John D. Barbour is Professor of Religion Emeritus at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he taught from 1982 to 2018 and served as Martin Marty Chair of Religion and the Academy and Boldt Chair in the Humanities. He has written four scholarly books, including Versions of Deconversion (1994) and The Value of Solitude (2004), and also Renunciation: A Novel (2013).

'John Barbour's construction of the genre of the modern Western Buddhist travel narrative (that also functions as spiritual autobiography) is brilliant in drawing a circle around empirical facts and making their identity obvious in hindsight. The truth of this literary phenomenon is made unarguable, and the analytical focus on Westerners struggling between their native and Buddhist senses of personhood portrays how a foreign religion is becoming Western in the experiences and examples of actual lives. This book is a big step forward in the study of modern Western Buddhism.' Francisca Cho, Georgetown University

• Introduction: A literary genre and some questions about self-transformation; 1. The origins of the genre: John Blofeld and Lama Govinda; 2. Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard and Nine-Headed Dragon River; 3. In a Zen monastery: Ambiguous failure and enlightenment; 4. Thomas Merton and Christian and Jewish pilgrims in Buddhist Asia; 5. Walking the Dharma on Shikoku and in India; 6. Trekking and tracking the self in Tibet; 7. Life-changing travels in the Tibetan diaspora; 8. Encounters with Theravada Buddhism; 9. Searching for Buddhism after Mao; Conclusion: Theories of no-self, stories about unselfing, and transformation.

John D. Barbour is Professor of Religion Emeritus at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he taught from 1982 to 2018 and served as Martin Marty Chair of Religion and the Academy and Boldt Chair in the Humanities. He has written four scholarly books, including Versions of Deconversion (1994) and The Value of Solitude (2004), and also Renunciation: A Novel (2013).

'John Barbour's construction of the genre of the modern Western Buddhist travel narrative (that also functions as spiritual autobiography) is brilliant in drawing a circle around empirical facts and making their identity obvious in hindsight. The truth of this literary phenomenon is made unarguable, and the analytical focus on Westerners struggling between their native and Buddhist senses of personhood portrays how a foreign religion is becoming Western in the experiences and examples of actual lives. This book is a big step forward in the study of modern Western Buddhism.' Francisca Cho, Georgetown University

• Introduction: A literary genre and some questions about self-transformation; 1. The origins of the genre: John Blofeld and Lama Govinda; 2. Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard and Nine-Headed Dragon River; 3. In a Zen monastery: Ambiguous failure and enlightenment; 4. Thomas Merton and Christian and Jewish pilgrims in Buddhist Asia; 5. Walking the Dharma on Shikoku and in India; 6. Trekking and tracking the self in Tibet; 7. Life-changing travels in the Tibetan diaspora; 8. Encounters with Theravada Buddhism; 9. Searching for Buddhism after Mao; Conclusion: Theories of no-self, stories about unselfing, and transformation.

John D. Barbour is Professor of Religion Emeritus at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he taught from 1982 to 2018 and served as Martin Marty Chair of Religion and the Academy and Boldt Chair in the Humanities. He has written four scholarly books, including Versions of Deconversion (1994) and The Value of Solitude (2004), and also Renunciation: A Novel (2013).

'John Barbour's construction of the genre of the modern Western Buddhist travel narrative (that also functions as spiritual autobiography) is brilliant in drawing a circle around empirical facts and making their identity obvious in hindsight. The truth of this literary phenomenon is made unarguable, and the analytical focus on Westerners struggling between their native and Buddhist senses of personhood portrays how a foreign religion is becoming Western in the experiences and examples of actual lives. This book is a big step forward in the study of modern Western Buddhism.' Francisca Cho, Georgetown University

• Introduction: A literary genre and some questions about self-transformation; 1. The origins of the genre: John Blofeld and Lama Govinda; 2. Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard and Nine-Headed Dragon River; 3. In a Zen monastery: Ambiguous failure and enlightenment; 4. Thomas Merton and Christian and Jewish pilgrims in Buddhist Asia; 5. Walking the Dharma on Shikoku and in India; 6. Trekking and tracking the self in Tibet; 7. Life-changing travels in the Tibetan diaspora; 8. Encounters with Theravada Buddhism; 9. Searching for Buddhism after Mao; Conclusion: Theories of no-self, stories about unselfing, and transformation.