Life of Nyanatiloka Thera: The Biography of a Western Buddhist Pioneer

Ven. Nyanatiloka was one of the pioneers of Buddhism in the modern world and the first European Buddhist monk. As the world s senior Western bhikkhu, ordained in 1903, Nyanatiloka attracted many disciples, through whose work his influence continues to be felt today, more than fifty years after his death. Nyanatiloka was also a renowned scholar and translator of Pali scriptures. His classic The Word of the Buddha, written more than a century ago, is still widely read. The core of this volume consists of a translation of Nyanatiloka s autobiography, written in German when he was forty-eight. The remaining thirty-one years of his life, from 1926 until 1957, are presented as a biographical postscript, drawn from other sources.