CHRONOLOGY

1844	Henry David Thoreau publishes an excerpt from the Lotus Sutra in the Dial, journal of the New England Transcendentalists, marking the inauguration of American romantics’ fascination with Buddhism.
1853	The first Buddhist temple in San Francisco is founded by the Sze Yap Company, and housed on the top floor of the company’s headquarters.
1875	Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott form the Theosophical Society in New York City, an organization that will be one of the most important links between India and the West for the next century.
1882	Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, one of a number of pieces of legislation aimed at curtailing east Asian immigration.
1893	The World’s Parliament of Religions, the largest interreligious forum in the nineteenth century, is held in Chicago, marking the formal arrival of leading Asian missionaries in the West.
1899	The Buddhist Mission to North America, the forerunner of the Buddhist Churches of America, is formally inaugurated with the arrival of the first permanent Jodo Shinshu missionaries.
1927	Zenshuji Soto Zen temple is founded in Los Angeles to serve the needs of Japanese Americans, but along with Sokoji temple, founded in San Francisco in the next decade, it will become an important base for convert Buddhists.
1931	Nyogen Senzaki and Sokei-an, two Rinzai Zen monks and colleagues of Shaku Soyen, begin teaching in Los Angeles and New York City, respectively.
1932	Dwight Goddard publishes The Buddhist Bible, an anthology of both Theravada and Mahayana material, which several decades later introduces Jack Kerouac and others in the Beat generation to important Buddhist sutras.
1945	The Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Mission to North America reincorporates as the Buddhist Churches of America, a shift in identity precipitated by the devastating wartime experience of Japanese Americans.
1950s	The Zen boom takes off, led by D. T. Suzuki, teaching at Columbia University, and Alan Watts, among the most prominent popularizers of Buddhism and other Asian religions.
1959	Alan Watts publishes Beat Zen, Square Zen, and Zen, which charts ways Americans are beginning to embrace Buddhism on the eve of the 1960s. Robert and Anne Aitken cofound a Zen sitting group in Hawaii, later known as the Diamond Sangha.
1960	Daisaku Ikeda, third president of Soka Gakkai, makes his first trip to the United States to encourage the fledgling movement in this country, which then primarily consisted of Japanese immigrants.
1962	Shunryu Suzuki and his students incorporate as the San Francisco Zen Center.
	Hsuan Hua arrives in San Francisco, where he will eventually found the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association.
1964	Eido Shimano revitalizes the Zen Studies Society, an organization originally founded to support the work of D. T. Suzuki.
	The Buddhist Association of the United States establishes its headquarters in the Bronx in New York City.
1965	The Immigration and Nationality Act is passed, ending an older quota system that effectively barred Asian immigration. Immigration from Buddhist countries soars.
1966	Philip Kapleau founds the Rochester Zen Center.
	The Washington Buddhist Vihara, the first Theravada temple in the United States, is founded in Washington, D.C.
1967	Taizan Maezumi and his students establish the Zen Center of Los Angeles, among the pioneering Zen communities in this country.
1969	Shambhala Publications is formed as an outgrowth of a Berkeley, California-based metaphysical bookstore.
1970	Tail of the Tiger (later Karme Choling) is founded by Chogyam Trungpa in Barnet, Vermont, as Tibetan Buddhism becomes an important element in countercultural Buddhism.
1972	Seung Sahn, a Korean monk and master teacher, arrives in the Providence, Rhode Island area, where he will later establish the Kwan Um School of Zen.
1973	The Dalai Lama makes his first trip to the West, setting a precedent for his later travels, which will be instrumental in publicizing the plight of the Tibetan people and popularizing Tibetan Buddhism in the West.
1974	Naropa Institute is founded in Boulder, Colorado; it will become the first fully accredited Buddhist-inspired liberal arts college in this country.
1975	The fall of Saigon triggers a massive Vietnamese migration to the United States over the next decade, leading to the establishment of many Vietnamese temples.
	The Insight Meditation Society is founded in Barre, Massachusetts.
