BUDDHISM IN NORWAY
Haavard Lorentzen.
---o0o---
There are not many Buddhists in Norway, a
country with 4.5 million inhabitants in the northern part of Europe. As a
matter of fact, most Buddhists are of Vietnamese descendance, there are also a
few with Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Tibetan, Thai and Cambodian background. And
there are a few Norwegians too who have caught interest in this fascinating
religion, and the number has increased slowly over the last couple of decades.
It is difficult to estimate the total number of Buddhists in my country,
because the different ethnic groups (Vietnamese, Cambodians etc.) are mostly
organised separately. As for the Norwegian Buddhists only a few of them are
organised or attached to a special group, mainly in the capital, Oslo. Buddhists
throughout the country have to practice and study Buddhism on their own. In
Oslo, however, there is a Theravada society, as well as different Mahayana
schools, like the Chan (Zen), The Pure Land and also a small Tibetan monastery.
So, a rough estimate of the total number of Buddhists in Norway would probably
number approximately 10,000 people or so.
The major religion of Norway is
Christianity, the Lutheran (or Protestant) branch being the far largest.
Christianity has been the dominant religion of my country for the last 900
years, the final change came after a major battle in the year 1030 which ended
the Viking age and also the belief in the polytheistic Viking mythology where
the major gods of worship were Odin (Wotan) and Tor. This religion was also mixed
up with aspects of animism, a few traces of which we can still see in today’s
Christmas celebration. Santa Claus being one, Originally Santa Claus was an
underground, mysterious and magical figure, living in the deep forests, and he
could both harm and be benevolent towards humans, dependent on whether he
received food offerings or not.
The second largest religion in Norway
today is Islam, which numbers approximately 100,000 people, almost all of them
of Middle East, Pakistan or North African origin. These people came to Norway
during the 1970s as foreign workers, and also as refugees. There are several
mosques in Oslo.
The first people to introduce Buddhism
in Norway were, ironically, Christian missionaries who had worked in East Asia,
mostly in China. The missionaries had different attitudes towards other
religions, many of them were quite hostile towards Buddhism, Taoism etc., while
others caught a serious interest in these beliefs and advocated a tolerant and
liberal attitude. Especially one person should be mentioned, his name was
Reichelt, and he spent most of his life in China before the turn of the
century. He spoke and read Chinese fluently, and translated several Buddhist
and Taoist texts into Norwegian, among them the Tao Te-ching. Reichelt never
changed in Christian belief, but he showed a tolerant and open minded attitude
which deserves the deepest respect.
There has also been a special interest
for Tibet in my country, mostly because Tibet also was a country where
Norwegian missionaries were active. After the Chinese occupation of the
country, there has also been some political support for Dalai Lamas struggle
for independence, although leading Norwegian politicians have been very
reluctant to give him absolute support. When Dalai Lama visited Oslo in 1988,
none of the leading politicians were willing to meet him. The risk of losing
important economic contracts with China was probably the major reason for this
cowardly act, which arose a lot of harm among ordinary people. However Dalai
Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the year after.
As mentioned earlier, one of the first
to make Buddhism known in Norway, was a Christian missionary called Karl Ludvig
Reichelt (1877-1952). His lexical data are as follows:
He was educated a primary school teacher,
later he studied at the so-called Missionary School in Stavanger, and was sent
out to do service in Ninsiang, Hunan province, China, in 1902. He stayed there
for eight years, then he made further studies in Leipzeg, Germany, before going
back to China as a teacher at the Lutheran Mission School, near Hankow. During
a stay in Norway between 1920-22, he put forward plans for missionary work
among Chinese Buddhist monks, based on other principles than those which had
been used among Christian missionaries earlier. His main concern was based on a
recognition of the religious values found in Buddhism, and he also wanted to
integrate these values, together with rituals and concepts familiar to the
Chinese, with the basic ideas found in the Christian religion. His employers in
Norway could not accept these new ideas. Reinchelt therefore founded a new
missionary institution based on his own principles in 1922. The center of
Reinchelt’s mission was established in 1929. It was called Tao Fong Shan,
located near Hong Kong.
Reichelt spent most of his life in
China, and wrote several books in Chinese, among others an introduction to The
New Testament. Besides, he wrote several books about the religious life in
Eastern Asia. The most important are the following: Kinas religioner (The
Religions of China) 1913, Fra Ostens religiose liv (From the Religious Life of
the East) 1922, Det rene land (The Pure Land) 1928, Mot Tibets grenser (Towards
the Borders of Tibet) 1933, Fromhetstyper og helligdommer I Ost Asia (Piety and
Holiness in Eastern Asia) 1947-49. (The titles given in English here, are direct
translations of the Norwegian titles. Many of Reichelts books are translated
into English and German, the titles of these editions may be different from
those found in this article). In 1948 his book Laotse was published, this book
included a translation of the Tao Te-ching. In a foreword to this book, the
Norwegian professor Henry Henne writes: "First of all, Reichelt was a
missionary. But he always kept an open mind. In a period when many of his
contemporary’s looked down upon the traditions and the cultures of China, he
himself felt a deep admiration for the people, the language and the
country..(…). The study of the religious rituals and the texts, occupied much
of his time. Through these studies, he achieved first hand knowledge about the
literary sources, as well as the religious practices among both monks and lay
people..(…). The deeper understanding achieved in this way, gave him the
opportunity to see the tremendous religious and philosophical values found in
Buddhism, as well as in newer and older forms of Taoism."
In 1947, one of Reichelts relatives, Gerhard
M. Reichelt, translated and wrote an introduction to Hui Neng’s The Sixth
Patriarch (Chinese: Lu-tsu Fa-pao-t’an-ching), as you know, the only Chinese
Buddhist text given the honorable title of sutra. Together with D.T. Suzukis
books, this was a major contribution to make ch’an Buddhism known in
Scandinavia.
Other Scandinavians should also be mentioned
here, first of all, the Danish scholar Poul Tuxen, who translated and commented
on several major Buddhist texts. A new translation of the Dhammapada has
recently been published in Denmark by Chr, Lindtner, a scholar also responsible
for the translation of several of Nagarjunas texts (Ratnavali, Yuktisastika,
Niraupamyastava, Paramarthastava), thus making the teachings of the Madhyamaka
school available in a Scandinavian language.
However, as Norwegian (as well as
other Scandinavian languages) are spoken and read by rather few people, the
majority of Buddhist texts will have to be read in English translations. As
most Scandinavians speak and read English quite well, the major texts of
Buddhism are made available through these translations. English has definitely
become the language of Buddhism in the West.
Knowledge of Buddhism in Norway today
is mostly channeled through the Secondary School System. A brief introduction
to Buddhism is given alongside with other major religions like Islam, Hinduism,
Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto, Judaism and Christianity. As a teacher in these
subjects for many years, I have noticed two different attitudes towards
Buddhism among my students. One group finds it too abstract, too pessimistic
and a bit peculiar, while others are catching a serious interest in the
philosophical aspects of Buddhism. When I meet old students after many years
and start to talk to them, surprisingly many say that they have been thinking
about the lessons on Buddhism, they have borrowed books about the subject in
the libraries, and a few of them have also started to study Buddhism at
University level. All the four Universities in Norway offers the opportunity to
study world religions, and after a basic course, the students may specialise in
one particular religion.
Like most other Western Countries,
Norway has experienced a period when religion, philosophy and belief have lost
much of its previous influence, but this development seems now to have come to
a final end. There is a limit for material wealth too, and quite many young
people start to look for deeper moral and philosophical values as fundaments in
their lives. In this new development, Buddhism will play a major role.
Source: quangduc.com