Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-286) and index.

From Mongols to mughals: Hindu-Muslim relations in Medieval India -- Hindu nationalism, modernism, and reverse Orientalism -- Premodern harmony, Sri Lankan Buddhist nationalism, and violence -- Burmese nationalisms and religious violence against Muslims -- Buddhism in Bhutan: from violent lamas to peaceful kings -- "Compassionate" violence in Tibet: 1,000 years of war magic -- Buddhism and Japanese nationalism: a sad chronicle of complicity -- Sikhism, the seduction of modernism, and the question of violence -- Religious nationalism, violence, and Taiping Christianity -- Hypotheses on the reasons for religious violence -- The gospel of weak belief, overcoming the other, and constructive postmodernism.

A scholar of world religions investigates religiously motivated violence that occurred in medieval Tibet and Bhutan, as well as in modern India, Sri Lanka, Burma, and Japan. The fusion of religious and national identity in high lamas and divine kings has caused just as much violence in Asia as it did in Europe and the Middle East.

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