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From Stone to Flesh: A Short History of the Buddha
By: Donald Lopez

From Stone to Flesh: A Short History of the Buddha  <br> By: Donald Lopez


 
Our Price: $26.00
Members Price: $23.40
Author: Donald Lopez
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780226493206
Publication Date: 2013


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Product Code: 18599
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Description About the author Contents
 
Leading historian of Buddhism Donald S. Lopez Jr. tells the story of how various idols carved in stone variously named Beddou, Codam, Xaca, and Fo became the man of flesh and blood that we know simply as the Buddha. He reveals that the positive view of the Buddha in Europe and America is rather recent, originating a little more than a hundred and fifty years ago. For centuries, the Buddha was condemned by Western writers as the most dangerous idol of the Orient. He was a demon, the murderer of his mother, a purveyor of idolatry.

Lopez provides an engaging history of depictions of the Buddha from classical accounts and medieval stories to the testimonies of European travelers, diplomats, soldiers, and missionaries. He shows that centuries of hostility toward the Buddha changed dramatically in the nineteenth century, when the teachings of the Buddha, having disappeared from India by the fourteenth century, were read by European scholars newly proficient in Asian languages. At the same time, the traditional view of the Buddha persisted in Asia, where he was revered as much for his supernatural powers as for his philosophical insights.

From Stone to Flesh follows the twists and turns of these Eastern and Western notions of the Buddha, leading finally to his triumph as the founder of a world religion.

From Stone to Flesh: A Short History of the Buddha, Donald Lopez, University of Columbia Press, Hardcover, 289 pages, $26.00

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