Spirituality/Medicine Interface Project
A Buddhist Perspective on Coping with Catastrophe
Abstract
Buddhists make up a large proportion of the population of many countries around the world, including Thailand (95%), Cambodia (90%), Myanmar (88%), Bhutan (75%), Sri Lanka (70%), Tibet (65%), Laos (60%), Vietnam (55%), Japan (50%), Macau (45%), and Taiwan (43%), and with a growing number of adherents in the West. Overall, Buddhists make up around 350 to 360 million (6%) of the world’s population.1 This makes Buddhism the world’s fourth largest religion. Immigrants who come from these countries to the United States will likely bring with them their Buddhist religious and cultural traditions, will be affected in unique ways by community-wide catastrophes, and may require unique treatment approaches.This content is limited to qualifying members.
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References
1. Buddhist Studies: Statistics on Buddhists. Largest Buddhist Populations: Top 10 Countries with Highest Proportion of Buddhists. Available at: http://buddhanet.net/e-learning/history/bstatt10.htm. Accessed January 17, 2007.
2. Yiva V. A Buddhist response to September 11. Article posted on the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue website in 2006. Available at: http:/www.monasticdialog.com. Although this article is no longer present on the website. Full article may be obtained by contacting Dr. Harold G. Koenig (koenig@geri.duke.edu).
