INTRODUCTION In summer 2000, the northern German city of Hannover hosted the World EXPO, which had an overwhelming, if not confusing, variety of technical and cultural presentations of various nations’ achievements. Upon joining the visitors flowing into the spacious fairgrounds at the northwest entrance, the dome of the Nepalese pagoda soon caught one’s interest. A few steps onward, the Thai pavilion attracted visitors with a miniature reproduction of a golden traditional temple. Pagoda and temple were marvelously illuminated during the evenings. Strolling on, in front of the Sri Lankan pavilion a huge Buddha statue stretched up to the roof. However, one of the most discussed and admired national pavilions was the Bhutanese pagoda, enthusiastically portrayed as “a jewel of the Himalaya.” Bhutan was represented by a traditional, entirely wooden construction—a three-part temple with carved ornaments, icons, and symbols of Buddhism. The pagoda’s center was a lhakang (Tib.“shrine room”) in which late every afternoon a Buddhist priest ritually honored the bodhisattvas depicted by three gloriously dressed statues. The pagoda not only represented a religious place—it was a religious place, a temple. These religious overtones contrasted strongly with the disenchanted, electronically-focused,“cold” atmosphere found in many other nations’ pavilions. In the Bhutanese pagoda visitors could take part in an introduction to Buddhism provided at half-hourly intervals in the meditation room situated right under the lhakang. The pagoda’s strangeness and—for many visitors—seemingly out-of-place contents and practices aroused both curiosity and excitement. The offer to learn more about Buddhism—presented by German-born Buddhists, not by the Bhutanese—filled the instruction room from morning to evening. The public presence that Buddhism gained at this World EXPO exemplifies the