Customer Reviews

Buddha & the Sahibs

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If one has an interest in the rediscovery of Buddhism that was completely lost in India, and how the discoveries by various adventurers, academics, soldiers, administrators, and seekers of truth revealed this religion to the West, then this is the book to read.

In the West today the Buddha's teachings on meditation, morality, truth, and liberation from suffering permeate modern psychology, philosophy, comparative religion, and many aspects of our world view that are now common knowledge.

This was not the case two centuries ago when a few intellectual explorers, mainly with the British East India Company, put on their boots and began digging into one of the world's great historical mysteries. One discovery led to another and another -- and today those discoveries provide a background for better understanding both how the Buddha's teachings were lost and how they were rediscovered.

I picked up this book in India. Here I was surprised to find no reviews for this scholarly, unique work of history. As I began to outline this review, I was told there was an American edition entitled "The Search for the Buddha: The Men Who Discovered India's Lost Religion."

To avoid being redundant, I encourage interested readers to go to that website and read the reviews. They give you excellent perspectives on this book.

I love this book and am rereading it at the moment. Basically it details the history of the British 'Sahibs'in colonial India and their efforts to piece together the role of Buddhism in ancient Asia - especially in India. It is a fascinating historical insight into early Buddhism as well as colonial India. Importantly it is not dry at all. Very readable and really interesting.

In a world tainted by the ignorant rantings of Edward Said and his mis-characterization of Orientalists, where "the west" is seen only as a negative force, books like this one remind us of the unequaled contributions of Western curiosity and desire for knowledge to cultures which otherwise may have remained hidden forever.
When westerners arrived in India, all traces of Buddhism had vanished from the land that gave it life, and from the memories of its inhabitants. It was through the efforts of these curious orientalists that Buddhisms origins were re-discovered, catalogued, and preserved for mankind.
This book tells that story in a fascinating narrative, reminiscent of a non-fiction thriller. Fabulous, and important.

This book was a pleasant surprise. I have read a few intro-type books to Buddhism prior to stumbling upon this book by accident. So, I knew about the origins of Buddhism but was not aware that the modern history of Buddhism (i.e. the West's re-discovery) - particularly the identification of the various important historical sites - was the outcome of efforts from a few dedicated (often part-time & self-taught) British archeologists. I also found the book to be well illustrated with portraits of the main protagonists and their drawings and paintings of the artifacts and sites. The style of writing is very British (for lack of a better expression) - meaning it can be a bit dry at time but this will not put you off if you are fascinated by the archeology of Buddhism. Highly recommended.

Historically accurate and a good read for everyone with an interest in India, archaeology and Buddhism.

This book is a readable account of the archeological and textual discoveries made under the Raj by remarkable people such as Alexander Cunningham, Francis Buchanan, James Princep, Colin MacKenzie and many others. Unfortunately, it is full of misinformation, starting with the mangled transliteration of the names of the famous Chinese pilgrims to India, Faxian and Xuanzang (given here as Fa Hian and Huan Tsang), a mistaken etymology of the word Pagoda (not from Sanskrit as he states, but Tamil via Portuguese),and many other factual errors (for example, the Russians really had been seeking influence in Tibet in the early 20th century, contrary to Allen's view). The author presents a totally distorted account of Catholic missionary activity in South Asia, portraying the missionaries as ignorant bigots and not even mentioning outstanding figures like the Jesuit Roberto de Nobili, who in the early seventeenth century mastered both Tamil and Sanskrit and was well aware of the difference between Buddhism and Hinduism, or a later Italian Jesuit, Ippolito Desideri,who acquired a profound knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism in the early eighteenth century, before the British Raj came into existence. None of this information is obscure; it is easily accessible through Wiki and elsewhere on the net, but apparently Allen did not want to let historical reality get in the way of a good story. The reader interested in an informed critique of the study of Buddhism in the colonial period is advised to look elsewhere, e.g. Donald Lopez, "Curators of the Buddha" or "The Birth of Orientalism" by App.