[Buddha-l] FW: H-ASIA: REVIEW 'The British in Tibet'-- etics

[andy]

On Wednesday 30 December 2009 15:34:36 JKirkpatrick wrote:
> From the review:
> "It is not perhaps too far-fetched to suggest that Younghusband's
> desire to possess her as a distant and worshipful icon ("she
> admires me I know ... I want to keep high above any interaction
> of the senses ... to give her an example of a man who can be a
> friend without making love to her, to raise her moral standard,"
> p. 224) might be said to sum up something of his attitude to
> Tibet. Younghusband, with his superior sense of order, morality,
> and nascent [Christian--JK] spirituality, felt that he could
> harness and raise up to higher standards this land, benighted by
> "lecherous Lamas" with its dubiously motivated and secretive
> foreign policy aims. What one might call the "Holy Mission" of
> imperialism, in this case exemplified by Younghusband, is an
> avenue worth exploring and one which would certainly have added a
> novel dimension to the chapter."
>
Doesn't sound so much Christian as Knight Errant to me.  Not sure if it has 
any thing to do with the "non-attached action" advocated by the Bhagavad-Gita, 
but it does resemble Simone de Beauvoir's description of the "passionate man", 
determined to both redeem his beloved and expose her to the world.   But we 
all know how that ended in the Morte de Arthur. 

> Here we have an etic viewpoint with a vengeance. Similar to the
> etics of missionaries of all stripes. Granted, neither Bogle nor
> Younghusband were Buddhist scholars, but these views hung on for
> for several decades if not longer, in "western" writings on
> Tibetan (and Indian) cultures.
>
> Joanna K.
>
Certainly puts a new spin on the "White Man's Burden."  We have to save 
Buddhism from itself?   Oh, if only someone were to try the same thing with 
Christianity!!  (In spite of recent noble attempts in the Low Countries)/ 

-- 
James Andy Stroble, PhD
Lecturer in Philosophy
Department of Arts & Humanities
Leeward Community College
University of Hawaii

Adjunct Faculty 
Diplomatic and Military Studies
Hawaii Pacific University 

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