There are numerous hints in HTVPD that it is fiction, not the least of which the biographies of people like Evans-Wentz and other in HTVPD do not mention on Spalding or the supposed India tour. At least one of the people mentioned in HTVPD, Paul Brunton, never met Spalding until the 1930′s, which is clearly stated in Brunton’s published notebooks. And HTVPD opens with a reference to a Time magazine cover from the 1960′s, which is fairly unlikely for a book allegedly written in 1924 by an author who died in 1953. As you said, I believe HTVPD was simply cashing in on the Spalding name. The author of HTVPD had written several other similar unofficial sequels, prequels and translations, and no information to the contrary has turned up despite extensive searches and the input of many readers of the blog.

By contrast, the prequel, “Journey to the East” as re-translated from Vietnamese, is well constructed with a clear narrative style, no mini sermons and a lot of information on Eastern esoteric and spiritual topics. It does not read like Spalding’s main work which is short on detail, visionary and impressionistic.

Professor Evans-Wentz features as one of the characters in the Vietnamese re-translation, and I wonder whether he was responsible for some, if not all of the narrative of Spalding’s “Journey to the East”. Spalding’s “Journey to the East” starts with a demonstration of miraculous powers given by a monk from an Indian delegation at Oxford University. Professor Evans-Wetz studied social anthropology at Oxford University and was awarded a D.S in 1910. In 1917 he travelled in India and later went on to spend 3 years in Sikkim in the company of a Tibetan lama, the headmaster of a boys school in Gangtok, who died in 1922.

According to the Vietnamese translation, “Journey to the East” was originally published in India in 1924, the same year as the publication of Spalding’s first volume. Even if it was not written by Professor Evans-Wetz, it does not read like Spalding’s other works. If it is not by Spalding, the question is, why would it be attributed to him?

It has been suggested that the prequel is cashing in on Spalding’s popularity. But there could be other reasons. We have to consider why these books were being published. “Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East” is clearly intended as a vehicle for spiritual teachings. Volume 4 even has sections headed “For the Teacher” at the end of some chapters. If there were ghost writers, perhaps they did not wish to risk their reputations in what could be seen as a controversial alternative to mainstream Christian teachings.

I don’t think this book should be classified as “fiction”. Fictional books always state at the beginning, or at the end, or somewhere that this book is fiction (part or whole), is an imaginary work of the author, or something in similar. What I understand is this book stated clearly that it was translated from Baird Spalding’s book, which was published in 1924, and it was presented as true accounts of Baird Spalding’s journey to India.

Here are my takes from the interview transcript stated above:

“Spalding never wrote a book entitled Journey to the East”
- My take: many, many Vietnamese read this book, believed that it was from the famous author Baird Spalding, who actually went to India, and learned the East’s way of life.

“Hanh Trinh Ve Phoung Dong also contains numerous historical anomalies”
- My take: Many Vietnamse who read this book believing in every events, every conversations with Indian gurus, as true facts. And many memorized, quoted, and used these anomalies as facts. How would they know these anomalies?

“They all commented, “The book has changed my perception in life.”
- My take: Yes, and this change is based on a deception. Would this be a good thing? If

“This edition clearly stated that HTVPD was a Vietnamese translation of “Journey to the East” (JTE) by Baird Spalding published in 1924 by the Adyar Publishing House in India, and Nguyen Phong was the translator.”
- My take: can you see the deception here, the supposed details of famous author, the published year of 1924, even the publisher is stated. Yet, none of these are true. I wonder why Nguyen Phong needed to lie this much for his “translated” book? I think he needed to loan the air of authenticity, and leverage of a famous author.

“This edition discloses no publisher, but it unveils itself by a Buddhist calendar year of 2549 and reveals that Nguyen Phong derived HTVPD from a six-volume set of books entitled “Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East. After purchasing this six-volume set, it occurred to me that HTVPD had very little in common with Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East.”
- My take: Not until 2005 that somewhere in the re-published book this “fact” was included. Still, it is still a lie. HTVPD had very little in common with the books written by Baird Spalding. I think by 2005, they knew people might find out that there was no such book by Baird Spalding, and they just stated in the re-print book to soften the lie.

“From our perspective, it really does not matter who composed the book; what really matters is the wisdoms from the contents of this book are disseminated widely to a larger group of audience. Honestly speaking, the notion that is far more noteworthy is what subject matters were written than who wrote them at this point.”
- My take: It really, really does matter who wrote the book. If Baird Spalding composed the book, then Spalding was really there in India, talked and conversed with Indian gurus about life, ways of life, meaning of life. But the book was written by Nguyen Phong, who did not travel to India, who did not talk to the monks, and his fictional book had very little common with Baird Spalding’s books.

In addition, with knowledge that this was not Spalding book, Poven Leace translated the HTVPD, and still stated that that this was Spalding’s book.

The way I see it: The deceptive book was a fictional work of Nguyen Phong, who lied that he “translated” from a famous author, and now, Poven Leace tried to authenticate a deception by translating a fictional work and giving the book the name and the author of which Nguyen Phong lied in the beginning. It almost worked on me: I looked online and found “Journey to the East” by Baird Spalding, and I thought the book was an authenticate translation of Baird Spalding book (Amazon, eBay, AbeBooks, Alibris all currently states the author of the “Journey to the East” is Baird Spalding), until I found this site and this interview. What I don’t understand is that if the “wisdom” of this HTVPD book is so great, so life changing, then, why the deceptions, the lies? The great wisdom should be great on its own, not based on lies.

Why am I writing this much details and responses?

I am offended that many of my Vietnamse people had been deceived, and many are still practicing/following the “teaching” and the “wisdom” of the Indian gurus/master’s sayings in the book. The lie was cemented by the sales of the English book titled “Journey to the East.