Buddhist organizations in Great Britain

Abstract

The thesis is concerned with a study of the Buddhist organizations in Great Britain. The Buddhist organizations in this country began in Greater London in 1907 at first, and then many British Buddhists and Buddhists from the East set up many Buddhist groups in Greater London and afterwards outside London. After the Second World War the number of Buddhist organizations and their members is increasing. There are 36 Buddhist organizations in Great Britain in 1972. As the majority of my field work was done among the 5 Buddhist organizations in Greater London, 17 provincial Buddhist organizations and 6 university Buddhist societies in the U.K. The greatest emphasis is on their structures, activities, eternal and external relationships and conflicts in their organizations, Buddhist movements in general, their religious belief, a comparison between British Buddhists and Thai Buddhists in Thailand, Buddhist population, and how Buddhism applied to the Western world. It is noticed that Buddhist organization in Britain is a small minority organization, but according to the social change young people turned to interest in Eastern religions and ways of life, so there is a great demand for information about Buddhism and Buddhist organizations in Britain. I think that this thesis will give information about these from the beginning and up to the present day in more detail.