Review: Buddha

Buddha by Karen Armstrong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A reconstruction of a man's life who, as the author states at the beginning, has almost nothing verifiable written about his life. Who, in fact, made it a point of stating that his life was not a special one and deserved no special recognition.

Given that, it is impressive what she can tell us about his life.

Some quite unexpected points, such as the alleged misogyny and how he may have been murdered, but at the same time this book made him much more relatable and human.


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Review: Three Japanese Buddhist Monks

Three Japanese Buddhist Monks by Saigyō
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A nice read into Buddhism, as well as just life in general.

Some of my favorite parts (both by Kenko):

It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met.

It is an excellent thing to live modestly, shun luxury and wealth and not lust after fame and fortune. Rare has been the wise man who was rich.

Btw, if you like this, check out Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkō. This is the same author. 


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Review: Khmer: The Lost Empire of Cambodia

Khmer: The Lost Empire of Cambodia by Thierry Zephir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was planning on saving this until I could travel to the region, but since it looks like all travel is on hold for a while, I thought I'd read it anyway and live vicariously through the book and its pictures.

I was surprised at how little I knew of the Khmer empire. I mean, I knew I knew nothing about it, but I figured it would have been more tied into East Asian history. But this wasn't the case. In fact, it was influenced much more by India. First with Hinduism and then Buddhism. It was also fascinating to read about the general weather, and how that affected the people, and the rulers.
Probably the most interesting section was under "documents" at the end, where a Chinese man, Zhou Daguan, who lived among the Khmer for over a year (from 1296-1297), wrote about the country, its people and its customs.

Having said that, the format of the book is quite annoying. It is chock full of pictures, which is nice, but they each have captions and I found myself interrupting the main narrative over and over to read these captions and to look at the photos. This made it difficult to just go through the text and get into it.

Regardless, it's been a good primer, albeit a bit cursory. If and when I actually make it to Cambodia I'll probably try to find another book to add onto this.

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Review: Kyunyo-Jon: The Life, Times and Songs of a Tenth-Century Korean Monk

Kyunyo-Jon: The Life, Times and Songs of a Tenth-Century Korean Monk by Adrian Buzo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a book about an eleventh century biography (hagiography?) of a tenth century monk. I found the introduction indispensable, and the first part of Appendix B (about the early Korean writing system) quite interesting. In fact, they were probably more enlightening than the text itself, which, as I mentioned, is pretty hagiographical, essentially Marketing Kyunyo to Chinese and other non-Koreans.

Also a great introduction to Hua yen (Hwaom) Buddhism.

I'm glad someone translated and annotated this, but mainly because of the information surrounding it rather than the text itself.


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