Genesis of an Orientalist: Thomas William Rhys Davids in Sir Lanka

by Ananda Wickremeratne

Rhys Davids' relationship to Sri Lankan Buddhism and Pali was broadly analogous to that of Maz Muller to India and Sanskrit. The author has used Davids to investigate the nature of Western attempts - with implied Eurocentric attitudes - to interpret characteristically Asian cultural and religious institutions. The book focuses on Buddhism and the attempts of Westerners in the second half of the 19th century to interpret what was at the time regarded as a comparatively unknown oriental faith.

247 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1985