Dear HSHH friends,
*Our next meeting will be on: *
*Thursday July 15th – 6pm – Baitong Restaurant*
*(7 st 360, near Beung Keng Kang market)*
*Contact: *
Emiko Stock 012 521 093
<a
href=”mailto:hsh...@gmail.com”>hsh...@gmail.com
*Eisel Mazard*
will talk about:
*The Opposite of Buddhism:*
*European Colonialism and Interpretation*
*
*
The legacy of European scholarship is burdened with distorting biases;
conversely, the “canon” of this scholarship is increasingly available in
digital formats, instantly accessible, and used throughout Asia (even within
Buddhist monasteries) and incorporated into (seemingly) indigenous versions
of Buddhist texts. The formative influence of Imperialism, Christianity,
Theosophy and Aryan race theory in early European (mis-)interpretations of
Theravada Buddhism continues to have implications for the current generation
of scholars –both in Asia and in Europe. This lecture broaches some of the
outstanding problems of interpretation in the European tradition, tracing
out a few patterns over a period of centuries, with some distortions
originating in European colonialism but continuing to have salience to
debates about the content of Buddhist philosophy that are ongoing (in Asia
and Europe) today.
* *
*Eisel Mazard* is a scholar of Pali, the most ancient language and
literature of Theravada Buddhism, and of the history, languages and politics
of Theravada Asia. His research has primarily concerned mainland Southeast
Asia: Cambodia, Laos, Yunnan and Thailand.
