Buddha Da

My present reading of Buddha Da, (Donovan 2002) is helping to preserve the voices of Glaswegians in my ear. Glaswegian is also the name for the local dialect. Donovan’s story about a working class family in Glasgow is arranged in chapters named for members of the family; each talk about the effects of the father “Da” taking up a Buddhist meditation practice. The dialogue is all in Glaswegian, which takes a bit of energy to register. Here, for example, is Da talking about how he was introduced to the practice, “Well, ah wis gettin a coupla rolls for ma lunch when ah met wanny they Buddhist guys. We got talkin and ah went alang wi him tae see the centre. It wis rainin, ah’d nothin better tae dae and ah thought it’d be a laugh, you know, folk in funny claes, chantin and that (2).”

And here’s a Buddha I saw at the Burrell Gallery:

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One Response to Buddha Da

  1. desy says:

    the book sounds great, want to read it, hope i get that book in my place, nice info

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