From Library Journal
Wickremesinghe (1926-80) was a lawyer in Sri Lanka and a scholar of Indology and Buddhism. This "biography" consists of the author's translations of ancient Buddhist texts into English, mostly from the Pali Canon but also including Sanskrit, Prakrit, Tibetan, and a few noncanonical Buddhist texts. The author has carefully selected and arranged the material to produce 44 chapters that give a chronological portrait of the Buddha's life. Wickremesinghe also describes the origins and significance of many Buddhist scriptures. He has not tried to smooth over or explain away the sometimes significant contradictions that appear in various accounts of the Buddha's life. Whereas a book like Karen Armstrong's Buddha (LJ 1/01) offers a more historically aware approach from a Western perspective, Wickremesinghe's account has the advantage, as well as disadvantage, of simply letting the ancient texts speak for themselves. The author's son has created this revised edition of the original 1972 publication by adding references to the Pali Text Society sources and by "using U.S. English extensively." Recommended for public and academic libraries, as a book that until now was not much known outside Sri Lanka. David Bourquin, California State Univ., San Bernardino Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.