00000nam a22000008i 4500 20260913094826.0 260919s2022 ii 00 0 eng d 9788195668915 Aparna Chatterjee The Barua Buddhists : Lineage and cultural Interface / Aparna Chatterjee. New Delhi Shhalaj Publishing House 2022. Where do the Baruas stand in Buddhist religious universe? Could they be categorized as Bengali Buddhists? Such intriguing questions are addressed headlong here and answers are ferreted out of the troves of history. A large swathe of these frankly devout people is now found settled in and around Siliguri town, a gateway to the North-Eastern hinterland. But their antecedents are immensely spectacular, yet problematic. As settlers, how far their religious moorings carry them through the alienated environs of a majoritarian Hindu society? How proficient they are in border maintenance and syncretism? This ethnographic study of Bengali Barua Buddhists gives the reader a critical insight into everyday sociological practices of these struggling survivors of an ancient religion.