Buddhism in Venezuela is practiced by over 52,000 people (roughly 0.2% of the population). The Buddhist community is made up mainly of Chinese

Overseas Chinese

Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....

, Japanese

Japanese Venezuelan

-Language:Most Japanese Venezuelans only speak Spanish. Only a selected number can speak Japanese, while those with higher education speak English. There are even a number of Japanese Venezuelan schools that offer English-language teaching to the recent Japanese residents.-Religion:The majority of...

, and Koreans

Korean people

The Korean people are an ethnic group originating in the Korean peninsula and Manchuria. Koreans are one of the most ethnically and linguistically homogeneous groups in the world.-Names:...

.

Most identify with the Mahayana

Mahayana

Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...

 tradition, reflecting the religious heritage of their emigrant countries.

However in the mid 1990s Keun-Tshen Goba, together with Jigme Rinzen, founded a meditation center using the Shambhala Training

Shambhala Training

Shambhala Training is a secular approach to meditation developed by the late Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa and his students. It is based on what Trungpa calls Shambhala Vision, which sees enlightened society as not purely mythical, but as realizable by people of all faiths through...

 method.
There are Buddhist centers in Caracas

Caracas

Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...

, Maracay

Maracay

Maracay is a city in north-central Venezuela, near the Caribbean coast, and is the capital and most important city of the state of Aragua. Most of it falls under the jurisdiction of the Girardot Municipality. The population as per the 2001 census was 750,000...

, Mérida

Mérida, Mérida

Santiago de los Caballeros de Mérida, Venezuela, is the capital of the municipality of Libertador and the state of Mérida, and is one of the principal cities of the Venezuelan Andes...

, Puerto Ordáz

Puerto Ordaz

Puerto Ordaz is a planned city which, together with the older settlement of San Felix, forms Ciudad Guayana in Bolívar State, eastern Venezuela. Puerto Ordaz is located at the confluence of the Caroní and Orinoco Rivers and is the site of the Llovizna Falls. There are bridges across the Caroni and...

, San Felipe, and Valencia

Valencia, Venezuela

Valencia is the capital city of Carabobo State, and the third largest city of Venezuela.The city is an economic hub that contains Venezuela's top industries and manufacturing companies. The population of Valencia reached some 1.5 million in the year 2003, and it is expected to grow dramatically...

.

External links

• Buddhist centers of Venezuela