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199 Chapter 12 The Function of Ethnicity in the Adaptation of Burmese Religious Practices  Joseph Cheah Burmese of Chinese descent comprise the majority of immigrants from Burma to the United States.1 Many came to the United States after the 1967 anti-Chinese riot in Burma. They were victims of socioeconomic oppression and race-based educational discrimination under the Ne Win government and its successive military regime, known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) or State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Because the majority of the Chinese-Burmese are Buddhists in terms of their religious affiliation, they probably represent the first sizable group of immigrants to the United States who are TheravƗdans by birth. Like the Catholics, Jews, and other immigrant religious communities before them, the emerging communities of Burmese Buddhists have had the organizational task of raising funds, establishing temples, and sponsoring Burmese Buddhist monks to serve the fledging Buddhist “congregations” across the United States. Like other ethnic Buddhists, many Burmese Buddhists have observed devotional and religious/cultural practices in the domestic setting. How do Burmese Buddhist monasteries help to maintain ethnic culture of Burmese immigrant Buddhists? How has the observance of religious rituals at home helped to preserve Burmese culture and identity? In what ways have Burmese Buddhists accommodated their religious practices to the American context? These are some of the questions of adaptation of Burmese monastic and domestic practices to the American context that will be considered in this chapter. In answering these questions, I base my arguments in part on qualitative ethnographic data that I have collected over the past five years.2 Because my unit of analysis (a central theme emerging from my data that gives integrity in relation to my research sites) is “ethnic practice” (a kind of practice that stems from cultural items such as religion, language, food, social conduct, and proper relations among members), I explore in detail the function of ethnicity in both the monastic and domestic settings. While my fieldwork focuses on the Dhammananda monastery in the city of Half Moon Bay, California, in particular, I explore pertinent programs and practices relative to other monasteries in Northern California as well. In all of 200 Joseph Cheah these monasteries, Burmese of Chinese ethnicity constitute the largest group. The primary target group for my study, therefore, is the Chinese-Burmese Buddhists. Before setting forth my responses to the above questions, however, a short history of the Burmese immigration to the United States is necessary to provide the context , vocabulary, and other relevant information for understanding this case study. A Brief History of the Burmese Immigration to the United States Immigrants from Burma began to settle in the United States in very small numbers in the early 1960s, but the immigration rate of Burmese to the United States increased exponentially after the 1967 anti-Chinese riots in Burma. The immigration of mostly ethnic Chinese from Burma in the 1970s and 1980s was followed by the entry of students and refugees after the prodemocracy protests of 1988 and by the relatively recent arrivals of Karen, Burmans, Chin, Kachin, and other ethnic groups from Burma. The 2000 federal census data reveals that there were 16,720 Burmese in the United States,3 while the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) data shows that 25,229 Burmese immigrated to the United States between 1977 and 2000.4 Both of these figures, however, drastically undercount the Burmese population in the United States, because they do not include remigrants (Burmese migrants who entered the United States via another country other than Burma), students, second-generation Burmese Americans, and thousands of Karen and Chin refugees who are currently being resettled in the United States.5 The flow of Burmese immigrants into the United States can be conveniently divided into three different waves: the first from the post-1967 anti-Chinese riots in Burma to the military crackdown on the 1988 prodemocracy activists (the period of the Ne Win government), the second from the start of SLORC administration in 1988 to 2006, and the third from the resettlement of the Karen refugees since 2006 to the present. The First Wave Burmese of Chinese descent constituted the first major wave of immigrants from Burma to the United States. They were “pushed” by political and socioeconomic oppression in their native Burma and “pulled” by economic and political incentives offered by the more liberalized American immigration law of 1965. In Burma, they were victims of racial violence and socioeconomic...

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