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Kamala Tiyavanich

Sons of the Buddha: The Early Lives of Three Extraordinary Thai Masters Paperback – August 28, 2007

by Kamala Tiyavanich (Author), Stanley O'Connor (Foreword), Brian Karafin (Foreword),

5 customer reviews

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A thrilling spiritual biography--or rather, three in one--Sons of the Buddha is an excellently written, transcendent account of an all-but-lost Thailand and the early lives of three of its most prominent Buddhist teachers.

Filled with lively anecdotes and illustrations, Sons of the Buddha tells the early life stories of three master Buddhist preachers from Thailand, each of whom also has followings in North America. Ajahn Buddhadasa (1906-93), Ajahn Panya (b. 1911), and Ajahn Jumnien (b. 1936), all monks and abbots of monasteries, have been highly influential in Thai society and tireless in their work and teaching.

A preacher must have common sense, know how to turn everyday life experience into Dharma lessons, and be able to accurately assess the needs of his audience. Sons of the Buddha shows how three boys evolved into remarkable embodiments of the "preacher" ideal. Each would effect changes in moral attitudes and Dharma practices, restore Buddhism's social dimension, bridge the divide separating laypeople and monastics, and champion an openmindedness toward other religions. In these delightful stories-full of local color-we see what it was that led them to become so fearless and influential.

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About the Author

Kamala Tiyavanich is a Thai native, a Thai Buddhist, and the author of Forest Recollections: Wandering Monks in Twentieth-Century Thailand. She teaches at Cornell University.

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Wisdom Publications; 1st edition (August 28, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0861715365
ISBN-13: 978-0861715367
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 5 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,482,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #290 in Theravada Buddhism (Books)
- #524 in Clergy
- #9598 in Religious Leader Biographies

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Herve H. Blandin

Wonderful, if uncritical, account of 3 revered thai monks childhood.

July 27, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Not a book endowed with rigorous critical scholarship, but well researched biographically. It will be a treat to everyone with an interest in thai culture and the lives of some of its most popular and endearing monks. Missing, and the title warns us so, is an account of their lives and teachings after having become recognized teachers and temple masters.

I look forward the next opus from this author, one of the very few, dedicated to the historiography of Thai Theravada Buddhism in the Modern Times, with an emphasis on the biographical elements of its most valuable and revered exponents.

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Russell Dunne

As good as I thought it would be

February 21, 2008

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Sons of The Buddha is at least as good as I thought it would be/had been lead to believe that it was. It is interesting to learn about the early lives of the three monks (Ajahns Buddhadasa, Panya and Jumnien). In this respect it is very similar to Kamala Tivayanich's first book "Forest Recollections". It differs in that it isn't as academic in tone, nor is it searching for answers.
Where this book fails is in the treatment of the monks. I know it is bad form for a Thai to in any way be seen to criticise or contradict Sangha, but I found some of the abilities these monks attributed to themselves as children more than a little hard to believe. Given that Ajahns Buddhadasa, Panya and Jumnien are the "pride and joy" of their communities, I think that objectivity never entered the scene.
I would like Kamala to follow "Sons of the Buddha" with an equivalent on Ajahns Chah, Mun and Dtun.

8 people found this helpful

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ellen j.

Five Stars

December 29, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

No problems.

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Adam A. Waterhouse

A picture of life in Thailand as it was

June 4, 2012

Format: Paperback

I enjoyed this book a great deal. Although it provides biographic profiles of the early lives of three great Thai Buddhist masters it does not concentrate exclusively or even mainly on their development as spiritual beings - head and shoulders above the majority of human beings. Rather it presents the lives of three men who were born into very ordinary poor Thai families who described their early lives in a very straighforward manner.

As a reader I was struck by the ordinariness of the biographical details provided. At times it seems almost prosaic and I was tempted to almost think "Has she really written a book about this", but then I really 'got it' - the whole purpose of this is to present an honest and unpretentious picture of how life was for these people in Thailand at that time - early twentieth century.

It is not primaily a book for Buddhists, and as I Buddhist there were many things that left me unimpressed and uninspired, such as the description of boxing taking place in the monasteries at that time! But then I started to really appreciate the honest picture that was being presented.

The book does not seek to preach, merely to report. It is up to us as the reader to judge the content for ourselves and to draw our own conclusions. I certainly feel as though I was able to get something from it and I am grateful to Kamala Tiyavanich for giving me this picture of Thailand at this time, seen from the point of view of three young boys on their journey of life.

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Rawi Na Narok

Wonderful and readable source about life in Siam/Thailand

November 22, 2010

Format: Paperback

This book is a treat. It is full of valuable history and is truly an enjoyable read. More than a book on Buddhism, Sons of the Buddha provides great insight into village life in Thailand's middle south in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s. It uses the childhood recollections of three prominent monks to illustrate the sometimes hard-knocks education that young people acquired in the coastal villages. I used sections on medicine, boxing, and fishing for a course I teach on Thailand's history. My students enjoyed them immensely. They liked the narrative forms of each chapter, which read a lot like short stories. You don't have to be interested in Buddhism -- or even know much about it -- to appreciate this book. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about Thailand's past, especially its rural past.

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Sons of the Buddha: The Early Lives of Three Extraordinary Thai Masters Paperback – August 28, 2007

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