Listing 1 - 2 of 2 |
Sort by
|
Choose an application
"Gendun Chopel is considered the most important Tibetan intellectual of the twentieth century. His life spanned the two defining moments in modern Tibetan history: the entry into Lhasa by British troops in 1904 and by Chinese troops in 1951. Recognized as an incarnate lama while he was a child, Gendun Chopel excelled in the traditional monastic curriculum and went on to become expert in fields as diverse as philosophy, history, linguistics, geography, and tantric Buddhism. Near the end of his life, before he was persecuted and imprisoned by the government of the young Dalai Lama, he would dictate the Adornment for Nagarjuna's Thought, a work on Madhyamaka, or "Middle Way," philosophy. It sparked controversy immediately upon its publication and continues to do so today." "The Madman's Middle Way presents the first English translation of this major Tibetan Buddhist work, accompanied by an essay on Gendun Chopel's life liberally interspersed with passages from his writings. Donald S. Lopez Jr. also provides a commentary that sheds light on the doctrinal context of the Adornment and summarizes its key arguments. Ultimately, Lopez examines the long-standing debate over whether Gendun Chopel in fact is the author of the Adornment; the heated critical response to the work by Tibetan monks of the Dalai Lama's sect; and what the Adornment tells us about Tibetan Buddhism's encounter with modernity. The result is an insightful glimpse into a provocative and enigmatic work that will be of great interest to anyone seriously interested in Buddhism or Asian religions."--Jacket.
Mādhyamika (Buddhism) --- Central philosophy (Buddhism) --- Chūgan shisō --- Mādhyamikaśāstra --- Middle doctrine school (Mahayana Buddhism) --- Middle school (Mahayana Buddhism) --- Sūnyavāda (Buddhism) --- Buddhist philosophy --- Mahayana Buddhism --- Dge-ʼdun-chos-ʼphel, --- S24/0580 --- Tibet--Biographies --- Mādhyamika (Buddhism). --- Mādhyamika (Buddhism). --- Dge-ʾdun-chos-ʾphel, --- Chöpel, Gendün --- gendun chopel, dalai lama, tibet, philosophy, religion, spirituality, invasion, conquest, politics, history, lhasa, china, britain, colonialism, occupation, oppression, monastery, monasticism, cloister, retreat, seclusion, curriculum, tantric buddhism, linguistics, geography, persecution, imprisonment, prisoner, government, middle way, madhyamaka, adornment for nagarjunas thought, sect, modernity, asia, nonfiction. --- Madhyamika (Buddhism) --- Dge-dun-chos-phel,
Choose an application
In 1941, philosopher and poet Gendun Chopel (1903-51) sent a large manuscript by ship, train, and yak across mountains and deserts to his homeland in the northeastern corner of Tibet. He would follow it five years later, returning to his native land after twelve years in India and Sri Lanka. But he did not receive the welcome he imagined: he was arrested by the government of the regent of the young Dalai Lama on trumped-up charges of treason. He emerged from prison three years later a broken man and died soon after. Gendun Chopel was a prolific writer during his short life. Yet he considered that manuscript, which he titled Grains of Gold, to be his life's work, one to delight his compatriots with tales of an ancient Indian and Tibetan past, while alerting them to the wonders and dangers of the strikingly modern land abutting Tibet's southern border, the British colony of India. Now available for the first time in English, Grains of Gold is a unique compendium of South Asian and Tibetan culture that combines travelogue, drawings, history, and ethnography. Gendun Chopel describes the world he discovered in South Asia, from the ruins of the sacred sites of Buddhism to the Sanskrit classics he learned to read in the original. He is also sharply, often humorously critical of the Tibetan love of the fantastic, bursting one myth after another and finding fault with the accounts of earlier Tibetan pilgrims. Exploring a wide range of cultures and religions central to the history of the region, Gendun Chopel is eager to describe all the new knowledge he gathered in his travels to his Buddhist audience in Tibet. At once the account of the experiences of a tragic figure in Tibetan history and the work of an extraordinary scholar, Grains of Gold is an accessible, compelling work animated by a sense of discovery of both a distant past and a strange present.
Buddhism --- History. --- Tibet Autonomous Region (China) --- travelogue, exoticism, india, sri lanka, tibet, dalai lama, treason, political prisoner, modernity, british colony, colonialism, south asia, history, ethnography, drawings, illustrations, maps, 20th century, sacred sites, buddhism, sanskrit, classics, pilgrimage, folklore, legend, china, lhasa, dharma king asoka, gupta, dynasty, pala, singhala, linguistics, tibetan language, tirthikas, religion, spirituality, customs, native plants, mount girnar, snow mountains, nonfiction.
Listing 1 - 2 of 2 |
Sort by
|