The term “Buddhism in the West” can be quite misleading. All too often, this general term refers to Buddhism in the Anglophone world, that is, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. But the West is not monolithic, and there are other European languages and cultural complexes that are interacting with Buddhism. The sphere of Spanish-speaking Buddhism, from practitioners to academics and interested seekers, is a rich, vibrant and diverse world that is just beginning to enter the global consciousness.
There are many reasons for the current embryonic state of Buddhism and Buddhist studies in Spain and Central and South America. Many of these reasons have historical roots, such as, for example, the fact that, despite its conquests in Central and South America in the 15th and 16th centuries, as well as the rule of the Philippines from 1565 to 1898, early modern Spain did not colonize any country with a Buddhist majority and, therefore, never participated in any effort to study the religious traditions of Asia through colonial administrators, traveling academics or archaeologists supported by the state.
In the field of education, the Church in Spain applied much stricter policies than its Catholic counterparts elsewhere. In one famous example, Belgian academics Louis de La Vallée Poussin (1869—1938) and Étienne Lamotte (1903—83) were experts in budology, despite being Catholic and broadly anti-Buddhist.
The nation-states that emerged after the Spanish-American wars of independence suffered growing pains and turmoil as they navigated the volatile world of the 19th century. Spain itself had been an imperial power in decline since Napoleon, and the abdications, restorations and continuous civil conflicts of the Bourbons led to the rise of Francisco Franco (1892—1975) in the 1930s, who established a fascist dictatorship in Spain until the 1970s.
In general, the sociocultural context in which Buddhism entered the Spanish-speaking consciousness is quite different from the experience of the British in India or the French in Indochina. Until recently, there were no dictionaries or compendia written in Spanish by Spanish counterparts of French sinologists such as Édouard Chavannes (1865—1918) or Paul Pelliot (1878—1949), nor archaeological surveys carried out by a Hispanic Aurel Stein. At the popular level, Spanish-speaking “adopters” who “became natives” and converted to Buddhism were even rarer than American or British converts.
Academically, Buddhist studies in the Spanish-speaking world have been lagging behind. This is evident when compared to Anglo-German, French-speaking, Japanese and Russian schools. The most mature schools of Buddhist studies developed throughout the 20th century without significant Spanish-speaking contributions until long after Franco. In general, it could be said that Buddhist studies have been a topic historically formed in Euro-American universities, with Spanish contributions absent.
Spain introduced a new constitution that promoted freedom of religion in 1979. This was nearly two centuries after William Jones (1746—94) of the Asiatic Society. Of course, before Franco's death in 1975, there were communities and individuals who made significant efforts within the constraints of the time, but the time for true intellectual flourishing came long after Buddhist discourse was firmly established by English-speaking countries.
Until now, the only website dedicated to covering Buddhist developments in the Spanish-speaking world has been Buddhistdoor in Spanish (BDE). Buddhistdoor's Spanish-language platform has been at the forefront of promoting and shaping awareness of Buddhist developments in Spanish-speaking regions for both Spanish and non-Spanish readers. Since 2019, Daniel Millet Gil, born in Barcelona and a doctor in Buddhist Studies from the University of Hong Kong, has been bringing together this first online community of Spanish-speaking Buddhist writers. Therefore, it does not seem complacent to say that the content of Buddhistdoor contributors and columnists in Spanish constitutes the most reliable resource on Hispanic Buddhica.
What do we mean by “Buddhica Hispanica”? When we talk about geography, we refer to the region of the Americas south of the United States, from Central America to South America. We also refer to Spain itself, although the European country is a fundamentally different society from its former colonial regions, just as those regions, now diverse and independent nation-states, are complex and culturally rich societies, different from each other.
Through translated articles and an ongoing series of posts on BDG's Tea House blog, we have been sharing, with the help of our friends at BDE, the wonders of the Spanish-speaking Buddhist world. We can discern passion and fidelity to the Dharma in the teachings of pioneering teachers from different traditions who found centers in those countries, many of them for the first time, to sincere and supportive sanghas growing up in unknown places. We've been exploring the temples, monasteries and stupas being built throughout Central and South America, and talking to academics who help Spanish readers get up to speed on understanding the Dharma.
