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Taking Refuge : Lao Buddhists in North America (Monographs in Southeast Asian Studies)
Taking Refuge Lao Buddhists in North America - Monographs in Southeast Asian Studies Author:Penny Van Esterik This book discusses the exodus of Lao refugees to North America following the collapse of Saigon and Phnom Penh in 1975. Van Esterik focuses on the least known group of Indochinese refugees, the lowland Lao or Lao Lum, who comprised about half the population of Laos. While the Western media focused attention on the plight of the Vietnamese... more » refugees, there has been very little scholarly interest in Lao immigration to the West. This study examines Lao refugee resettlement, and their attempts to recreate their Buddhist institutions in North America. Utilizing data from Lao refugees in Toronto, Van Esterik provides the reader with a thorough examination of refugee adaptation through the perspective of religion. It is this integration of the role that Buddhism played in the refugee experience which distinguishes Van Esterik's study from the standard political and legal examinations of refugee resettlement.« less