Background
David Gordon White was born on September 3, 1953, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, United States. He is the son of Gordon Robens and Wini Wildman White.
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
The University of Wisconsin-Madison where David Gordon White received his Bachelor of Arts degree.
5801 S Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL 60637, United States
The University of Chicago where David Gordon White received his Master of Arts degree.
Les Patios Saint-Jacques, 4-14 Rue Ferrus, 75014 Paris, France
École Pratique des Hautes Études where David Gordon White studied.
(Remarkably wide-ranging and extremely well-documented, th...)
Remarkably wide-ranging and extremely well-documented, the book Myths of the Dog-Man covers the following: medieval Christian legends such as the 14th-century Ethiopian Gadla Hawaryat that had their roots in Parthian Gnosticism and Manichaeism, dog-stars, dog-days, and canine psychopomps in the ancient and Hellenistic world, the cynocephalic hordes of the ancient geographers, the legend of Prester John, Visvamitra and the Svapacas, the Dog Rong during the Xia, Shang, and Zhou periods, the nochoy ghajar (Mongolian for "Dog Country") of the Khitans, the Panju myth of the Southern Man and Yao "barbarians" from chapter 116 of the History of the Latter Han and variants in a series of later texts, the importance of dogs in ancient Chinese burial rites, and more.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226895092/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i6
1991
(The Alchemical Body excavates and centers within its Indi...)
The Alchemical Body excavates and centers within its Indian context the lost tradition of the medieval Siddhas. Working from previously unexplored alchemical sources, David Gordon White demonstrates for the first time that the medieval disciplines of Hindu alchemy and hatha yoga were practiced by one and the same people and that they can be understood only when viewed together. White opens the way to a new and more comprehensive understanding of medieval Indian mysticism, within the broader context of South Asian Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Islam.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FC434KW/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i2
1996
(For those who wonder what relation actual Tantric practic...)
For those who wonder what relation actual Tantric practices bear to the "Tantric sex" currently being marketed so successfully in the West, David Gordon White has a simple answer: there is none. Sweeping away centuries of misunderstandings and misrepresentations, White returns to original texts, images, and ritual practices to reconstruct the history of South Asian Tantra from the medieval period to the present day. Kiss of the Yogini focuses on what White identifies as the sole truly distinctive feature of South Asian Tantra: sexualized ritual practices, especially as expressed in the medieval Kaula rites. By focusing on sexual rituals, White resituates South Asian Tantra, in its pre-colonial form, at the center of religious, social, and political life, arguing that Tantra was the mainstream and that in many ways it continues to influence contemporary Hinduism, even if reformist misunderstandings relegate it to a marginal position.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CL6DEZO/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1
2003
(Since the 1960s, yoga has become a billion-dollar industr...)
Since the 1960s, yoga has become a billion-dollar industry in the West, attracting housewives and hipsters, New Agers, and the old-aged. But the modern conception of yoga derives much from nineteenth-century European spirituality, and the true story of yoga's origins in South Asia is far richer, stranger, and more entertaining than most people realize. To uncover this history, David Gordon White focuses on yoga practitioners.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WOLIXO/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i5
2009
(The rise, fall, and modern resurgence of an enigmatic boo...)
The rise, fall, and modern resurgence of an enigmatic book revered by yoga enthusiasts around the world. Consisting of fewer than two hundred verses written in an obscure if not impenetrable language and style, Patanjali's Yoga Sutra is today extolled by the yoga establishment as a perennial classic and guide to yoga practice. As David Gordon White demonstrates in this groundbreaking study, both of these assumptions are incorrect. Virtually forgotten in India for hundreds of years and maligned when it was first discovered in the West, the Yoga Sutra has been elevated to its present iconic status - and translated into more than forty languages - only in the course of the past forty years. White retraces the strange and circuitous journey of this confounding work from its ancient origins down through its heyday in the seventh through eleventh centuries, its gradual fall into obscurity, and its modern resurgence since the nineteenth century.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I1OV9OS/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
2014
David Gordon White was born on September 3, 1953, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, United States. He is the son of Gordon Robens and Wini Wildman White.
David White began his studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in 1975. He continued his studies at the University of Chicago where he obtained a Master of Arts degree in 1981 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree with honors in 1988. He also studied Hinduism at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, France.
David White began his teaching career in 1986 at the University of Virginia. He began working as a lecturer and then became an assistant professor of religious studies, the position he held till 1996. There he founded the University of Virginia Study-Abroad Program in Jodhpur, India, in 1994. Then he became an associate professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Since 2011 he has been J. F. Rowny Professor of Comparative Religions.
In addition to his educational activity, White is also actively engaged in writing. He is the author of five books such as Myths of the Dog-Man (1991), The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India (1996), Kiss of the Yogini: "Tantric Sex" in its South Asian Contexts (2003), Sinister Yogis (2009) and The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: A Biography (2014). He is also a contributor to 1991 The Eternal Food: Gastronomic Ideas and Experiences of Hindus and Buddhists and 1995 Indian Religion in Practice as well as an editor of 2000 Tantra in Practice. White contributed to encyclopedias and periodicals, including Numen, History of Religions and International Journal of Hindu Studies.
(Remarkably wide-ranging and extremely well-documented, th...)
1991(For those who wonder what relation actual Tantric practic...)
2003(Since the 1960s, yoga has become a billion-dollar industr...)
2009(The Alchemical Body excavates and centers within its Indi...)
1996(The rise, fall, and modern resurgence of an enigmatic boo...)
2014David White is a member of the American Academy of Religion.
Dawid White with his companion Catherine Weinberger-Thomas have a child, Caroline Meyer.