From Stone to Flesh: A Short History of the Buddha

by Donald S. Lopez Jr.

We have come to admire Buddhism for being profound but accessible, as much a lifestyle as a religion. The credit for creating Buddhism goes to the Buddha, a figure widely respected across the Western world for his philosophical insight, his teachings of nonviolence, and his practice of meditation. But who was this Buddha, and how did he become the Buddha we know and love today? Leading historian of Buddhism Donald S. Lopez Jr. tells the story of how various idols carved in stone—variously named Beddou, Codam, Xaca, and Fo—became the man of flesh and blood that we know simply as the Buddha. He reveals that the positive view of the Buddha in Europe and America is rather recent, originating a little more than a hundred and fifty years ago. For centuries, the Buddha was condemned by Western writers as the most dangerous idol of the Orient. He was a demon, the murderer of his mother, a purveyor of idolatry. Lopez provides an engaging history of depictions of the Buddha from classical accounts and medieval stories to the testimonies of European travelers, diplomats, soldiers, and missionaries. He shows that centuries of hostility toward the Buddha changed dramatically in the nineteenth century, when the teachings of the Buddha, having disappeared from India by the fourteenth century, were read by European scholars newly proficient in Asian languages. At the same time, the traditional view of the Buddha persisted in Asia, where he was revered as much for his supernatural powers as for his philosophical insights. From Stone to Flesh follows the twists and turns of these Eastern and Western notions of the Buddha, leading finally to his triumph as the founder of a world religion.

Genres: Buddhism, History, Religion, Nonfiction

302 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Donald Sewell Lopez, Jr. (born 1952) is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures.

Son of the deputy director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Donald S. Lopez.

Reviews

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Western Encounter With The Buddha

Many people in the United States and the West, myself included, have been inspired by and learned a great deal from Buddhism. At one time, information about Buddhism may have been difficult to find, but those now interested have the opportunity to learn to virtually any degree of depth they wish to pursue. In his new book, "From Stone to Flesh: A Short History of the Buddha" (2013), Donald Lopez presents a short history of the different ways Buddhism has been perceived in the West for the past two millennia. A prolific author on Buddhism, Lopez is the Arthur Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan. His writings combine a thorough understanding of and commitment to his subject with the careful detachment of a scholar.

Lopez begins his story with some early Christian texts, including "Barlaam and Josaphat", a thinly-veiled tale which I have read based on the life of the Buddha. But the continuous account of the West and Buddhism begins with Marco Polo and his account of his visit to Ceylon in about 1292. From the point forward, a series of travelers, adventurers, missionaries, and colonialists visited Buddhist lands and wrote of their impressions. Lopez' history has a clear turning point to modern views of the Buddha. In 1844, Eugene Burnouf, a French scholar adept in many Eastern languages, including Sanskrit, began translating many key Buddhist sutras and published a long Introduction to the History of Indian Buddhism -- the first of what Burnouf planned as a multi-volume project. Burnouf saw Buddhism as a way of life and the Buddha as a teacher of ethics and peace more than the founder of a religion. Burnouf downplayed the miraculous elements in Buddhism and its texts. In short, Lopez argues, Burnouf established the view of Buddhism that has since become prevalent in the West. Burnouf is little read today because his ideas on Buddhism have become almost commonplace. Lopez and another scholar, Katia Buffetrille, published in 2010 a translation of Burnouf's massive Introduction to the "History of Indian Buddhism."

Burnouf's work, together with that of other scholars, comes at the conclusion of Lopez' account. In the earlier chapters of his book, Lopez marks out a substantially different Western portrayal of Buddhism and the Buddha. The story takes several different tracks. Before the 18th Century, knowledge of Buddhism came from travelers to places such as Tibet, Ceylon, Japan, China, Burma. There was difficulty in tracking names, terminology, and practice to the single figure that today is recognized as the Buddha. Those encountering Buddhism were also unclear about whether the Buddha was a god, a mythological creation, or perhaps even a planet. There were thoughts of two Buddhas, one early, one late. Some viewed the Buddha as of African descent. Others conflated him with the war god Thor.

More important was the views of early travelers on the nature of Buddha. The tendency, particularly among the missionaries, was to demonize the Buddha and his followers as victims of superstition and as idol worshipers. These views were based in part on the visitors' own religious preconceptions and on their encounters with Buddhist sites and Buddhists. Few of the travelers became skilled in local languages and fewer still had any access to Buddhist texts. In chapters called "The Idol", "The Myth", and "The Man", Lopez documents encounters with Buddhism prior to the beginning of the 19th Century. The situation began to change almost by chance, through the work of employees of the British East India Company who had the leisure and the curiosity to learn about India. Buddhism originated in India but largely disappeared there and spread throughout Asia.

Lopez discusses the lives and works of many travelers who have been largely forgotten. The book quotes heavily from original sources written in a variety of European languages which makes for slow reading. Much of the material is fascinating. For example, discusses one Ippolito Desideri, a Jesuit who traveled to Tibet. Desideri learned Tibetan and gained familiarity with difficult doctrines of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1717, he wrote a work in Tibetan verse in which he examined and criticized the Buddhist teaching of emptiness.

Lopez offers a nuanced understanding of his sources which bears development. He leaves it to the reader to decide the extent to which Burnouf, the founder of the Western view of Buddhism, is the hero of the story. Bernouf understood the texts well but never traveled outside Europe and never met a Buddhist. His account misses the local, supernatural character of much Buddhism as it had been practiced. Burnouf's predecessors saw the details but not the underlying ideas. They saw Buddhism through the eyes of Christianity and their own supernaturalism while Burnouf saw Buddhism with his perspective of Western secular Enlightenment. His view of Buddhism, quoted extensively in this book, will be familiar to any modern reader who has seriously engaged with the subject. Lopez rightly points out that the modern view suffers from its own enlightenment biases and from attendant historical inaccuracies, albeit different in character from earlier Western understandings of Buddhism.

Lopez offers a challenging, informative history of Buddhism as it has come to the West. The book will be of value to readers with a serious interest in Buddhism.

Robin Friedman

[C. Varn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, deceptive title

A fascinating a reception history about how Christians and later European colonialists framed the key human figure of the religion(s) we call Buddhism. The human and secular Buddha of the French scholar Bornouf wins out and even has an effect on Buddhist modernism in Asia. That said, if you are looking for information about Buddha, I would look to John Strong. This is about how Europeans viewed Buddha in time.

[Nick Colaccino · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very dense but enlightening read!

[RE · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Marco Polo and many other early historians wrote so many wrong things about Buddhism, what else might be wrong in their books?