in the last Twenty Years: The Murder of a Profession" and in 2008 he participated in the "Rally of the Impossible Professions: Beyond the False Promises of Security" hosted by the London Society of the New Lacanian School. Awards The Asiatic Society of Calcutta awarded Gombrich the SC Chakraborty medal in 1993. The following year, he received the Sri Lanka Ranajana decoration from the President of Sri Lanka. Publications Precept and practice: traditional Buddhism in the rural highlands of Ceylon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971. Teach yourself Sanskrit: an introduction to the classical language. (Editor: Coulson, Michael) London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1976. The perfect generosity of Prince Vessantara. (Co-author: Cone, Margaret) Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977. On being Sanskritic: a plea for civilized study and the study of civilization. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978. Balasooriya, Somaratna, André Bareau, Richard Gombrich, Siri Gunasingha, Udaya Mallawarachchi and Edmund Perry eds. Buddhist studies in honour of Walpola Rahula. London: Gordon Fraser, 1980. Bechert, Heinz and Richard Gombrich eds. The world of Buddhism: Buddhist monks and nuns in society and culture. London: Thames & Hudson, 1984. Paperback ed. 1991. Dhammapala, Gatare, Richard Gombrich and K.R. Norman eds. Buddhist studies in honour of Hammalava Saddhatissa. Nugegoda, Sri Lanka: Hammalava Saddhatissa Felicitation Volume Committee, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, 1984. Theravåda Buddhism: a social history from ancient Benares to modern Colombo. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988. Gombrich, Richard, and Gananath Obeyesekere. Buddhism transformed: religious change in Sri Lanka. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988. Paperback ed. 1990. Editor. Indian ritual and its exegesis. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1988. Buddhist precept and practice. (Revised edition of 1. above.) Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1991. How Buddhism began: the conditioned genesis of the early teachings. London: The Athlone Press, 1996. Religious experience in early Buddhism? Eighth Annual BASR Lecture, 1997. British Association for the Study of Religions Occasional Paper 17. Printed by the University of Leeds Printing Service, Leeds [1998]. Kindness and compassion as means to Nirvana. (1997 Gonda Lecture) Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1998. Translation of 9 above into Japanese, trsln Iwao Shima, Kyoto: Hozokan, 2002. Translation of 8 above into Japanese, trsln, 2006. Theravåda Buddhism: a social history from ancient Benares to modern Colombo. 2nd rev. ed. London: Routledge, 2006. How Buddhism began: the conditioned genesis of the early teachings. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2006. Gombrich, Richard and Cristina Scherrer-Schaub, ed.: Buddhist Studies: Papers of the 12th