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Distinguished University Professor lectures scheduled >
Donald Lopez, the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, will deliver his Distinguished University Professorship Lecture at 4:10 p.m. Jan. 28 in the Rackham Amphitheatre.
Lopez is the chair of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Michigan Society of Fellows. As a Distinguished University Professor, he has earned the highest honor accorded to faculty members by the University. He widely is recognized as the leading figure in the fields of Tibetan and Buddhist studies in the world today and has been praised for his innovative approaches to the traditions and scholarship of Buddhism.
His lecture titled “The Birth of the Buddha” will describe the origins of the European fascination with the figure of the Buddha, and his transformation from a stone idol worshipped by pagans to an historical hero teaching a system of reason and ethics without the trappings of religion.
Prior to the 18th century, Buddha was known to Europeans as a pagan idol, called by many names and appearing in many guises across the Orient, Lopez says. By the middle of the 19th century, those idols had coalesced into a single figure with a single name, transformed from a stone god into a historical figure, a man of flesh and blood, the founder of a great religion. This extraordinary human would come to be idolized in Europe for his ethical teachings of simple truths that required neither God nor priests. In his lecture Lopez will recount the events that brought about the birth of this Buddha.
“The Buddha is widely recognized in North America and Europe today, despite his origins in a distant culture long ago,” Lopez says. “In my lecture, I will describe the European encounter with the Buddha and how he has become so familiar.”
Lopez received his doctorate in religious studies from the University of Virginia in 1982. After teaching at Middlebury College, he joined the faculty of U-M in 1989. In 2002-03, he served as associate dean for Academic Affairs in LSA. In 2000 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In addition to his scholarship, Lopez has been recognized for his teaching. In 1998 he was awarded an Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship.
The lecture will be followed by a reception in the Rackham Assembly Hall.
