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  1. NEW BOOK> The First Western Book about Buddhism and Buddha, by Ozeray and App

NEW BOOK> The First Western Book about Buddhism and Buddha, by Ozeray and App

by Charles Muller
Michel-Jean-François OZERAY & Urs APP:

THE FIRST WESTERN BOOK ABOUT BUDDHISM AND BUDDHA

Wil: UniversityMedia, 2017
ISBN: 978-3-906000-27-5

From the back cover:

Although the Western encounter with Asia’s largest religion may be the vastest and most consequential spiritual encounter in human history, its protagonists and historical development are still barely known.  Thus it comes as no surprise that even specialists have hitherto failed to appreciate the earliest Western book about Buddhism: Michel-Jean-François Ozeray’s Recherches sur Buddou ou Bouddou, instituteur religieux de l’Asie orientale (Paris, 1817). To commemorate Ozeray’s pioneering work on the 200th anniversary of its publication, it is here presented in the original French with Urs App’s English translation on facing pages.

In his 73-page introduction App presents and analyzes Ozeray’s view of Buddhism and its founder. Tracing the author’s main sources, he explains why his book deserves to be recognized as a pioneering contribution to Western knowledge about Buddhism and to global-scale comparative religion. Published just before the onset of academic research on Buddhism in Europe, Ozeray’s work relied not on Christian missionary literature or romantic speculation but rather on figurative representations and reports furnished by ambassadors, travelers, and long-time residents in Asian countries. Due to its focus on living Buddhism as practised in numerous Asian countries, Ozeray’s pioneering study is—in spite of its inevitable flaws—in many respects more congruent with modern field work than the majority of popular books on Buddhism that bend the spiritualism and esotericism shelves in today’s bookstores.


Table of Contents

Contents
Introduction by Urs App...................................................... 1
Author Ozeray........................................................................ 6
The book’s title, preface and introduction....................................... 9
Ozeray’s general considerations................................................. 12
One founder and a single creed.................................................... 15
Buddha in history and myth........................................................ 24
Buddha’s fundamental doctrine................................................. 35
Similarities of cult and clergy........................................................ 45
Orthodoxy and heresy............................................................. 49
Orthodox Buddhist countries................................................... 53
Heretical Buddhist countries..................................................... 56
Changing images of Buddhism.................................................. 58
Conclusion.......................................................................... 60
The French text and its English translation.................................... 63
Ozeray’s main sources about the history of religions.......................... 65
Ozeray’s main sources about Asia and Asian religions........................ 68
Ozeray’s Recherches sur Buddou                                       74
Table of contents of Ozeray’s text and its English translation............... 76
Ozeray’s Preface..................................................................... 82
Ozeray’s Introduction............................................................. 90
Ozeray’s Note about the General Considerations............................... 94
Ozeray’s General Considerations............................................... 96
Studies on Buddha............................................................... 146
General state of the religion of Buddha in various regions...................... 230
The future of Buddhism and other polytheistic cults........................ 282
Appendix.......................................................................... 286
Index of Proper Names...................................................... 301

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