying because its roots have been damaged by water shortages, pollution, and traffic, with 8,000 cars travelling daily on a nearby highway.

title: Árbol del Tule


text:
Category:Vocabulary

A subcategory of semantics. This category deals with articles associated with specific words and lists of words.

Note that encyclopedic articles where the primary topic should be a word are rare. See Wikipedia is not a dictionary.

title: Category:Vocabulary


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Dana Key

Dana Key (December 30, 1953 – June 6, 2010) was an American Christian rock guitarist, singer, and producer who was co-founder of the Christian rock group DeGarmo and Key with keyboardist Eddie DeGarmo, best friends since the first grade. Key grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, meeting DeGarmo in the 1st grade. The two grew up together in the same neighborhood. Key was a direct descendant of Francis Scott Key, the author of The Star-Spangled Banner.

DeGarmo and Key toured the world, headlining and opening with other major Christian rock bands including Servant, Petra, Joe English, Amy Grant, Resurrection Band, Jessy Dixon, Mylon LeFevre and Broken Heart, and dc Talk (who were both an opening act and members of D&K's roadie crew). Key and Eddie DeGarmo produced the first video by contemporary Christian artists to be aired on MTV. Key released two solo albums as well.

In 1989, Key co-authored the book Don't Stop the Music, described in the cover notes as "a defense of contemporary Christian music written by one of its premier performers."

Following retirement, Key served as the head of Ardent Records, and hosted a TV show, featuring new, younger, Christian bands. Key had been serving as the pastor of a small church in Cordova, Tennessee, The Love of Christ Church (tlc).

Key died due to a ruptured blood clot on Sunday, June 6, 2010 at age 56, according to CCM Magazine's website.

title: Dana Key


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Yup in my white T

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was speedy delete. -- AllyUnion (talk) 14:22, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Yup in my white T
looks like gibberish. could be lyrics, but that'd be a copyright violation and it doesn't say they're lyrics. Nateji77 20:04, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Speedily deleted. Move along, nothing to see here. --Golbez 20:48, Feb 9, 2005 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


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Henry Ferguson Davie

General Sir Henry Robert Ferguson Davie, 1st Baronet DL (1797 – 30 November 1885), known as Henry Ferguson until 1846, of Creedy Park, Sandford, Devon, was Liberal Member of Parliament for Haddington in East Lothian, Scotland, 1847 to 1878 and an army officer.

The son of Robert Ferguson, Fife, he joined the British Army in 1818. He rose through the ranks as follows: Lieutenant (1819), Captain (1822), Major (1826), Lieutenant Colonel (1828), Colonel (1841), Major General (1854), Lieutenant General (1860) and General (1866).

He was appointed Colonel of the 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment of Foot on 17 February 1865. The Regiment became the second Battalion, The Black Watch in 1881, and the General served as Colonel of the Battalion until his death.

In 1823, he married Frances Juliana Davie, daughter of Sir John Davie, 9th Baronet, of Creedy, and niece and heiress of Sir Humphrey Davie, 10th and last Baronet, of Creedy. In 1846 he assumed by Royal licence the additional surname of Davie and the following year the baronetcy held by his wife's family was revived when he was created a Baronet, of Creedy in the County of Devon. on 9 January 1847.

He had six children, amongst whom John (born 1830), a Grenadier Guards officer, succeeded to the Baronetcy in 1885 and Charles Robert (born 1836) was Rector of Yelverton, Norfolk.

He was a Deputy Lieutenant of Devonshire and Somerset and lived at Creedy Park in Crediton, Devon.

title: Henry Ferguson Davie