Dear Professor Silk, 

I am afraid they are referencing this book: 
WebOPAC Local書誌詳細 
(Nakamura Hajime (1977) Gotama Buddha. 
Los Angeles, Buddhist Books International)
which is very slim indeed (and riddled with typos). 

Best wishes, 

Gaia Pintucci

On Fri, May 15, 2026 at 3:06 PM Jonathan Silk via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
What I sent yesterday to the "corrections" email of the NYT with the subject line "does anyone fact check even basic things?":

“Monk, Householder and Tantric Priest: Newar Buddhism and its Hierarchy of Ritual” (1992) by David Gellhorn

Please, please: look up the author's name....

“Gotama Buddha: A Biography Based on the Most Reliable Texts” (1977) by Hajime Nakamura
A slim, subtle meditation on the Awakened One and his doctrine coming from the Eastern edge of the Buddhist world.

Are we talking about the same book? this is a two volume work, the first of which is 528 pages, the second 350; slim?

I am not surprised that there has been no response so far...

Jonathan


On Fri, May 15, 2026 at 5:58 AM Samuel Grimes via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
The editors at the New York Times should perhaps do even minor fact checking before publishing so much misinformation on Newar Buddhism. Acknowledging its existence is perhaps a step in the right direction, even while saying things like it is “inextricably linked with Hinduism” and a “prison of secrecy.” All while mentioning people like Birat Raj Bajracharya and Swostu Kayastha who would be appalled having their names appear beside such nonsense.

On Thu, May 14, 2026 at 11:40 PM Patricia SAUTHOFF via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Patricia Sauthoff
司徒 雛菊 
Assistant Professor
Department of History
Hong Kong Baptist University 


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--
Prof. dr. J.A. Silk
Professor in the study of Buddhism
Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
Herta Mohr building 2.142
Witte Singel 27A
2311 BG Leiden
The Netherlands

Guest Professor, PI of ERC-Project BEST
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Department für Asienstudien, Institut für Indologie und Tibetologie
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1
80539 München
Deutschland

copies of my publications may be found at

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