Book 5

The Buddha: A Short Biography

 

A balanced introduction to what we know about the life of the Buddha and the stories Buddhists tell about him.

  • compares academic portraits of the Buddha with that of the Buddhist practitioners
  • illustrates how the Buddha's biography describes and reinforces Buddhist art, ritual, doctrine, and history and vice versa
  • explains some Buddhist doctrines through the accounts of the events in the Buddha's life
  • incorporates materials that preceded the Buddha's birth, i.e. the discussion of the Buddha's previous lives
  • describes the biography of the Buddha through fragments, autonomous scriptural stories, and vernacular traditions

Strong, John. The Buddha : A Short Biography (Oxford: Oneworld, 2001).

 

 

The Buddha: A Short Bibliography