In the contemporary world, self-described Buddhists within the Spanish-speaking population represent an average of 0.1 percent of the population. However, it is growing and, in an ironic sense, it has a lot of room to innovate and develop, unlike the increasingly static Catholic practices with which people of Hispanic heritage identify culturally.
The Spanish-speaking world is, without a doubt, one of the most important Buddhist boundaries that a religious publication must take very seriously. This is for the edification not only of Spanish-speaking readers, but also of non-Hispanic audiences and communities.
For this purpose, our “Spanish-speaking Buddhism” series, together with selected BDE articles, is exploring issues raised by contributors to the Spanish-language website, with links to the original articles in Spanish, and contextualizing them in the wider world of the development of Buddhism in Spain or Latin America.
We have been covering an immense geographical range in the Hispanic world. Our methodology is twofold. First, we invite respected authors and knowledgeable academics to offer Spanish readers a well-informed and balanced story about the development of Buddhism in the Spanish-speaking world. The achievements and publications of our writers are compelling, all of them with years of experience in their field. Many have doctorates and are researching and teaching at universities. Some of our regular collaborators include, and this is by no means exhaustive, the Cuban writer and academic Dr. Douglas Calvo Gaínza, the Spanish-Brazilian journalist Fina Iñiguez, the Chilean academic of China and ecology Dr. María Elvira Ríos Peñafiel, the Mexican academic Dr. Roberto Eduardo García Fernández, and many more.
Second, we use our sources on the ground and in our Buddhist networks to identify teachers who are having an impact on their communities. Some of these teachers, who may be monastic or lay people, are themselves regular collaborators. The gallery of these Dharma teachers is large and diverse, from the Zen master Denkō Mesa, based in Tenerife in the Canary Islands of Spain, the Argentinian monk Venerable Karma Tenpa, and the Bhante Sanathavihari, based in the United States. The traditions that these teachers encompass, from Theravada to Mahayana and Vajrayana, are as diverse as any Buddhist sphere, whether in traditionally Buddhist Asia or in the English-speaking West.
Finally, the range of topics covered at BDE is also impressive. Precisely because Buddhism is relatively new and fresh in the Latin American and Spanish worlds, even more so than Buddhism in the Anglophone West, there is considerable space for reporting on a wide range of interests, including popular culture, literature and society in general.
For example, Dr. Millet is planning with the writers a special issue on the fascinating intersection between Buddhism and Ibero-American literature, with the objective of exploring how Buddhist teachings and practices have influenced Spanish-speaking narratives and poetry, thus fostering an enriching spiritual and cultural dialogue.
Dr. Millet also collaborates regularly with a Spanish organization called the Catalan Coordinator of Buddhist Entities, which organizes the Catalan Buddhist Film Festival, which is held every two years. This event has the advisory participation of the Buddhist Film Foundation (BFF), directed by Gaetano Maida. The success of the Catalan film festival, which brings Buddhist cinematography and films to a growing Spanish audience, indicates that the Spanish world, together with Latin American countries, is witnessing an ever deeper influence and interest in Buddhist arts and culture.
Karmic seeds are rarely grand or large at first, but over time they mature into a magnificent fruit. With this introductory article, we hope to provide a reminder of how potentially rich and limitless news coverage of the Spanish-speaking world can be. BDE is committed to impactful reporting on this frontier of Dharma. Spanish-speaking Buddhist communities around the world deserve nothing less.
This article was originally published in English in BDG on February 14, 2025.
Links:
“Documentary: The Dawn of Buddhism in Cuba (subtitled version in English)”
Raymond Lam He is a senior writer at Buddhistdoor Global and it also plans, writes and edits its subsite Tea House. Born in Hong Kong, he graduated from Brisbane Grammar School, studied religion at the University of Queensland and earned a master's degree in Buddhist Studies at SOAS University of London. A lay Buddhist since 2008, he is president of the Hong Kong Dharma Support Society. He is also a consultant for the Atlas of Maritime Buddhism at the Visualization Research Center at Hong Kong Baptist University.
