Manchester Buddhist Centre

A talk by Mun­isha at the fifth annual Manchester Buddhist Con­fer­ence on 19th June 2010

As Clear Vision’s rep­res­ent­at­ive at the Net­work of Buddhist Organ­isa­tions, Mun­isha gives the key­note speech on behalf of the Net­work. She is also a trustee of the Manchester Buddhist Centre.

Focus­sing on the diversity within Brit­ish Buddhism, the dif­fi­culty of estim­at­ing our num­bers, and the chal­lenges of rep­res­ent­ing Buddhist per­spect­ives in gov­ern­ment con­sulta­tions, she makes a strong case for the bene­fits of networking.

Facts, fig­ures and guesstimates

She presents some fas­cin­at­ing stat­ist­ics from the 2001 census which go some way towards show­ing the num­ber and eth­nic ori­gins of Buddhists in the UK. There’s a new census due in 2011, when we are all urged to tick the Buddhist box, des­pite no fixed self!

She also quotes a break­down of UK Buddhist groups by size from Robert Bluck’s Brit­ish Buddhism, although these are also open to ques­tion, and then details the sur­pris­ing num­ber of Buddhist groups, centres and temples in Greater Manchester.

More on the Network

As well as a new web­site, the Net­work of Buddhist Organ­isa­tions also has a Face­book group, Friends of Buddhism UK.