How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America

A modern classic unparalleled in scope, this sweeping history unfolds the story of Buddhism’s spread to the West.

How the Swans Came to the Lake opens with the story of Asian Buddhism, including the life of the Buddha and the spread of his teachings from India to Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, and elsewhere. Coming to the modern era, the book tracks how Western colonialism in Asia served as the catalyst for the first large-scale interactions between Buddhists and Westerners. Aut...