In the early 1990s, the French Buddhist Union estimated there to be 600,000 to 650,000 Buddhists in France, with 150,000 French converts among them. In 1999, sociologist Frédéric Lenoir estimated there are 10,000 converts and up to 5 million "sympathizers," although other researchers have questioned these numbers. A 1997 opinion poll counted as sympathizers young people who feel "an intellectual affinity with Buddhism or expressed a sympathy to a Buddhist worldview."
History
was an important early French Buddhist. She is best known for her 1924 visit to the forbidden city ofLhasa, capital of Tibet, and wrote more than 30 books about Buddhism, philosophy, and her travels. In 1911 Alexandra traveled to India, to further her study of Buddhism. She was invited to the royal monastery of Sikkim, where she met Maharaj Kumar Sidkeon Tulku. She became Sidkeong's "confidante and spiritual sister", and perhaps his lover. She also met the 13th Dalai Lama twice in 1912, and had the opportunity to ask him many questions about Buddhism—a feat unprecedented for a European woman at that time. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Buddhist teachers of various traditions began to visit France, as detailed below.
By the late 1990s, it has been estimated that there are more than 140 Tibetan Buddhist meditation centers in France. The first Tibetan Buddhist communities in France were established in the early 1970s. The highest-ranking head of schools to reside in France, Phendé Khenchen, established his temple of E Wam Phendé Ling in 1973. He is of the Ngor school of Buddhism. Buddhism in France's growth was catalyzed by visits, in 1975 of the Karmapa, head of the Kagyü school, Dudjom Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, also very high lamas, who visited Dordogne, where they established retreat centers with the help of Pema Wangyal Rinpoche, the son of Kangyur Rinpoche, another high lama who was among the first to take western disciples. Dudjom Rinpoche later moved to France, where he died. Kalu Rinpoche, also a highly esteemed lama, visited France in 1971, 1972 and 1974 and in 1976 led the first traditional three-year retreat for westerners in France. In the Kagyu lineage such retreats confer the title "lama" on those who complete them. It is estimated that sixty percent of the centers and monasteries in France are affiliated with the Kagyu school. 1982 the Dalai Lama visited France. There are about twenty retreat centres representing all the different schools as well as many town-based centres which are under the direction of great Tibetan Buddhist masters. Dhagpo Kundreul Ling in Auvergne is said to be the biggest Buddhist monastery outside Asia. Monasticism has traditionally been the bedrock of Tibetan Buddhism, but there were only a few dozen ordained French monks and nuns until the mid-1990s. However, there are now at least 300, most of whom were trained at the two monasteries in Auvergne. The most famous French monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition is Matthieu Ricard, a longtime student of Dilgo Khyenste Rinpoche who is the son of famous philosopher Jean-Francois Revel. He has published books on Buddhism which have contributed to interest in Buddhism and French Buddhists among the intelligentsia.
"Wisdom of Buddhism", a weekly French TV program, draws about 250,000 viewers, according to the Buddhist Union of France. Philosopher Luc Ferry, appointed Minister of Youth and Education in 2002, published an article in Le Point magazine in which he asked, "Why this Buddhist wave? And why particularly in France, a very Catholic country in the past?... In this time of de-Christianization, Buddhism has furnished to the West a rich and interesting alternative."
