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access to precious information. He has taken part in various study groups and written articles about Jainism in several magazines. Till several years ago, before his moving into an apartment, he named his house in France "La Jaina".
Nearly 200,000 Jains now live outside India. There are Jains in Antwerp (Belgium) and Germany but only a handful in France. Majority of these Jains live in English speaking countries such as U.S.A., Canada, U.K., Australia, Singapore and East Africa. As a result, a large number of books on Jainism have been published in the English language but hardly any in the French language (except a few for the academics), which is still spoken in more than 45 countries in the world. Realizing this, Pierre Amiel published in 1998 his French translation of the very interesting study on MAHĀVĪRA's life written by Dr. Bool Chand Jain. In 1999, he published the translation in French of Dr. Vilas Adinath Sangave's excellent book “Aspects of Jaina Religion. In 2003, Pierre Amiel himself authored the book “Les Jains aujourd'hui dans le monde". Bringing Jainism to the attention of the French-speaking world has been one of the main objectives of the author.
This book is quite comprehensive in its contents. Starting with the long history of the Jains, their diversity, sacred texts and philosophy, etc. this also covers temples, places of Worship, life of householders and ascetics, rituals, ceremonies, festivals and the influence and richness of Jainism. Readers will find in this English version not only informative and interesting but also engaging and enlightening about a tradition that is not only ancient but still very living, dynamic and highly relevant. Effectively, as Jains, we remain absolute defenders of life, of the environment, of absolute non-attachment to material things, of self-control, of tolerance, of control of the ego and of nonviolence. Our tenets are those of respect for human beings, for animals and nature, for life in general, for progress of humanity and for peace.
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