Buddhism is often portrayed as a universalising religion that transcends the local and directs attention toward a transcendent dharma. Yet, wherever Buddhism spreads, it also sparks local identity discourses that, directly or indirectly, root the dharma in native soil and history, and, in doing so, frame 'the local' in Buddhist discourse. Occasionally, notably in Japanese Shinto and Tibetan Bon, this localising variety of 'framing of discourse'--here tentatively termed 'nativism'--leads to the establishment of independent traditions that break free from Buddhism; yet, in other contexts,...