Tales and Teachings of the Buddha
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Originally published in 1979, Tales and Teachings of the Buddha by Garrett Jones aims to further the work done by scholars like Gombrich, Spiro and Tambiah in their field studies of lay Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand. But whereas they highlight the syncretistic mix of imported Buddhist with indigenous animistic beliefs, Tales and Teachings demonstrates that within the Buddhist tradition itself there is, in the immensely popular Jâtaka tales, a vast fund of folkloric material that is much more congenial to the average layman than the more austere teaching found in the canon proper. In this book, the two aspects of Buddhist tradition are thoroughly explored, revealing the extent to which concessions have been made by the monks to the laity and also the extent to which the monks themselves have been influenced by the folk tradition in which they were reared. The author has completely revised the book for a new edition (2001) correcting minor errors in the original and incorporating some helpful observations gleaned from reviews and correspondence. For further information and reviews of the first edition, see the publisher's website [1].
