Is there a Buddhist discourse on sex? This book reveals Buddhism's paradoxical attitudes toward sexuality. It covers the geography of this religion, and its long evolution from the time of its founder, Xvkyamuni, to the premodern age. "Although many scholars strive to locate their research within the study of Chinese religions as a whole, and thus to incorporate perspectives, insights, and approaches derived from the fields of popular religious studies and poststructuralist anthropology, there is as yet only one scholar who has adopted this breadth of vision as the fundamental characteristic of his intellectual agenda. This is of course Bernard Faure."