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| Document Type: | Book |
|---|---|
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Stephen T Asma |
| ISBN: | 0060834501 9780060834500 |
| OCLC Number: | 70110345 |
| Description: | xv, 272 p. : col. ill. ; 21 cm. |
| 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. |
| Responsibility: | Stephen T. Asma. |
Abstract:
"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.
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