The Italian Jesuit Ippolito Desideri was one of the most remarkable of the many remarkable Jesuits who made the perilous journey to Buddhist lands. The present volume provides an introduction to his encounter with Buddhist philosophy, describing his efforts to save the souls of the people of Tibet. In 1721, as he waited in Tibet for a letter from Rome that would grant him papal permission to remain in Tibet and carry out his mission to convert its people to the true faith, he continued writing what he considered his magnum opus, a massive treatise, written in excellent classical Tibetan, complete with citations from Buddhist texts, to prove the errors of Buddhism. This book is a study of Desideri's unfinished masterpiece. It includes extended excerpts from Desideri's Inquiry concerning the Doctrines of Previous Lives and Emptiness, translated into a European language for the first time here. It also contains a detailed commentary, discussing Desideri's deft use of Buddhist terms and tropes to make his case. In addition, the volume includes a full translation and study of Desideri's Essence of the Christian Religion. Here, he offers his refutation of the doctrine of emptiness before going on to set forth the tenets of the Roman Catholic faith in the vocabulary of Tibetan Buddhism.-- Provided by publisher
Includes bibliographical references and index.