Product Description

In "The Buddha in the Jungle", real-life stories about 19th and early 20th century Buddhist monks in Thailand are ingeniously intermingled with experiences recorded by their Western contemporaries. The stories tell of giant snakes, bandits, boatmen, midwives, and guardian spirits and collectively portray a Buddhist culture in all its imaginative and geographical concreteness. By juxtaposing these eyewitness accounts, Kimala Tiyavanich presents a new and vivid picture of Buddhism as it was lived and of the natural environments in which the Buddha's teachings were practiced.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #645724 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 404 pages

Customer Reviews

Really interesting
This is a fascinating account of the lives and experiences of some of the (now) well known and many lesser known Thai Forest masters, and of events that took place to ordinary people in their world. As with the author's other work Forest Recollections there is a lot information and insight here into the conditions of their lives and practice, but the work is looser and more episodic in its structure, providing glimpses chapter by chapter into a sadly much damaged world. This is a really valuable work to read for anyone who thinks the Theravadan traditions are dry or scholastic or monolithic - this is full of life, variety and wonder.