The Buddha and the Sahibs

The Buddha and the Sahibs PDF Author: Charles Allen
Publisher: John Murray
ISBN: 9780719554285
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Today there are many Buddhists in the West, but for 2000 years the Buddha's teachings were unknown outside Asia. It was not until the late 18th century, when Sir William Oriental Jones, a British judge in India, broke through the Brahmin's prohibition on learning their sacred language. Sanskrit, that clues about the origins of a religion quite distinct from Hinduism began to be deciphered from inscriptions on pillars and rocks. This study tells the story of the search that followed, as evidence mounted that countries as diverse as Ceylon, Japan and Tibet shared a religion which had its origins in India yet was unknown there. British rule brought to India, Burma and Ceylon a whole band of enthusiastic Orientalist amateurs - soldiers, administrators and adventurers - intent on investigating the subcontinent's lost past. Unwittingly, these men helped lay the foundations for the revival of Buddhism in Asia during the 19th century and its spread to the West in the 20th. Charles Allen's book is a mixture of detective work and story-telling, as this acknowledged master of British Indian history pieces together early Buddhist history to bring a handful of extraordinary characters to life.

The Buddha and the Sahibs

The Buddha and the Sahibs PDF Author: Charles Allen
Publisher: John Murray
ISBN: 9780719554285
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Get Book Here

Book Description
Today there are many Buddhists in the West, but for 2000 years the Buddha's teachings were unknown outside Asia. It was not until the late 18th century, when Sir William Oriental Jones, a British judge in India, broke through the Brahmin's prohibition on learning their sacred language. Sanskrit, that clues about the origins of a religion quite distinct from Hinduism began to be deciphered from inscriptions on pillars and rocks. This study tells the story of the search that followed, as evidence mounted that countries as diverse as Ceylon, Japan and Tibet shared a religion which had its origins in India yet was unknown there. British rule brought to India, Burma and Ceylon a whole band of enthusiastic Orientalist amateurs - soldiers, administrators and adventurers - intent on investigating the subcontinent's lost past. Unwittingly, these men helped lay the foundations for the revival of Buddhism in Asia during the 19th century and its spread to the West in the 20th. Charles Allen's book is a mixture of detective work and story-telling, as this acknowledged master of British Indian history pieces together early Buddhist history to bring a handful of extraordinary characters to life.

The Buddha and the Sahibs

The Buddha and the Sahibs PDF Author: Charles Allen
Publisher: John Murray
ISBN: 1473617936
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
Today there are many Buddhists in the West, but for 2000 years the Buddha's teachings were unknown outside Asia. It was not until the late 18th century, when Sir William Oriental Jones, a British judge in India, broke through the Brahmin's prohibition on learning their sacred language. Sanskrit, that clues about the origins of a religion quite distinct from Hinduism began to be deciphered from inscriptions on pillars and rocks. This study tells the story of the search that followed, as evidence mounted that countries as diverse as Ceylon, Japan and Tibet shared a religion which had its origins in India yet was unknown there. British rule brought to India, Burma and Ceylon a whole band of enthusiastic Orientalist amateurs - soldiers, administrators and adventurers - intent on investigating the subcontinent's lost past. Unwittingly, these men helped lay the foundations for the revival of Buddhism in Asia during the 19th century and its spread to the West in the 20th. Charles Allen's book is a mixture of detective work and story-telling, as this acknowledged master of British Indian history pieces together early Buddhist history to bring a handful of extraoridinary characters to life.

The Buddha and Dr. Führer

The Buddha and Dr. Führer PDF Author: Charles Allen
Publisher: Penguin Books India
ISBN: 0143415743
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description


Ashoka

Ashoka PDF Author: Charles L. Allen
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
ISBN: 9781468300710
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Through his third century BCE quest to govern the Indian subcontinent by moral force alone, Ashoka transformed Buddhism from a minor sect into a major world religion. His bold experiment ended in tragedy, and in the tumult that followed the historical record was cleansed so effectively that his name was largely forgotten for almost two thousand years. Yet, a few mysterious stone monuments and inscriptions miraculously survived the purge. In Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor, historian Charles Allen tells the incredible story of how a few enterprising archaeologists deciphered the mysterious lettering on keystones and recovered India's ancient past. Drawing from rich sources, Allen crafts a clearer picture of this enigmatic figure than ever before.

