Buddhism: The Illustrated Guide

by Kevin Trainor (Editor)

Buddhism is a major spiritual and ethical force in the world today--and certainly one of the fastest growing religions in the West. Its compelling insights into human existence offer an ancient and radical alternative to the materialism of the modern age. More and more people are turning to
Buddhism to rediscover the human and the spiritual values they find lacking in traditional Western religions.
Now, in this strikingly illustrated and authoritative volume, general readers have an illuminating introduction of one of the world's great living faiths. Based on the most recent scholarship, Buddhism provides a vibrantly written and marvelously illustrated overview of this ancient and yet
still vital religion. Each chapter is written by an acknowledged authority in the field. The book describes the origins and historic development of Buddhism as well as current trends. Perhaps most important, it explores the central, unifying principles of a religious and philosophical system that
finds expression in an extraordinary diversity of forms, from the elaborate and esoteric rituals of Tantric Buddhism to the rarefied, minimalist refinement of Zen. A major section is devoted to an analysis of the religion's more important sacred writings. And throughout the book, magnificent
illustrations capture the sacred art, architecture, daily practices, and symbols inspired by the Buddha and his teaching.
Buddhism in the United States has grown dramatically. The Illustrated Guide offers a wealth of reference information that will deepen one's understanding and appreciation of this ancient Eastern faith.

Genres: Religion, Buddhism, Nonfiction, Spirituality, History

Hardcover

First published December 6, 2001

About the author

Kevin Trainor is Associate Professor of Religion and chair of the Department of Religion at the University of Vermont

Reviews

[Grand Logothete · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairly standard visual and textual introduction to Buddhism. Despite its dimensions and apparent aesthetic care from the outside, neither the text is substantially more insightful than smaller introduction books, such as the ones by Tom Lowenstein, nor the visual aspect fares demonstrably better as of today.

In spite of the longer length of the essays, by very many clearly knowledgeable authors and scholars, it would be satisfying to have a more in-depth exploration of the themes at certain times, which truth be told, happens in some of the side-boxes that appear in various pages, but seem to lack the courage to delve deeper perhaps for fear of losing the reader's line of thought, given the complexity of many issues related to the theme? In any case, one is left with almost the same comprehension or information as one would get from shorter, similarly functional introductory books and the while the idea of having various chapters penned by different people might seem good in advance, the end result is the occasional repetition of data that takes book space which could be put to use in a more efficient way.

Design-wise, the book seems appealing to an extent, but the spatial arrangement of some of the images (as well as their often small size, which is unusual for such a large book) leaves much to desire, whilst the quality of many of the reproductions and photographs is sub par by today's standards, an evident handicap inherited by the book's age. On a more nitpicky note, yet relevant to an extent given the time range of Buddhism in historical terms, the tendency to use pictorial representations crafted by human hands belonging chiefly to the last 400 centuries only, is a bit disappointing, especially if one considers the magnificent artistic achievements of Buddhist inspiration that concern fields like frescoes, oil and ink paintings, sculptures, mandalas, etc., all across the 2600 years of the religion's existence.

As a merely preparatory presentation of Buddhism for ordinary people, the book fulfills its purpose adequately and notwithstanding the aforementioned shortcomings, it actually fleshes out plenty of knowledge by learned expertise in the usual accessible and clear manner of these kinds of books. If compared with other options, there isn't much to differ from and perhaps one would be better suited either with a more contemporaneous take on the subject which could offer a better visual experience and maybe the occasional in-depth foray into some of Buddhism's fascinating concepts.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a broad overview of Buddhism starting with the life of the Buddha and examining the development of Buddhism as it traveled from northern India throughout most of Asia to become a dominant form of religion in the area. The book gives a good introduction to the three primary schools of Buddhism and the various sects that branched off from those. There are numerous beautiful color plates throughout. The primary shame is that the book is poorly edited - many instances of sentence fragments left incomplete, an obviously wrong word left in - things you wouldn't expect from a work that was edited by a university professor.

[Apurva Shah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was the perfect guide to learning about Buddhism. To be honest, I did read this alongside another book so I cannot be certain as to the comprehensiveness of the material and whether it is an appropriate full introduction, but the concepts that were in the book were brief and to the point.

The illustrations also added a lot to the writing. Note this does not go into a lot of the distinctions about Buddhist cultures and generalizes Mahayana, Mainstream, and Tibetan Buddhism.

[Mary Landis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finally understand the terms, meanings, and history of all the Buddhist references I’ve seen over many years. It was a pretty quick and easy read. It’s also great to just read a topic anytime since most topics are only a couple of pages long.

[Gina Guerrero · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s informative but it becomes repetitive.

[Michael Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first exposure to Buddhist ideas was in the 1960s, in California, in what I later realized was a rather self-conscious, thoroughly Westernized form that viewed Buddhism as a philosophy rather than a “religion,” compared to Christianity. American and European scholarship regarding Buddhist thought and its application in eastern social systems has changed considerably in the past few decades, however, and this recent volume is a very good introductory overview. Each section is written and edited by a different scholarly authority, beginning with Buddhism’s historical and political origins, progressing to its principals and practices and a discussion of its evolved holy writings, and concluding with a section on “Buddhism Today” that points up its diversity from Indian to China to Japan to southeast Asia. The narrative is smooth and frequent sidebars offer more detailed explanations of doctrinal or historical points as needed. The illustrations are numerous and mostly in color. My only gripe, really, is an editorial one: On nearly every page, it seems, there is at least one in-text cross-reference (“see pp. 20-21”) which encourage the reader to jump around, which leads one to lose track of what are often very alien ideas.

[GeekChick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have this in hardcover. It is a WONDERFUL summary of the basic schools of buddhism. Beautiful pictures, great reading -- it's a must-have if you are interested in the subject. A beautiful coffee-table type format (hardcover). I wish there were a similar book for hinduism.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good primer on Buddhism.