Buddhism in South America: an overview with reference to the South American context

Abstract

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 América.