Buddhism

One of the world's leading scholars of Buddhism presents the story of its dramatic journey across the globe, from 2,500 years ago to the present day

Over the course of twenty-five centuries, Buddhism spread from its place of origin in northern India to become a global tradition of remarkable breadth, depth, and richness. In this ambitious book, Donald S. Lopez Jr. draws on the latest scholarship to construct a detailed and innovative history of Buddhism—not just as a chronology through the centuries or as geographic movement across a map, but as a dense matrix of interconnections.

Beginning with the life and teachings of the Buddha, Lopez shows how a set of evolving ideas and practices traveled north and east to China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and Tibet, south and southeast to Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia, and finally westward to Europe and the Americas. He provides insights on questions that Buddhism has asked and answered in different times and different places—about apocalypse, art, identity, immortality, law, nation, persecution, philosophy, science, sex, war, and writing.

Vast in its erudition and expansive in its vision, this is the most complete single‑volume history of Buddhism in its full historical and geographical range.

“A refreshing approach. . . . The depth of Lopez’s scholarship is extraordinary: a testament to the richness of the Buddhist worldview and to its hold over the imagination.”—Christopher Harding, History Today

“A remarkably innovative, sophisticated, and sumptuous exploration of Buddhist history by one of the foremost scholars of Buddhism in the world today. Lopez manages to weave the latest research in the field into a work that is eminently accessible and utterly captivating.”—Robert H. Sharf, University of California, Berkeley

“In Buddhism: A Journey Through History, Donald S. Lopez Jr. succeeds—perhaps as no other scholar has—in presenting a truly global history of the Buddhist tradition. He expertly guides his readers through a series of encounters, events, times, places, and people that collectively capture the richness (and sometimes strangeness) of the Buddhist experience. A delightful read from one of the towering figures in the field.”—Reiko Ohnuma, Dartmouth College

“Donald Lopez opens portals to the varieties of Buddhist experience as only he can: with great but unostentatious learning, lucid prose, considerable wit, and uncommon sensitivity to the complex mix of ancient and modern ideas, values, and practices we must deploy in order to understand the meaning of ‘Buddhism.’”—Roger R. Jackson, author of Rebirth: A Guide to Mind, Karma, and Cosmos in the Buddhist World

“An erudite, exhilarating tour of Buddhist history spanning continents and centuries. Lopez’s thematically framed chapters offer fresh insights into the tradition’s fundamental questions and the rich interpretative diversity they have inspired. This book will delight students, specialists, and general readers.”—Jacqueline Stone, Princeton University

“A compulsively readable account of Buddhism in all its variety, magnificence and strangeness.”—Stephen Batchelor, author of After Buddhism
 
“Lopez is famous not only for his insightful exposition of Buddhist texts, practices, and personages but also for his examination of the Western gaze. Very few Buddhist scholars dare do this, and none do it as well as Lopez. With this book, he establishes himself as the finest essayist writing on Buddhism.”—James C. Dobbins, Oberlin College

Donald S. Lopez Jr. is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan. He is the author, translator, or editor of more than twenty books, including The Scientific Buddha: His Short and Happy Life, The Story of Buddhism, and the award-winning Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism.

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