1976	The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is founded in Talmadge, California under the auspices of the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association.
1978	The Buddhist Peace Fellowship is founded to promote linking Buddhist contemplation to social action, a trend that will later be known as socially engaged Buddhism.
1979	The Cambodian Buddhist Society, the first of many temples founded by Cambodian refugees, is established in Silver Spring, Maryland. Jon Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues start the Stress Reduction Clinic at the Medical Center at the University of Massachusetts.
1980	Friends of the Western Buddhist Order establishes a community in New Hampshire, the first of a number across the country. The Buddhist Sangha Council of Southern California is formed in Los Angeles.
1983	Richard Baker resigns as abbot of San Francisco Zen Center, after which SFZC begins to experiment with new forms of elected community leadership.
1985	Sandy Boucher publishes Turning the Wheel: American Women Creating the New Buddhism.
	Thich Nhat Hanh presents the Order of Interbeing to Americans during his tour of this country.
1987	Sakyadhita: The International Association of Buddhist Women is founded in Bodhgaya, India, marking the increasing importance of international networks among Buddhist women. The Conference on World Buddhism in North America is held in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
1988	Hsi Lai Temple, in the Taiwan-based Fo Kuang Buddhist movement, opens in Hacienda Heights, California, becoming the largest Buddhist monastic complex in the western hemisphere.
1989	Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1990	American Jewish leaders travel to Dharamsala to discuss Judaism and Buddhism with the Dalai Lama.
1991	Nichiren Shoshu and Soka Gakkai International formally separate. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, an independent journal of opinion in the Buddhist community, begins publication.
1993	Western Buddhist teachers travel to Dharamsala to discuss teaching the dharma in the West with the Dalai Lama.
	The World’s Parliament of Religions, a centennial celebration of the first Parliament, is held in Chicago.
1995	Buddhist Peace Fellowship runs its first Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement, or BASE, program.
	Zenkai Blanche Hartman joins Zoketsu Norman Fischer as co-abbot of San Francisco Zen Center.
	Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi, founder of the Zen Center of Los Angeles, dies unexpectedly in Japan at age 54, prompting the formation of the White Plum Sangha, an association of his dharma heirs and students aimed at fostering his teachings.
1996	Christian and Buddhist monastics and lay practitioners gather at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky as a part of an ongoing Buddhist-Christian dialogue movement.
1997	Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Buddhists from a range of ethnic and national groups meet at Hsi Lai Temple to develop an ecumenical platform for Buddhists.
	Gay and lesbian activists meet with the Dalai Lama to discuss issues related to Buddhist teachings and sexuality.
1999	The Buddhist Churches of America, the oldest institutional form of Buddhism in the United States, celebrates its centennial.
2001	Publication of Blue Jean Buddha by Sumi Loundon Kim draws attention to the emergence of new generations of Euro-American Buddhist practitioners.
2001–03	The Awake consortium, comprising Buddhist meditators and arts professionals, revisits the creative contributions of Buddhism to the visual, installation, and performance arts.
2004	Publication of Maia Duerr’s A Powerful Silence by The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society charts the burgeoning interest in mindfulness and other meditative practices.
2007	The International Congress on Women’s Role in the Sangha is held in Hamburg, Germany, signaling widespread expectations for gender reform in the worldwide Buddhist community.
2009	The ordination in Perth, Australia of four nuns in the Thai forest tradition precipitates a global controversy about the legitimacy of full monastic ordination for women.
	John Daido Loori Roshi, dharma heir of Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi and founder of the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, New York, dies at the age of 77.
2010	Robert Aitken Roshi, American Zen Buddhist pioneer and founder of Diamond Sangha in Hawaii, dies at the age of 93.
2011	Sherry Chayat Roshi, Abbot of the Syracuse Zen Center, is installed as Abbot of Dai Bosatsu Zendo Monastery, a leading Rinzai center in New York founded by Eido Tai Shimano Roshi, where she began to practice Zen in 1967.