社区成员聚集在特尔福德的天明党光举行年度仪式, 宾西法尼亚.
阿宾顿,爸爸. — Jivaka.网 C .最近发布的项目. 皮尔斯Salguero, associate professor of Asian history and religious studies at 宾州州立大学阿宾顿分校 — is the product of a years-long survey of Buddhist temples and centers located in the Philadelphia area.
Much of the research legwork for the site was completed by undergraduate students working with Salguero. His work was partially funded by the 施赖尔卓越教学研究所 through its Teaching Transformation and Innovation grant program, as well as by the Penn State Center for Student 参与ment in Philadelphia and small grants from 阿宾顿 College.
Salguero说，尽管冥想在英语大众媒体上很受欢迎, 生活在美国的亚洲人的实际佛教经历.S. 经常被忽略. 特别关注佛教和医疗保健的交集, Salguero and his students documented more than 40 Buddhist institutions on the website through participant-observation ethnography. The work goes a long way toward filling in some of the large gap of knowledge of Asian cultures living in eastern 宾西法尼亚.
Many of Salguero’s students actually share heritage and language with those who attend the temples, allowing them to play an “indispensable role as cultural liaisons who facilitate cultural awareness, 帮助他们的同学浏览寺庙空间, 甚至为他们的小组翻译面试问题,萨尔盖罗说.
“The students’ expertise and their ability to communicate with temple members makes it so that the work they are doing in this class really is making a major contribution to the field of Buddhist studies,萨尔盖罗说.
每年，萨尔盖罗都要与由美国教育部资助的学生一起工作 讴歌计划 宾州州立大学阿宾顿分校，即阿宾顿学院本科生研究活动. This pool of funding supports undergraduate students who are engaged in scientific experimentation, 在一年的课程中，以探究为基础的艺术研究和探索.
其他学生也在他的课上贡献了《易胜博娱乐》. 这也, Salguero说, allowed him to turn a common humanities trope on its head: Instead of him standing in front a class and pontificating on eastern spiritual and philosophical matters from a Western academic perspective, 学生们会走进社区，看到活生生的佛教.
“If we’re privileging text books in such a way that they’re overshadowing the actual experience of Asian and Asian-American people in Philadelphia, 对我来说，这对我们的学生来说毫无意义,他说. “把它翻过来，看看生活中的佛教，看看它是如何影响人们的生活的, 然后我们必须从文学转向民族志模式.”
这是一种产自班塞勒姆的药用饮料, 宾西法尼亚, 是由枣子组成的吗, 姜和蘑菇.
The participant-observation ethnography method used by student researchers to document the temples follows a three-step process. 为任何寺庙编目的第一步是核实其位置. A student or two might travel to a location where they believe there is a temple and take a photo of the exterior from the street.
接下来是第二层:初次面试. Students will go the temple when it’s open (often on a weekend) and find someone — a monk or a priest perhaps — to get basic information on the temple and its congregation. This second stage normally takes two or more site visits in order to gather information from multiple parties. It’s also during this stage the students will focus in on how the temple facilitates healthcare practices for members of its community.
第三阶段由Salguero和纪录片导演Lan拍摄的视频组成. A. 哥伦比亚大学的李教授说. 他们合作的结果, seven short documentary videos exploring different aspects of the intersection of Buddhism and medicine in the Philadelphia area, are available on the project website along with background information and most of the data from the project.
The cost of Li’s videos was covered by a grant from the 施赖尔卓越教学研究所. 蒂娜R. 莱维, 施赖尔研究所的教学顾问和助理研究教授, said projects such as Salguero’s aligns with the grant’s mission to support innovations in teaching and learning and also have a demonstrable impact on student learning.
“This project not only allows students to get involved firsthand in the local community and apply course content to authentic contexts, but it also extends that learning experience to other Penn State students and faculty by creating a video repository of the interactions,利维说. “我们很高兴能帮助支持它. 通过网站创建学生参与和学习的可见工件, 这也是一种社区资源, serves as an example of the varied and creative ways Penn State faculty are impacting their students and community, 并激励其他教师在教学和学习方面的努力.”
Salguero and his students are filling a massive gap in how American popular media usually represents the connections between Buddhism and health, 这是显性的, 他说, 通过专注于冥想. 而冥想和沉思的做法往往是佛教生活方式的核心部分, Salguero’s students have also documented elaborate ceremonies and communal meals — familiar activities to many religions. 例如, one of Li’s films shows the Songkran (Thai New Year) Festival at Wat Mongkoltempunee in Bensalem, 宾西法尼亚. Here participants in the festival are shown cooking a communal meal and offering food to the monks in a crowded, 繁忙的寺庙熙熙攘攘. 这些电影还描绘了西方观众不熟悉的传统, 比如为泰国新年清洗佛像.
这位寺庙守卫守卫着费城普瑞佛兰西寺的大门.
Jivaka.这个名字来源于佛陀的医生的名字, who is revered in Buddhist scripture) now serves as a record of not only a wide array of Asian-American cultural and religious institutions in the Philadelphia area, 而是记录了获得第一手资料的本科生的实地工作, 勘察佛教寺庙的经验. 该网站围绕治疗仪式等主题进行组织, 传统医学，如草药或针灸, and the intersections with mainstream health that emphasize the role of Buddhism in the area’s health landscape. 每节课都配有视频, 详细描述, 网站其他部分的相关条目和进一步的学术阅读列表.
也许对费城当地居民最有用, 该网站有一个谷歌地图插件，标记了每个目录寺庙的位置. 这个页面上的搜索功能可以帮助人们准确地找到他们要找的东西. 例如, typing in “Chinese” brings up multiple entries such as Fa Yuan Chan Temple along Castor Avenue in Philadelphia, 一座以缅甸和中国普通话为代表的寺庙.
费城地区是研究亚洲人口及其文化的沃土. 美国.S. 人口普查局估计7.大费城都会区有4%的居民是亚裔, 而全国平均水平是5.2%. There were numerous waves of immigration to the city during the 20th century and the number of immigrants is only expected to grow. Salguero wrote that 36 of the 44 sites he and his researchers have visited were founded to primarily serve Asian immigrant populations.
在不久的将来, Salguero将扩大该项目，包括一些国际站点, 从泰国开始, 越南, 韩国和日本. 与此同时, 随着Salguero和他的学生们努力填写寺庙的入口，Jivaka项目正在进行中, 收集更多的信息，并找到新的寺庙.
