During the Edo period (1600–1868), the entire pop-
ulation was legally required to affiliate with a Buddhist
monastery. These inalterable, exclusive affiliations
were established by family units and passed down
through generations. In return for supporting the
monasteries and their priests, the priests performed the
family’s funerals and periodic ancestral rites. Although
the legal obligation of monastery affiliation dissolved
in the 1870s, the fact of family graves and records be-
ing kept by the monasteries means that these affilia-
tions have largely been preserved.
Laity established associations for pilgrimage and for
the recitation of Amitabha’s name or the title of the
LOTUSSUTRA(SADDHARMAPUNDARIKA-SUTRA). Stories
of the ideal layperson, based on historical individuals,
were published by the True Pure Land sect during the
Edo period in collections called ojoden(tales of rebirth
[in the pure land]). These tales vividly illustrated val-
ued traits: filial piety, honesty, compassion, devotion
to reciting Amitabha’s name, and strong conviction of
the certain rebirth in the Western Pure Land.Laity and modernization
The modernization of Buddhist societies has brought
sweeping changes. The extension of the franchise and
expanded political participation in secular life colored
religious life, creating the expectation that laity should
be able to influence the character of Buddhist institu-
tions. The spread of literacy has enabled laity to read
and interpret sacred scripture with increasing inde-
pendence from the ordained. Higher education hones
a critical spirit and encourages skepticism regarding
clergy’s preeminence over the laity and their monop-
oly over funerals and other rituals. The prestige of sci-
ence and rationality in modernizing societies further
nurtures a critical view of traditional religious beliefs,
practices, and institutions.
The encounter with Christian missionaries and
Western imperialism was an important catalyst to Bud-
dhist revival movements, and laymen have frequently
played significant roles. The lay branch of the Buddhist
Theosophical Society, founded in Sri Lanka in 1880,
created a press, the Buddhist English School (later
Ananda College), and a newspaper, The Buddhist.
Prominent laity like ANAGARIKADHARMAPALA(born
David Hewavitarne, 1864–1933) acquired their first ex-
perience of activism in the Buddhist Theosophical So-
ciety and in the Young Men’s Buddhist Association
(later renamed the All-Ceylon Buddhist Congress),
founded in Colombo in 1898 by C. S. Dissanayake.
Dharmapala founded the first international Bud-
dhist organization, Mahabodhi Society, in Colombo in
1891, later starting a revival of Buddhism in India, be-
ginning with a project to restore BODHGAYA. Dharma-
pala linked his support for Buddhism to the struggle
for Indian independence, so that Buddhist advocacy
was inseparable from the call for political indepen-
dence. The Indian Buddhist revival did not become a
mass movement, however, until the leadership of
Bhimrao Ramji AMBEDKAR(1891–1956), an attorney
trained in the United States and Britain who worked
for the legal emancipation of the Untouchables. De-
spairing of integrating the Untouchables into Hindu
caste society, he converted to Buddhism in 1950. When
he called on all Untouchables to convert, mass con-
versions followed in several Indian states.
In late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century
Japan, Buddhist reform movements arose, frequentlyLAITY
Monks receive alms from lay Buddhists at Phra Dhammakaya
Monastery near Bangkok, Thailand, 1991. © Don Farber 2003.
All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission.