Obituary for Sara Boin-Webb, 1937–20081

Buddhist Studies Review 25(2) 2008, 244–7
doi: 10.1558/bsrv.v25i2.244
ISSN (print): 0256–2897
ISSN (online): 1747–9681
Obituary for Sara Boin-Webb, 1937–20081
Sara Boin-Webb (to use her professional surname), who was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham,
on 28 April 1937, passed away on 7 July 2008. She leaves to her numerous friends the memory of a complete devotion to Buddhist Dharma through the ‘skilful means’ of translating texts.
In her young age, long periods of staying abroad sharpened her familiarity with several
languages, among them French, Italian and Spanish. Her intellectual and religious attraction to Buddhism made her an intrepid and competent translator of scholarly books on
Buddhism originally written in French. After having been introduced to Buddhism by her
first husband Emile Boin who passed away in 1977, she found in Étienne Lamotte (1903–
1983) an outstanding ‘Friend for good’ (Kalyāṇamitra) who guided her in his specialities:
Mahāyāna texts and the history of Indian Buddhism. He found in her a devoted interpreter.
The turning point of this relation was the adoption by Sara of Lamotte’s French translation of the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa. The copiously annotated ‘Vimalakīrti’ had been for Lamotte
his most beloved work. Sara’s English translation (The Teaching of Vimalakīrti, 1976) considerably extended its international diffusion. Actually, her activity as a translator started
at a critical time. We may say that for the study of Mahāyāna, French, the language of
Burnouf, La Vallée Poussin, and also of several other scholars from China, Vietnam, Sri
Lanka, the USA and other countries, had become for a century a kind of modern and western canonical language. French was located in a similar row with ancient sacred languages
such as Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan. But this ‘sacralization’ of French had its ambiguity after World War II. It was not a question of an eventual decline of Oriental studies in
the French speaking world, but it was the result of a dramatic extension, in the West, of
Buddhist scholarship. This extension, related to the increasing number of students but
also of adepts of Buddhism, was one that mostly employed ‘international’ English as its
vehicle of expression.
Sara understood the challenge of the time. Although struggling against infirmities
(problems of hearing and osteoarthritis of the spine), she courageously tackled the translation of long and difficult French books. She benefited from the unsparing support of her
husband Russell Webb. When meeting her, I admired her simple way of manifesting her
conviction about the value of what she was translating and about the help that it could
afford to scholars and ordinary people alike.
The list, figuring hereunder, of her translations is impressive. Several of the major works
of Etienne Lamotte, History of Indian Buddhism (1988), Vimalakīrtinirdeśa, Śūraṃgamasamādhi
(The Concentration of Heroic Progress, 1999) are perhaps the most conspicuous. Unfortunately,
her most considerable task, the translation of the five volumes of Lamotte’s Traité de la
Grande Vertu de Sagessse (Dazhidulun/ Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra) is still awaiting publica1. Readers may also wish to note an obituary written by Russell Webb that appeared in the Independent, 16 September 2008: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20080916/ai_
n28105449
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OBITUARY: SARA BOIN-WEBB, 1937–2008
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tion. When it happens, this publication will be too late for the solace of poor Sara, who
devoted years of hard work to it. Lamotte himself had been involved in this illuminating
encyclopaedia from 1940 until his demise in 1983. May this Treatise lead the way in the
twenty first century as it has done during the last fifteen centuries of the Far Eastern
Buddhist studies!
One has also to thank the indefatigable Sara for her translations of the work of other
authors and for her work as assistant editor of the Buddhist Studies Review, which included
serialization of many important contributions made by her. When remembering the warm
welcome dispensed by Sara and Russell in their small lodging admirably located in the intellectual heart of London, the image of the small room of Vaiśālī where the sick Vimalakīrti
greeted crores of Arhats and Bodhisattvas comes to my mind with a deep sorrow.
Sara remembered UKABS in her will.
Hubert Durt, International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies, Tokyo,
Directeur d’étude Associé, Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient.
TRANSLATIONS BY SARA BOIN-WEBB
Abbreviations
Balasooriya et al.
Buddhist Studies in honour of Walpola Rahula, ed. S. Balasooriya et al. (London: Gordon
Fraser, 1980).
Dhammapala et al. Buddhist Studies in honour of Hammalava Saddhātissa, ed. G. Dhammapala et al.
(Nugegoda: University of Sri Jayewardenepura, 1984).
A. Books
1. The Teaching of Vimalakīrti (Vimalakīrtinirdeśa), Sacred Books of the Buddhists 32 (London: Pali Text
Society, [1976] 1994). Translated under the name Sara Boin. Translation from Étienne Lamotte,
L’Enseignement de Vimalakīrti, Bibliothèque du Muséon 51 (Louvain: Institut Orientaliste, 1962).
2. History of Indian Buddhism, Publications de l’Institut Orientaliste de Louvain 36 (Louvain: Peeters
Press, 1988). Translator’s name erroneously published as Sara Webb-Boin. Translation from
Étienne Lamotte, Histoire du bouddhisme indien, des origins à l’ère Śaka, Bibliothèque du Muséon 43
(Louvain, 1958, 1967).
3. The Literature of the Personalists of Early Buddhism (Ho Chi Minh City: Vietnam Buddhist Research
Institute, 1997). Reprint (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1999). Translation from Bh. Thĺch Thiện Châu,
‘Les Sectes personnalistes (Pudgalavādin) du bouddhisme ancient’, PhD dissertation, Sorbonne
(1977).
4. Śūraṃgamasamādhisūtra: The Concentration of Heroic Progress (London: Buddhist Society and Curzon
Press, 1999). Translation from É. Lamotte, La Concentration de la Marche héroïque, Mélanges Chinois
et Bouddhiques XIII (Brussels: Institut Belge des Hautes Études chinoises, 1965).
5. Abhidharmasamuccaya: The Compendium of the Higher Teaching (Philosophy) by Asaṅga (Fremont, CA:
Asian Humanities Press, 2001). Translation from Walpola Rahula, Le Compendium de la super-doctrine
(Philosophie) (Abhi-dharmasamuccaya) d’Asaṅga, Publications de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient
LXXVIII (Paris 1971, 1980).
6. The Buddhist Schools of the Small Vehicle (awaiting publication by the Buddhist Society, London).
Translation from André Bareau, Les Sectes bouddhiques du Petit Véhicule, Publications de l’École
Française d’Extrême-Orient XXXVIII (Paris 1955).
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7. The Treatise on Perfect Wisdom (awaiting publication). Translation from É. Lamotte, Le Traité de
la Grande Vertu de Sagesse de Nāgārjuna (Mahāprajñā-pāramitāśāstra), 5 vols. Vols I–II (Louvain:
Bibliothèque du Muséon 18, [1949], 1966–67); vol. III, Publications de l’Institut Orientaliste
de Louvain 2 (1970); vol. IV, Publications de l’Institut Orientaliste de Louvain 12 (1976); vol. V,
Publications de l’Institut Orientaliste de Louvain24 (1980).
B. Articles
Lamotte, É. 1974. ‘Passions and Impregnations of the Passions’. In Buddhist Studies in Honour of
I. B. Horner, ed. L. Cousins et al., 91–101. Dordrecht: D. Reidel. Translated under the name Sara
Boin.
Bareau, A. 1980. ‘The Place of the Buddha Gautama in the Buddhist Religion during the Reign of Aśoka’.
In Balasooriya et al., 1–9.
Demiéville, P. 1980. ‘Notes on Buddhist Hymnology’. In Balasooriya et al., 44–61.
Lacombe, O. 1980. ‘Buddhist Pessimism?’. In Balasooriya et al., 113–17.
Lamotte, É. 1980. ‘Conditioned Co-production and Supreme Enlightenment’. In Balasooriya et al.,
118–31.
Bareau, A. 1981. ‘The Theravādins and East Asia according to the Canonical Texts’. Journal of the Pali
Text Society IX: 1–9.
Lamotte, É. 1981. ‘The Gāravasutta of the Saṃyuttanikāya and its Mahāyānist Developments’. Journal
of the Pali Text Society IX: 127–44.
Lamotte, É. [1984] 1991. ‘The Buddha, his Teachings and his Sangha’. In The World of Buddhism, ed. H.
Bechert & R. F. Gombrich, Chapter 1, 41–58. London & New York: Thames & Hudson. Published in
French as Le monde de bouddhisme (Paris: Bordas, 1984) and in German as Die Welt des Buddhismus
(Munich: C. H. Beck, 1984).
Lamotte, É. [1984] 1991. ‘Mahāyāna Buddhism’. In The World of Buddhism, ed. H. Bechert & R. F.
Gombrich, Chapter 2, part 2, 90–93. London & New York: Thames & Hudson. Published in French
as Le monde de bouddhisme (Paris: Bordas, 1984) and in German as Die Welt des Buddhismus (Munich:
C. H. Beck, 1984).
Bareau, A. 1984. ‘The Empire of King Reṇu and the Date of the Mahāgovinda-Sutta’. In Dhammapala
et al., 34–9.
Lamotte, É. 1984. ‘Problems concerning Minor Canonical Texts’. In Dhammapala et al., 148–57.
Chakravarti, N. P. (ed. and trans.) 1981–89. ‘Udānavarga’ 1-15 [L’Udānavarga Sanskrit. Mission Pelliot
en Asie Centrale IV (Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1930)]. Serialized in Pali Buddhist
Review 6 (1&2) (1981–2), then in Buddhist Studies Review 1–6 (1984–89).
Lamotte, É. 1983–84. ‘Assessment of Textual Authenticity in Buddhism’. Buddhist Studies Review 1:
4–15.
Lamotte, É. 1985. ‘Assessment of Textual Interpretation in Buddhism’. Buddhist Studies Review 2: 4–24.
Reprinted in Buddhist Hermeneutics, ed. Donald S. Lopez Jr., 11–27, Kuroda Institute Studies in East
Asian Buddhism 6 (Honolulu, 1988; reprinted in paperback 1992).
Ries, J. 1986. ‘Buddhism and Manichaeism’. Buddhist Studies Review 3: 108–24.
Lamotte, É. 1987. ‘Religious Suicide in Early Buddhism’. Buddhist Studies Review 4: 105–18.
Lamotte, É. 1988 & 1989. ‘Early Relations between India and the West’. Buddhist Studies Review 5: 103–
22/6: 5–24.
Lamotte, É. 1993. ‘Three Sūtras from the Saṃyuktāgama concerning Emptiness’. Buddhist Studies Review
10: 1–23.
Lamotte, É. 1995. ‘A Composite Sūtra from the Ekottarāgama’. Buddhist Studies Review 12: 27–46.
Lamotte, É. 1997. ‘Did the Buddha insult Devadatta?’. Buddhist Studies Review 14: 3–18.
Bareau, A. 1997. ‘Devadatta and the first Buddhist Schism’. Buddhist Studies Review 14: 19–37.
Dzan, Dzau, Carmen Dragonetti and Fernando Tola. 1998. ‘The Sūtra of the Eight Knowledges of Great
Beings’ (translated from Spanish). Buddhist Studies Review 15: 137–41.
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Bareau, A. 1999. ‘The Beginnings of the Buddha’s Teaching according to the Ekottarāgama’. Buddhist
Studies Review 16: 7–49.
Bareau, A. 1999. ‘The End of the Buddha’s Life according to the Ekottarāgama’. Buddhist Studies Review
16: 41–66.
Lamotte, É. 2003. ‘Vajrapāṇi in India’. Buddhist Studies Review 20: 1–30, 119–44.
Demiéville, P. 2004. ‘Vimalakīrti in China’ . Buddhist Studies Review 21: 179–96.
C. Unpublished book extracts and essays
The Summary of the Great Vehicle by Asaṅga. Foreword to Vol. I; Foreword to Vol. II, Chapters I and II,
1–152, Notes and References to these chapters. Translated from É. Lamotte, La Somme du Grand
Véhicule d’Asaṅga (Mahāyānasaṃgraha), 2 vols, Publications de l’Institut Orientaliste de Louvain 8
(Louvain-la-Neuve, 1973).
The Theory of the Tathāgatagarbha and Gotra. Table of Contents and pp. 1–48. Translated from David
Seyfort Ruegg, La Théorie du Tathāgatagarbha et du Gotra, Publications de l’École Française
d’Extrême-Orient LXX (Paris, 1969).
The Dasavatthuppakaraṇa. Introduction, Editions and Manuscripts of the Dasa-vatthu. Translated from
Jacqueline Ver Eecke Le Dasavatthuppakaraṇa. Publications de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient
CVIII (Paris, 1976).
Dharmasamuccaya. Vargas 1–5 out of 36. Translated from Lin Li-Kouang, Dharma-Samuccaya: Compendium
de la Loi I. Recueil de stances extraites du Saddharma-smṛtyupasthāna-sūtra par Avalokitasiṃha.
Bibliothèque d’études LIII (Paris: Publications du Musée Guimet, 1946).
Lamotte, É. ‘On the Formation of the Mahāyāna’. Translated from ‘Sur la formation du Mahāyāna’, in
Asiatica: Festschrift Friedrich Weller (Leipzig, 1954).
Lamotte, É. ‘The Yakṣas Ajakalāpaka and Bakkula in Buddhist Canonical Texts’. Translated from
‘Les Yakṣa Ajakalāpaka and Bakkula dans les écritures canoniques du bouddhisme’, in Mélanges
d’Indianisme à la mémoire de Louis Renou, Publications de l’Institut de Civilisation Indienne 28 (Paris,
1968).
Lamotte, É. ‘Christian and Buddhist Perspectives on Human Action’. Translated from ‘Perspectives
chrétiennes et bouddhiques sur l’acte humain’, Bulletin de l’Académie royale de Belgique (Classe des
Lettres) LVIII (Brussels, 1972).
Shih, Robert. ‘The Preface to the Ta Chih Tu Lun by Sêng-Jui’. Translated from ‘La preface du Ta tche che
louen par Seng-Jouei’, in Indianisme et Bouddhisme. Mélanges offerts à Mgr Étienne Lamotte, Publications
de l’Institut Orientaliste de Louvain-la-Neuve 23 (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1980).
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