[Buddha-l] Re: American Mahayana/British Theravada

[Andrew Skilton]

On Wed, 18 Jan 2006  Richard P. Hayes wrote:

> I suppose this is why I find myself being surprised to find, say, Sanskrit
studies in Mexico City. I immediately ask "Why would a Mexican study
Sanskrit?" ... But unless I can find some obvious or subtle colonial ties, I am
always a bit
surprised when someone in one part of the world takes an interest in
anyone who is not bombing them or whose material resources they do not
crave.

Me too. Do we put these cases down to the triumph of the spirit of enquiry? Or
perhaps we could dig out the sometimes unique patterns of causality that create
such surprises. 

>Of course, not everything is due to colonization patterns. It always
intrigues me to discover that there are German scholars who find North
American native peoples fascinating. Why? But then again, why not? It
could be that there are some human enterprise things that are just
intrinsically interesting to human beings everywhere. (Sorry to sound so
un-post-modern.)

We agree - it seems.  Quite unnerving.

Andrew




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Andrew Skilton 

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