WORLD'S PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. Held in Chicago from September 11 to 18, 1893, in conjunction with the Columbian Exposition, the World's Parliament of Religions was a milestone in the history of interreligious dialogue, the study of world religions, and the impact of Eastern religious traditions on American culture. The parliament's several delegates from Asia were among the first authoritative representatives of their traditions to travel to the West. The earliest Vedāntist and Buddhist organizations in the United States to cater primarily to Westerners can be traced directly or indirectly to the conference and its delegates.

Though awakened by the "Yankee Hindoo" motif of New England transcendentalism during the early part of the nineteenth century and furthered by the educational efforts of the Theosophical Society (founded in New York in 1875), American interest in Eastern spirituality was enhanced by the publicity created...