The modern period of Tibetan history has received less attention from scholars than earlier eras. Thus, it is welcome that Donald Lopez has produced a critical appraisal of the life and thought of Gendun Chopel, a figure whom he calls “the most modern of Tibetan authors” (p. 245) and “the most important Tibetan intellectual of the twentieth century” (p. 3). It is also fitting that this book has been published as part of the University of Chicago Press's Buddhism and Modernity series, edited by Lopez, as he has long been interested in the intersections of ancient Buddhism and the contemporary world.
The book opens with an extended biography of Gendun Chopel (hereafter referred to as GC, following Lopez's lead), one that blends the basic chronological events of GC's life with selections from the subject's own contemporary writings. These reflections unveil GC's attitudes toward his own era, and he emerges vividly...