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  • Published: 4 September 2018
  • ISBN: 9781611806496
  • Imprint: Shambhala
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 382
  • RRP: $65.00
Categories:

In the Cool Shade of Compassion

The Enchanted World of the Buddha in the Jungle





A fascinating collection of stories of the Thai forest monks that illuminates the Thai Forest tradition as a vibrant, compassionate, and highly appealing way of life.

A fascinating collection of stories of the Thai forest monks that illuminates the Thai Forest tradition as a vibrant, compassionate, and highly appealing way of life.

This work ingeniously intermingles real-life stories about nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Buddhist monks in old Siam (today’s Thailand) with experiences recorded by their Western contemporaries. Stories of giant snakes, bandits, boatmen, midwives, and guardian spirits collectively portray a Buddhist culture in all its imaginative and geographical brilliance. By juxtaposing these eyewitness accounts, Kamala 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.

This book was previously published under the title The Buddha in the Jungle.

  • Published: 4 September 2018
  • ISBN: 9781611806496
  • Imprint: Shambhala
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 382
  • RRP: $65.00
Categories:

Praise for In the Cool Shade of Compassion

Praise:

"Reading this book is to take a wondrous journey to an exotic land, full of magic chants, wise grandmothers, ghosts, elephants, snakes, and compassionate Buddhist monks. After extensive research, Kamala presents us with a collection of marvelously readable and evocative stories that recreate the flavor of a way of life that has now disappeared. This is a book of history, anthropology, and Buddhist teachings, and it is delightfully easy and fun to read."
--Wes Nisker, co-editor of the Buddhist journal Inquiring Mind, and author of The Essential Crazy Wisdom and The Big Bang, the Buddha and the Baby Boom