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The Buddhism Section is the largest, most stable, and most diverse forum for Buddhist Studies in North America. The Buddhism Section embraces the full historical range of the Buddhist tradition from its inception some two and a half millenia ago to the present and spans its entire geographical sweep: the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Tibet, Mongolia, China, Korea, Japan, and the West. In addition to being historically and geographically inclusive, we have made efforts to encourage methodological plurality. Papers presented in recent years reflect, in addition to the philological and textual approaches of classic Buddhology, the methods of intellectual history, institutional history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, gender and cultural studies, art history, literary theory, and post-colonial studies. We will continue to encourage cross-disciplinary exchange. The Buddhism Section is the forum of choice for many established scholars. For some years now, we have also striven to provide a forum for younger scholars to aid them in establishing their careers. Under normal circumstances, at least one session at the annual meeting is devoted to four or five individual papers; often many or all of these are from graduate students or younger scholars making their first academic presentation at a national conference. In recent years, a growing number of foreign scholars has come to recognize the AAR Buddhism Section as a valuable forum and to submit proposals, including scholars whose primary language is not English. We wish to continue to promote communication with scholars abroad and to provide opportunities for younger scholars, and are very much in favor of the AAR's recent moves to encourage greater international participation.