[Buddha-l] {Theravada, Pali, Cambodia} two reviews of Ian Harris's textbook

[Eisel Mazard]

I discovered this other review of Harris's book (entitled _Cambodian
Buddhism_) after I had already written (and published) my own:

(1) A.C. Thompson, 2007 (untitled book review), UKABS Buddhist Studies
Review, Vol 24, No 2 (2007)
    [Direct link to the PDF:]
http://www.equinoxjournals.com/BSR/article/view/4100/2598

(2) Eisel Mazard, 2009, "Cambodia's Religions, in Ashes and in Ink",
in the International Institute of Asian Studies [I.I.A.S.] quarterly,
Issue #50.
    [Direct link to the PDF:] http://iias.asia/files/IIAS_NL50_38.pdf

Thompson's approach is to delay criticism until (roughly) the final
two pages of a very long review.  In fact, those final few pages
really are devastating, providing examples of the type of basic
language errors that can be found throughout the whole book, and that
evidently vitiated the underlying research, and this alone should
indeed disqualify its use as a textbook (be it definitive or
introductory).  I do not know how culturally British Thompson may (or
may not) be, but there is also some of the British style of
understatement involved, e.g., "…Harris is not always adequately
discriminating with regard to his source material…" (presumably, the
cognoscenti will read this and take the hint, while others will have
an excuse not to be offended).  Thompson has also used the tactic of
only criticizing Harris within the reviewer's own greatest area of
expertise, while generously "assuming the best" about areas the
reviewer is less interested in scrutinizing.

My own approach was one of the utmost concision, and also to try to
make the review interesting to non-specialists (who are, indeed, the
bulk of the readers who leaf through the I.I.A.S.).  Thus, for those
who click on the link, you don't have to read much to get the point,
and I may faintly hope that a few Cambodians (reading English as a
second language) will find my own review easier to understand in its
brevity and bluntness, at some point in the future.

I was living in Phnom Penh at the time that the Khmer translation of
Harris's work was unveiled (at a sort of ceremony at the Buddhist
Institute) and I knew a few of the people inside the institution who
said they were there.  I did not attend.

Not only were Harris and I in Cambodia at the same time, but I'm now
amazed to find that he has "followed" me here (i.e., by coincidence)
and we are both in Canada.

I mention this connection as it is quite possible that Richard Hayes
has been attending some of the related lectures and colloquia at U. of
Toronto (i.e., despite the geographic distance separating it from New
Mexico, Hayes has a very long history in Buddhology in Canada, and I
wouldn't be surprised to hear that he is invited to and occasionally
attends such things).

E.M.