The first scholarly study of the emergence of American Buddhist Studies as a significant research field, approaching issues such as identity in Asian-American Buddhism, the new Buddhism, and the scholar's place in American Buddhist Studies.

Part 1 Asian American Buddhist Identities; Chapter 1 Issues of Ethnicity in the Buddhist Churches of America, Kenneth K. Tanaka; Chapter 2 Japanese American Zen Temples: Cultural Identity and Economics, Senry? Asai, Duncan Ry?ken Williams; Chapter 3 Placing Palms Together: Religious and Cultural Dimensions of the Hsi Lai Temple Political Donations Controversy, Stuart Chandler; Chapter 4 Ritual and the Performance of Buddhist Identity among Lao Buddhists in North America, Penny Van Esterik; Part 2 Profiling the New Buddhists; Chapter 5 Night-Stand Buddhists and Other Creatures: Sympathizers, Adherents, and the Study of Religion, Thomas A. Tweed; Chapter 6 The New Buddhism: Some Empirical Findings, James William Coleman; Chapter 7 Supply and Demand: The Appeal of Buddhism in America, Phillip Hammond, David Machacek; Part 3 Modes of Dharma Transmission; Chapter 8 Local Inter-Buddhist Associations in North America, Paul David Numrich; Chapter 9 The Pacific Buddha’s Wild Practice: Gary Snyder’s Environmental Ethic, Charles R. Strain; Chapter 10 The Internet as Window onto American Buddhism, Richard P. Hayes; Part 4 The Scholar’s Place in American Buddhist Studies; Chapter 11 The Academic Study of Buddhism in America: A Silent Sangha, Charles Prebish; Chapter 12 Buddhist Studies at Naropa: Sectarian or Academic?, Robert E. Goss; Chapter 13 Buddhist Worlds in the U.S.A.: A Survey of the Territory, Richard Hughes Seager;