[Buddha-l] Lamas and such

Zelders.YH zelders.yh at wxs.nl
Mon Dec 7 18:39:24 MST 2009


At 20:00 5-12-2009, you wrote:
>Sat, 5 Dec 2009 09:03:34 -0800
>From: James Ward <jamesward at earthlink.net>

Sat, 5 Dec 2009 James Ward wrote :

>[...] back in 1993 I remember Jan Nattier referring to the
>term "Nikaya Buddhism" as a possible alternative [for Hinayana Buddhism].
>I think she was referring to someone else's use of it, but I don't 
>remember who that
>might have been.

That might have been Akira Hirakawa. See his 'A History of Indian 
Buddhism', (translated and edited by Paul Groner).
In several places in that ambitious survey the term is used and 
extensively discussed.
Jan Nattier herself uses the term in her study 'A Few Good Men' which 
sums up many results of the research into the early history of the 
Mahayana, (very interesting). Nattier had professor Nagatomi as her 
main teacher. Thurman even mentions Nagatomi as the originator of the 
term, (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikaya_Buddhism ), but that 
seems to be just his guess. Anyway, the term is apparently in use 
among Japanese buddhologists.
And yes, or no, the concept isn't very satisfactory either.

Herman Zelders



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