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A Brief History of Buddhist Studies in Europe and America
J. W. DEJONG
Foreword
THERE seems to be little necessity to justify an attempt to sketch briefly the history of Buddhist studies. There is an abundance of material available in the writings of scholars, but no single work has yet been devoted to a systematic study of the history of Buddhist studies. Windisch's unfinished work contains much information on Buddhist studies in Europe in the first half of the nineteenth century,' but very little on the following decennia. Henri de Lubac, a Jesuit father, has written a book on the meeting of Buddhism and the West.2 He is more interested in the reaction of the Western world to Buddhist ideas than in the history of Buddhist studies. The most important chapter of his book for Buddhist scholars is the one which deals with the information on Buddhism which can be found in the writings of missionaries in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. A recent work on Buddhist Nirvana and Its Western Interpreters by G. R. Welbon3 attempts to show how Western scholars have ex
The following chapters formed the basis for a series of lectures given at the University of Tokyo in October and November 1973. The second part will appear in the following issue of the Eastern Buddhist. -Eds.
1 Ernst Windisch, Geschichte der Sanskrit-Philologie und indischen Altertumskunde, I, Strassburg, 1917; II, Berlin u. Leipzig, 1920; Philologie und Altertumskunde in Indien. Drei nachgelassene Kapitel des III. Teils der Geschichte der Sanskrit-Philologie und indischen Altertumskunde, Leipzig, 1921.
2 Henri de Lubac, La rencontre du bouddhisme et de l'occident, Paris, 1952.
3 G.R. Welbon, The Buddhist Nirvana and Its Western Interpreters, Chicago, 1968.
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