The Madman's Middle Way: Reflections on Reality of the Tibetan Monk Gendun Chopel (Buddhism and Modernity Series)

By Donald S. Lopez Jr.

Book Overview

Gendun Chopel is considered the most important Tibetan intellectual of the twentieth century. His life spanned the two defining moments in modern Tibetan history: the entries into Lhasa by British troops in 1904 and by Chinese troops in 1951. Chopel excelled in the traditional monastic curriculum in his youth and went on to become an expert in fields as diverse as philosophy, history, linguistics, geography, and tantric Buddhism. Near the end of his life, before he was persecuted and imprisoned by the government of the young Dalai Lama, he would dictate the Adornment for Nagarjuna's Thought, recognized today as a controversial work of Madhyamaka or Middle Way philosophy. The Madman's Middle Way presents the first English translation of this major Tibetan work, accompanied by an essay on Chopel's life that is liberally interspersed with passages from his writings. Donald S. Lopez Jr.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226493164
• ISBN13: 9780226493169
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 1.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.5" x 9.3"