Strange tales of an Oriental idol : an anthology of early European portrayals of the Buddha / edited by Donald S. Lopez Jr.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Lopez, Donald S., Jr., 1952- editor.

Series:

Buddhism and modernity

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gautama Buddha--Christian interpretations.

Gautama Buddha.

Gautama Buddha--Early works to 1800.

Gautama Buddha--Cult--Europe--History.

Buddhism--Study and teaching--Europe--History.

Buddhism.

Buddhism--Study and teaching.

Christian interpretations of Gautama Buddha.

Cults.

History.

Europe.

Genre:

Early works.

History.

Physical Description:

xi, 259 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2016.

Summary:

We tend to think that the Buddha has always been seen as the compassionate sage admired around the world today, but until the nineteenth century, Europeans often regarded him as a nefarious figure, an idol worshipped by the pagans of the Orient. Donald S. Lopez Jr. offers here a rich sourcebook of European fantasies about the Buddha drawn from the works of dozens of authors over fifteen hundred years, including Clement of Alexandria, Marco Polo, St. Francis Xavier, Voltaire, and Sir William Jones. Featuring writings by soldiers, adventurers, merchants, missionaries, theologians, and colonial officers, this volume contains a wide range of portraits of the Buddha. The descriptions are rarely flattering, as all manner of reports some accurate, some inaccurate, and some garbled came to circulate among European savants and eccentrics, many of whom were famous in their day but are long forgotten in ours. Taken together, these accounts present a fascinating picture, not only of the Buddha as he was understood and misunderstood for centuries, but also of his portrayers.

Contents:

Chapter 1 From 200 to 1500

St. Clement of Alexandria (d. 215 CE) 19

St. Jerome (ca. 347-420) 20

Socrates of Constantinople (b. ca. 380) 21

Anonymous (ninth century) 23

St. Euthymius of Mount Athos (ca. 955-1028) 30

King Het'um I of Armenia (1215-1270) 32

Marco Polo (ca. 1254-1324) 33

Rashid al-Din (1247-1318) 35

Odoric of Pordenone (1286?-1331) 37

Chapter 2 From 1501 to 1600

Anjiro (1511-1550?) 39

St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552) 41

Guillaume Postel (1510-1581) 42

Martín de Rada (1533-1578) 44

Bernardino de Escalante (ca. 1537 to after 1605) 45

Juan Gonzáles de Mendoza (ca. 1540-1617) 47

William Adams (1564-1620) 48

Cesar Fredericke 48

Chapter 3 From 1601 to 1700

Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) 51

Samuel Purchas (1577?-1626) 53

Nicolas Trigault (1577-1628) 54

Roberto de Nobili (1577-1656) 56

Richard Cocks (1566-1624) 58

Cristoforo Borri (1583-1632) 60

Alvaro Semedo (1585-1658) 63

Athanasius Rircher (1602-1680) 64

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605-1689) 66

Robert Knox (1641-1720) 68

Abbé de Choisy (1644-1724) 70

Alexandre, Chevalier de Chaumont (1640-1710) 71

Fernaõ de Queyroz (1617-1688) 73

Tomás Pereira (1645-1708) 75

Guy Tachard (1651-1712) 94

Nicolas Gervaise (ca. 1662-1729) 100

Simon de la Loubère (1642-1729) 107

Louis le Comte (1655-1728) 113

Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716) 115

Chapter 4 From 1701 to 1800

Ippolito Desideri (1684-1733) 123

François Valentijn (1666-1727) 128

Jean Frédéric Bernard (1683-1744) and Bernard Picart (1673-1733) 130

Jean Baptiste du Halde (1674-1743) 138

Adriano di St. Thecla (1667-1765) 140

Antonio Agostino Giorgi (1711-1797) 142

Denis Diderot (1713-1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717-1783) 143

Voltaire (1694-1778) 145

Peter Simon Pallas (1741-1811) 149

Guillaume le Gentil (1725-1792) 150

William Hurd 151

Jean-Baptiste Grosier (1743-1823) 155

Sir William Jones (1746-1794) 158

Thomas Maurice (1754-1824) 160

Louis-Mathieu Langlès (1763-1824) 161

Paulinus a S. Bartholomaeo (1748-1806) 162

Francis Wilford (1761-1822) 163

Colin Mackenzie (1753-1821) 164

Captain Mahony 165

Michael Symes (1761-1809) 167

Vincenzo Sangermano (d. 1819) 171

Chapter 5 From 1801 to 1844

Joseph Endelin de Joinville 175

Francis Hamilton (1762-1829) 178

Alexander Hamilton (1762-1824) 184

Edward Moor (1771-1848) 186

Francis Wilford (1761-1822) 188

William Erskine (1773-1852) 189

George Stanley Faber (1773-1854) 191

Michel Jean François Ozeray (1764-1859) 192

Robert Fellowes (1770-1847) 194

Francis (Hamilton) Buchanan (1762-1829) 206

R. N. Golownin (1776-1831) 208

John Crawfurd (1783-1868) 209

John Davy (1790-1868) 211

Julius Heinrich Kkproth (1783-1835) 214

Thomas Abercrombie Trant (1805-1832) 215

Samuel Davis (1760-1819) 216

Horace Hayman Wilson (1786-1860) 216

Karl Friedrich Neumann (1793-1870) 220

Charles Coleman 220

Edward Upham (1776-1834) 223

Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat (1788-1832) 224

George Tumour (1799-1843) 228

Alexander Csoma de Koros (1784-1842) 229

Eugene Burnouf (1801-1852) 234.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226391236

9780226493183

0226493180

022639123X

OCLC:

934938876

Publisher Number:

99970311977