The gods drink whiskey : stumbling toward enlightenment in the land of the tattered Buddha / Stephen T. Asma
- Bib ID:
- 3538734
- Format:
- Book
- Author:
- Asma, Stephen T
- Edition:
- 1st ed.
- Description:
-
- San Francisco : HarperSanFrancisco, 2005
- xv, 256 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
- ISBN:
- 0060723955 (cloth)
- Summary:
-
"In this journey through Cambodia and Southeast Asia, intrepid traveler and scholar Stephen T. Asma explores and explains the basics of Buddhism." "After the Vietnam War, the communist Khmer Rouge outlawed the practice of Buddhism in Cambodia. To enforce their decree they burned temples and jailed monks. Twenty years later, the newly reopened Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh invites the young American professor Stephen Asma to come teach Buddhism to its students to help resurrect the ancient religion after years of suppression.".
"The oldest and purest form of Buddhism, Theravada, once flourished in Southeast Asia, and Asma scours the countryside to find its traces. He climbs mountains to meditate in temples housing golden Buddhas and treks through jungles in pilgrimage to sites swallowed up by overgrown banyan trees. What he finds has little in common with the popular forms of Buddhism practiced in America. Buddhism Cambodia style is thoroughly intertwined with a sturdy set of Hindu fertility rituals and popular beliefs in ancient local spirits who enjoy gifts of flowers, fruit, and whiskey. Asma discovers that not even the Khmer Rouge, with its communist antireligious prejudices, could destroy these traditional practices."--BOOK JACKET.
- Full contents:
-
- A preface on pop-Buddhists and academics
- Introduction : getting my hands dirty
- 1. The ring of Gyges : living in Cambodia with impunity and hedonism
- 2. Reason for the few, magic for the many? : monkey gods and penis worship
- 3. "My God can beat up your God" : missionaries
- 4. "Britney Spears? : never heard of her" : the virtues of being uncool
- 5. Karma and the killing fields
- 6. Seeing a man get shot to death
- 7. Lessons to bring home : transcendental everydayness.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references.
- Subject:
- Buddhism
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
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Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 2005
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