The Buddha
Life and Afterlife Between East and West

The first book both to tell the story of the Buddha's life and how the Buddha came to the West.

Philip C. Almond (Author)

9781009346795, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 November 2023

300 pages
22.2 x 14.7 x 2.7 cm, 0.63 kg

'This book is essential reading. Almond explores how the Buddha has been imagined as a sage, idol, reformer, saint, demon, and ethical exemplar. These shifting identities reveal more about western projections than about the historical figure himself. Yet they also affirm the Buddha's status as a global icon, whose image remains a site of cultural negotiation. For art historians, religious scholars, and students of global modernity, Almond's study provides a refined lens for examining the cultural and temporal dynamics of religious iconography.' Qi Zhou, Art History

Alongside Jesus and Muhammad, the Buddha is the most significant figure in the history of religion. Philip Almond's engaging new book is the first to combine a history of early traditions about Siddhartha Gautama's life with an authoritative account of how he and the tantalizing philosophy inspired by him came to the attention of the West. It takes the reader on a remarkable journey encompassing (among other topics) Alexander the Great, the courts of the Mongol Khans, Jesuit missions to China and Japan, and intrepid European travellers and scholars from the modern era. Melding Pali and Sanskrit sources with vivid reception, Almond presents the Buddha's story as multi-layered: one of transition from a world of angels and demons, water and tree spirits, to an altogether different context where Buddhism mixed with the cultural preoccupations of those who tentatively – sometimes following false trails – tried to make sense of its fascinating complexity.

1. Stories of the Buddha
2. The Quest for Enlightenment
3. The Buddha, the Greeks, and the Naked Philosophers
4. Mongols, Missionaries, and the Chief of the Idols
5. Saint Josaphat, the Buddha of Christendom
6. Imagining the Buddha
7. The Quest for the Historical Buddha
8. A Buddha for the West
Epilogue: 'Naturalised Buddhism'.

Subject Areas: Buddhism [HRE]