Buddhism in Mexico - Budismo en México

Buddhistdoor Golbal, 2025

The article "Buddhica Hispanica" explores the emergence of Buddhism in the Spanish-speaking world, encompassing Spain, Central, and South America. Unlike the Anglophone West, Hispanophone Buddhism has a unique history, shaped by Spain’s lack of colonial ties to Buddhist-majority countries and the Catholic Church's dominance in education. Buddhist studies in the region lagged behind global developments, only gaining momentum after Spain’s 1979 constitution allowed religious freedom. Today, platforms like Buddhistdoor en Español are vital in fostering awareness and community. The growing interest spans diverse traditions, from Zen to Vajrayana, and includes cultural intersections like Buddhism’s influence on Ibero-American literature and film. Despite representing a small fraction of the population, Hispanophone Buddhism is expanding, offering innovation and fresh perspectives. This burgeoning “frontier” of Buddhism holds immense potential for enriching the global Dharma dialogue.

Social, Political, and Religious Movements in the Modern Americas, 2022

The research of Buddhism in Latin America has focused in detail on certain countries – primarily on Brazil, Argentina and Mexico but has not seen the overall picture of the continent. Among the aspects missing is a study of the institutional relevance of Buddhism in the entire region as a basis for comparison both between different Latin American countries and between Buddhism in Latin American and other parts of the Western world. The present chapter pretends to expand our knowledge about this specific issue.

2013

Batres 3 international figure has led to the establishment of centers focused on educating foreign communities on Tibetan Buddhism. The Tibetan Buddhist centers in Mexico that are directly connected to the Dalai Lama are called "Casa Tibet" (Tibetan House)3. They inaugurated on the 2nd of July of 1989 during the 14th Dalai Lama's first visit to Mexico as the first Cultural Embassy of Tibet in Latin America. On their web page, they express that their purpose was not easy since they wished to were educate the Mexican community about the Tibetan culture but that they now had reaped the results of their work, with more than 2000 active members in Mexico and Central America.5 For more than 20 years now, these centers have spread teachings with some people choosing to convert to Buddhism. The two Tibetan Buddhist Mexican nuns who now live in India that I interviewed first found Tibetan Buddhism through Casa Tibet. Tibetan Buddhism is growing in Mexico, not because Tibetans are immigrating to Mexico, but because Mexican people are converting. To think of Mexican Tibetan Buddhists opens many questions and possibilities and this research begins to scratch the surface of this new development of Tibetan Buddhism. Conversion is a process of inner and outer change and as Mexican people convert to Tibetan Buddhism, their lives are being transformed significantly. Before exploring the stories of converts the term "conversion" has to first be defined and explored. Lewis R. Rambo defines conversion as, "a process of dynamic and multifaceted transformation.''6 Religious can change a person's life since religion can give meaning and purpose to people's lives. A convert chooses to transform him or herself through religion. Rambo divides the stages of a conversion into the following: context, crisis, search, encounter, interaction, commitment, and conversion 3 Casa Tibet now has 17 locations in Mexico.

In the first part the article offers a preliminary synoptic approach to Buddhism in South America in general. The latter part is based on a combination of different kinds of references, including academic sources, official statistics of religion launched by governmental and research agencies Buddhist directories, estimations of the statistical relevance of Buddhism by continent, by country or in a city, and homepages run by Buddhists institutions active in South America. Since research on Buddhism in Brazil is well advanced, the reader can expect more details in the second part of this essay dedicated to a description and interpretation of the situation in the only Portuguese speaking country in South America.

2009

... Context Final Project SUSI: Religious Pluralism University of California Santa Barbara, CA. By Mtra. Marcela Zapata Meza Universidad Anáhuac México Sur July, 2009 Page 2. Mexico's Religious Context 2 ABSTRACT Ever ...

This article offers an overview of the Buddhist groups created in Argentina in recent decades as a contribution to the study of pluralization within the national religious scene and as a way of comprehending the spread of Buddhism in the West. The first part of the paper examines the early textual appropriation of Buddhism by certain Orientalist literati and intellectuals. The second part describes the history and main features of the Buddhist groups linked to Asian immigration from China, Korea, Japan and Laos. The third part focuses on exploring the history and main sociocultural features of groups whose membership is mostly composed of Argentine converts who have no Oriental ancestors. The crossing of paths and the encounters between Argentine Buddhist groups are then described along with the appropriation of their ideas and practices by different alternative institutions having no links with official Buddhism, and the broader impact of this religion on national society. Finally, the conclusions reflect on the global decentralization process Buddhism is undergoing and the challenges this religious minority must face locally.

Ever since prehispanic age and up to present, the Mexican society has faced sundry ideological, cultural, socio-political, economical and religious challenges and through them, it has needed to look back to redefine its essence as an independent nation that emerged from a cultural fusion and from a clear religious syncretism (mixing). Mexico is considered as a country of catholic majority, although we can't deny the new thinking trends which today try to interpret or to face those problems and vital queries for the man that previously just found an explanation behind the Catholic Church. In 2007, the General Board of Religious Associations reported that 6,806 different religious associations and 60,542 cult ministers existed in Mexican territory.

MODERNITY OF RELIGIOSITIES AND BELIEFS, 2021

The chapter problematizes manifestations of Buddhism in Latin American countries, especially in Brazil, that can be understood as the outcome of a process of “commodification” of Buddhist elements into “goods” and “services” that can be acquired independent of an explicit commitment to a Buddhist institution

The aim of this work is to account for the presence and diversity of Argentinean Buddhism by examining its history and the main social-cultural features of this religion’s associated centers.

Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions, 2019