spirits of trees, rivers, and mountains; and the ability
of talented individuals to perform miracles and see
other realms. Even in the Indian context, then, Bud-
dhism possessed what may be considered fuzzy mar-
gins. As Buddhism moved out of the Indian sphere and
came into contact with other cultures, not only did
these original background elements travel as part of
Buddhism, but Buddhism also melded easily with the
established beliefs and practices in new settings. An-
cient deities, famous holy places, and long-standing
ritual practices could all be included within the Bud-
dhist sphere.
Modern scholarship focuses on three forms of folk
religion: local gods, spirit-mediums, and family reli-
gion. Many deities deriving from Brahmanical religion
were assimilated into the emerging Buddhist world-
view. MARA, who appears in the Vedas, came to rep-
resent death and evil; he tried to prevent the Buddha
from achieving enlightenment and carrying on his
ministry. Brahmaand INDRA(S ́akra Devanam Indra)
were also accepted into the Buddhist pantheon and as-
signed specific planes in the Buddhist heavens. Other
powerful figures in the pre-Buddhist underworld were
given roles in later Buddhist mythology, including
King Yama (Yama raja), lord of the underworld, and
Harit, mother of demons. Native gods in various cul-
tures outside of India were also positioned in relation
to Buddhism. As modern ethnographies have shown,
monks and laypeople draw on the gods of the region
in which they live to achieve a wide range of purposes,
ranging from this-worldly to transcendent, all included
within Buddhism. Another way to localize Buddhist
deities was to place them in recognizable contexts.
Thus, Mount Wutai in China was the site where
Mañjus ́rBodhisattva manifested himself as early as
the beginning of the Tang dynasty (618–907); in Japan,
Buddhist deities in the Kofuku Temple were correlated
with their indigenous counterparts in the Kasuga
Shrine in Nara starting in the eighth century; and in
Tibet the DALAILAMAwas considered a reincarnation
of Avalokites ́vara Bodhisattva beginning in the seven-
teenth century.
Spirit-mediums (sometimes called shamans) are
people who perform various religious rituals (exor-
cisms, séances, healing rites, divinations) while tem-
porarily incarnating deities. Sometimes the deities are
recognizably Buddhist; other times they are considered
local ghosts or spirits. Spirit-mediums are drawn from
the ranks of the local Buddhist institution, or Buddhist
priests attempt to assert their dominance over a class
of local spirit-mediums. Some of the best studies of the
problem of folk religion deal with spirit-mediums in
Thailand (Tambiah), Burma (Spiro), Tibet and the Hi-
malayas (Mumford), China (Strickmann), and Japan
(Blacker).
Most traditional Asian cultures treat the ancestors
with veneration and emphasize the importance of pro-
viding for their salvation. Hence Buddhist rites are of-
ten performed in order to bring relief to the ancestors
in the afterlife. Providing offerings to monks, patron-
izing temples, commissioning statues, making prayers
at home—almost any Buddhist ritual action has been
harnessed to the interests of the ancestral cult. Using
early Indian stone inscriptions, Gregory Schopen has
recently shown that the concern with filial piety was
not unique to Chinese Buddhism, but had developed
in India earlier as well.
Folk religionis a contested term. It is sometimes
still deployed in an unreflective manner, set up in
contrast to a presumably pure or more orthodox form
of Buddhism. One should also beware of unac-
knowledged bias in the use of terms like popular re-
ligion(rather than monastic doctrine), little tradition
(as opposed to an intellectual great tradition), or be-
nighted practice(versus enlightened beliefs). Folk re-
ligionin the derogatory sense has been used by both
Buddhists and opponents of Buddhism. Yet respon-
sible studies continue to use the term in new ways.
Recognizing that it artificially separates Buddhist
phenomena from non-Buddhist phenomena, schol-
ars are taking folk religion more seriously and search-
ing for the interrelations between Buddhist and
non-Buddhist forms of religion.See also:Confucianism and Buddhism; Cosmology;
Daoism and Buddhism; Entertainment and Perfor-
mance; Ghosts and Spirits; Hinduism and Buddhism;
Local Divinities and Buddhism; Merit and Merit-
Making; Shinto(Honji Suijaku) and BuddhismBibliography
Blacker, Carmen. The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Prac-
tices in Japan.London: Allen and Unwin, 1975. Revised edi-
tion, 1986.
Grapard, Allan G. The Protocol of the Gods: A Study of the Ka-
suga Cult in Japanese History.Berkeley: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 1992.
Ling, Trevor O. Buddhism and the Mythology of Evil: A Study in
Theravada Buddhism.London: Allen and Unwin, 1962.
Mumford, Stan Royal. Himalayan Dialogue: Tibetan Lamas and
Gurnung Shamans in Nepal.Madison: University of Wis-
consin Press, 1989.FOLKRELIGION:ANOVERVIEW