By Diana Butler Bass

WE ARE WITNESSING an extraordinary moment in American religious history. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has reached the pinnacle of publishing success: two New York Times bestsellers at the same time.

Since a person is more likely to die in a plane crash than write a New York Times bestseller, for an author to have two books on the list is big publishing news.

And it is big religion news. No Protestant or Catholic religious leader has ever achieved such success. Not the pope. Not Billy Graham. A single religious book, maybe. But not two. The honor has fallen to the Dalai Lama --- a Buddhist.

A best-selling Buddhist in a nation historically tied to Christianity?

THE 14th DALAI LAMA is the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people. As the reincarnation of the former Dalai Lamas, he embodies the spirit of the Buddha.

In 1959, the Chinese hoped to eradicate Tibetan Buddhism by taking over his country and forcing him into exile. For the last 40 years, he has worked on behalf of his people. In 1989, he won the Nobel Peace Prize and focused worldwide attention on Tibet's plight.

That Tibetan Buddhism, a complex philosophy demanding disciplined meditation and study, should gain adherents in the United States surprises most observers. But to true believers, this only fulfills ancient prophecy: "When the iron bird flies, and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the world, and the Dharma ("truth") will come to the land of the Red Man."

Divinely appointed or not, Buddhism is coming into its own in the United States. While the contemporary success of Buddhism may seem something of a koan, its appeal is rooted in American religious history.

Americans first encountered Buddhism in the middle of the last century. in 1844, the first European-language introduction to Buddhism appeared. Combined with the founding of the American Oriental Society that same year, Americans became aware of Buddhism as a philosophy distinct from other eastern religions.

In the years following, Asian immigrants brought Buddhism to the United States and American missionaries encountered Buddhism throughout the Far East.

AMERICANS FOUND Buddhism intriguing --- and a sophisticated intellectual rival to Christianity. Prof. Thomas Tweed of the University of North Carolina notes that between 1893 and 1907 Buddhism was "in vogue." Americans read about Buddhism in newspapers, magazines and novels. They attended lectures given by Buddhists and formed Buddhist societies. Prominent Americans, including the daughter of a Tennessee governor, converted.

Across the nation, ministers worried that Buddhism would displace Christianity.

Around 1900, only a couple thousand Americans had converted to Buddhism. But tens of thousands more were sympathetic to it. A century later, the ratio is probably similar --- more Americans flirt with Buddhism than actually embrace it.

The appeal? Many late-19th-century Americans sensed a spiritual crisis. Traditional faiths, particularly Christianity, failed to account for new scientific questions and social changes. Buddhism offered alternate ways to understand these problems.

Some Christians believed Buddhism to be more rational than their own faith and more compatible with science, particularly Darwinism. Only last summer, conservative Christians in Kansas restricted the teaching of evolution, thus causing more thoughtful co-religionists considerable embarrasment. Unlike much American Christianity, Buddhism allows for both rigorous scientific inquiry and faithful spirituality.

Buddhism was also believed more tolerant of other faiths. With religious diversity increasing --- both then and now --- Buddhist insistence on the fundamental truths of all religious paths is refreshing. In one recent survey, Californians identified Buddhists as "more Christian" than Christians in their ability to accept others. Accordingly, Buddhism opens optimistic possibilities for inter-religious understanding.

WHETHER BUDDHISM is as Americans depict it, Americans have long romanticized Buddhism as a way out of problems created by their own history, entangled as it is with Western Christianity. Popular interest in Buddism tends to reemerge when inherited faiths appear intellectually inadequate or overly restrictive.

Once again, spiritual seekers are going outside tradition and the question, "Shall we all become Buddhists?" becomes more relevant than ever.

Diana Butler Bass writes a religion column for the Santa Barbara News-Press and is associate professor of religious studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee.