Being a Zen Buddhist Brazilian : juggling multiple religious identities in the land of Catholicism

In this chapter, I will shed light on how the two distinct congregations have laid claim to Busshinji temple in Sao Paulo city. I shall argue that the conflicts over the "authenticity" of Zen stem from the different modes of religious practice. On the one hand, for the first-generation Japanese, religious identity is expressive of their ethnic identity; on the other hand, non-Japanese Brazilians use Zen Buddhism as a marker of social distinction.3 After presenting an overview of the arrival of Zen in Brazil, identifying its demographies and adherents, I will proceed to map the Brazilian religious landscape in order to show how established religions in Brazil have creolized Zen Buddhism. I contend that converts use a Brazilian religious "grammar" as a matrix for new Buddhist "vocabulary," and that the process has facilitated the spread of Buddhism in the country.