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Booming time for Buddhism

Southeast Asian migrants have made Buddhism the fastest-growing religion in Australia.

Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research figures show the number of Buddhists nearly quadrupled to 140,000 from 1981 to 1991. It is thought there are now about 200,000 in Australia.

Immigration from countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia had been the main source of new Buddhists, the bureau report said. Some 30,000 Australians from Western backgrounds had also joined the faith.

The report said this showed a greater acceptance of Buddhism than in 1988, when a Federal Office of Multicultural Affairs poll found that 41 per cent of Australians would not want a Buddhist as a workmate.

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