NEW FROM

ZEN

IN

UNIVERSITY

OF

HAWAI I PRESS

BRAZIL

The Quest for Cosmopolitan Modernity

Cristina Rocha

Rocha demonstrates that the existence of

inows and counterows of Zen in Brazil
illustrates the rhizomatic nature of the globalization process, where Brazil is one of
the nodes (albeit less inuential) in the web
of global ows of Zen. Indeed, Zen in Brazil has never been isolated from trends occurring elsewhere. The arrival of Japanese
immigrants, the rotation of Stsh missionaries among various temples outside
Japan, Brazilian intellectuals traveling to
metropolitan centers and translating books
on Zen, the media, and more recently the
internet have meant that Brazil has received
inows, but it has also produced counterows of Zen.

Widely perceived as an overwhelmingly Catholic

nation, Brazil has experienced in recent years a
growth in the popularity of Buddhism among the
urban, cosmopolitan upper classes. In the 1990s
Buddhism in general and Zen in particular were
adopted by national elites, the media, and popular
culture as a set of humanistic values to counter the
rampant violence and crime in Brazilian society.
Despite national media attention, the rapidly expanding Brazilian market for Buddhist books and
events, and general interest in the globalization of
Buddhism, the Brazilian case has received little
scholarly attention. Cristina Rocha addresses that
shortcoming in Zen in Brazil.
Drawing on eldwork in Japan and Brazil, she
examines Brazilian history, culture, and literature to uncover the mainly Catholic, Spiritist, and
Afro-Brazilian religious matrices responsible for
this particular indigenization of Buddhism. In her
analysis of Japanese immigration and the adoption
and creolization of the Stsh school of Zen Buddhism in Brazil, she offers the fascinating insight
that the latter is part of a process of cannibalizing the modern other to become modern oneself.
She shows, moreover, that in practicing Zen, the
Brazilian intellectual elites from the 1950s onward
have been driven by a desire to acquire and accumulate cultural capital both locally and overseas.
Their consumption of Zen, Rocha contends, has
been an expression of their desire to distinguish
themselves from popular taste at home while at the
same time associating themselves with overseas
cultural elites.

Innovative and cross-disciplinary in its approach, Zen in Brazil will appeal to scholars in the elds of religion, globalization,
migration, Buddhism, and Asian and Latin
American studies, as well as to those interested in anthropology and cultural studies.

SPECIAL 20% DISCOUNT OFFER

USD $29.60, Cloth

Regular Price USD$37.00, Cloth

CRISTINA ROCHA is an Australia Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the

Centre for Cultural Research, University of
Western Sydney.
TOPICS IN CONTEMPORARY BUDDHISM

2006, 272 pages, 24 illustrations, 2 maps

ISBN: 0-8248-2976-X / 978-0-8248-2976-6
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