The Search for the Buddha

The Search for the Buddha PDF Author: Charles Allen
Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
ISBN: 9780786713745
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
The historian-author of Soldier Sahibs illuminates the role of British soldiers who unlocked the secrets of Sanskrit and introduced the teachings of Buddhism to the Western world in the late eighteenth century. Reprint.

The Life of the Buddha

The Life of the Buddha PDF Author: Bhikkhu Nyanamoli
Publisher: Buddhist Publication Society
ISBN: 9552400635
Category : Buddhists
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
Among the numerous lives of the Buddha, this volume may well claim a place of its own. Composed entirely from texts of the Pali Canon, the oldest authentic record, it portrays an image of the Buddha which is vivid, warm, and moving. Chapters on the Buddha's personality and doctrine are especially illuminating, and the translation is marked by lucidity and dignity throughout.

Sacred Traces

Sacred Traces PDF Author: Janice Leoshko
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351550306
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
In his novel Kim, in which a Tibetan pilgrim seeks to visit important Buddhist sites in India, Rudyard Kipling reveals the nineteenth-century fascination with the discovery of the importance of Buddhism in India's past. Janice Leoshko, a scholar of South Asian Buddhist art uses Kipling's account and those of other western writers to offer new insight into the priorities underlying nineteenth-century studies of Buddhist art in India. In the absence of written records, the first explorations of Buddhist sites were often guided by accounts of Chinese pilgrims. They had journeyed to India more than a thousand years earlier in search of sacred traces of the Buddha, the places where he lived, obtained enlightenment, taught and finally passed into nirvana. The British explorers, however, had other interests besides the religion itself. They were motivated by concerns tied to the growing British control of the subcontinent. Building on earlier interventions, Janice Leoshko examines this history of nineteenth-century exploration in order to illuminate how early concerns shaped the way Buddhist art has been studied in the West and presented in its museums.

The Buddha and Dr Fuhrer

The Buddha and Dr Fuhrer PDF Author: Charles Allen
Publisher: Haus Pub.
ISBN: 9781906598907
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"[Allen] pieces the story together like shards of a broken vase."—Sara Wheeler,The Sunday Telegraph In this fascinating book, Charles Allen unravels the saga of an archeological discovery and a twisted tale of truth and lies that has divided Buddhist scholars for a century. Reconstructing the forested Tarai landscape of the fifth century BC in which the Buddha was raised, Allen employs a strong narrative to reveal the truth behind the alleged discovery of the Buddha's ashes in 1898 and the subsequent controversies that surrounded uncertain and compromised excavation and the numerous partiesinvolved.

God's Terrorists

God's Terrorists PDF Author: Charles Allen
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0786733004
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
What are the roots of today's militant fundamentalism in the Muslim world? In this insightful and wide-ranging history, Charles Allen finds an answer in an eighteenth-century reform movement of Muhammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab and his followers-the Wahhabi-who sought the restoration of Islamic purity and declared violent jihad on all who opposed them. The Wahhabi teaching spread rapidly-first throughout the Arabian Peninsula, then to the Indian subcontinent, where a more militant expression of Wahhabism flourished. The ranks of today's Taliban and al-Qaeda are filled with young men trained in Wahhabi theology. God's Terrorists sheds much-needed light on the origins of modern terrorism and shows how this dangerous ideology lives on today.

The Sacred Garden of Lumbini

The Sacred Garden of Lumbini PDF Author: Kai Weise
Publisher: UNESCO
ISBN: 9230012084
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha, was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1997. It is situated in an area commonly referred to as the 'Sacred Garden'. Archaeological remains testify to the authenticity of the place, which has become a major pilgrimage site. Nevertheless over two and a half millennia, the understanding of Lumbini has changed and different perceptions exist of what Lumbini might have been like at the birth of Lord Buddha. For the long-term safeguarding of this World Heritage site, overall understanding of the property is essential. This publication will provide a means for the various stakeholders to come to an understanding of each other's historical, religious, environmental and touristic perspectives of Lumbini.