About the Author

Donald S. Lopez Jr. is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is the author, editor, or translator of a number of books, including The Madman's Middle Way, Critical Terms for the Study of Buddhism, Introduction to the History of Indian Buddhism, In the Forest of Faded Wisdom: 104 Poems by Gendun Chopel, and Buddhism and Science, all published by the University of Chicago Press.

Reviews

"Donald S. Lopez Jr. has written the most gripping intellectual detective story I have read in years. Was the Buddha a man or a god? Europeans starting with Marco Polo could only wonder at first. His statues were everywhere, under scores of different names. But so were the statues of demons and dragons, gods and goddesses-a huge and bewildering pantheon. Was he not just another face in that crowd?... An extraordinary story, indispensable not just for the study of Buddhism but also for a more general appreciation of the unfinished and ongoing encounter of West and East." -Jack Miles, general editor, The Norton Anthology of World Religions"