Barabudur: Sketch of a History of Buddhism Based on Archaeological Criticism of the Text

The reader will find in these pages a profound and far-reaching analysis of the ideas, religious aspirations and building techniques which contributed to the creation of one of the largest Buddhist edifices in the world. This book is not a history of the famous Javanese monument nor is it a history of Buddhism. It is the English translation of the foreword to a Work : Loosely focussed on the Barabudur : which was published at Hanoi in French in 1935. Its author, Paul Mus, was then a young member of the Ecole francaise d’Extreme-Orient. Later he was to have a distinguished academic career in France, where he taught at the College de France, and in America where he was for several years Professor at Yale University. His influence in the field of Buddhist studies has been considerable: and young European and American scholars, in their writings, continue to acknowledge their debt to him. The difficulties involved in coping with the author’s very complex French style have tended to discourage translators. IGNCA has taken the initiative to make available to a large Indian public some of the work of an exceptional French scholar and visionary. To travel with Mus is an extraordinary, intellectual experience.