This paper will investigate the history of Western research and reception of the Lotus-sËtra. It will in particular address the question how Western perception of this sËtra changed from an object of academic research in the mid-19th century, initiated and instigated by the research on and the French translation of the text by Eugène Burnouf, to a perception of the sËtra as a religious text of its own right. I will trace this change of perception by sketching out the history of reception which shows that the “popularity” of the Lotus was restricted to a relatively small circle of Buddhist and Religious Studies scholars and Christian missionaries until a stronger focus on East Asian Buddhism—not least in its Japanese forms—led to the “discovery” of the text as an agent which influenced the religious culture of a large part of Asia. This is reflected in the rich translation history of the text which moves from academic purist “Sanskritism” to a living textual tradition in the form of translations made from Kumåraj¥va’s Chinese on behalf of Japanese Buddhist denominations. The history of the Lotus and its investigation can be taken as a paradigmatic example of a 14 from scholarly object to religious text shift of Western views of Buddhism from the early period in the 19th century into modern times.
