Publisher's Synopsis
Every year, thousands of women choose to become Buddhist nuns. As they make this commitment, they become part of a long tradition of spirituality that stretches back through the centuries and now embraces the radical possibility that the next Dalai Lama could be a woman. In The Saffron Road , award-winning journalist Christine Toomey follows in the footsteps of earlier generations of nuns to trace the historical spread of the religion, from a solitary order in a remote area of India in the 6th century BC to 1950s San Francisco, where the Beat Generation first popularised Zen philosophy, to the globally-renowned practitioners of mindfulness of today. Beginning her journey in the highest reaches of the Himalayas, close to the birthplace of the Buddha, Toomey travels through Burma, Tibet and Japan in the East, and then on to Europe and North America in the West, along the way visiting contemporary nunneries to meet the women who practise there. As she talks to 'kung fu' nuns in Kathmandu and Zen priests in New Mexico, Toomey reveals the daily reality of the Buddhist existence and learns more about the diverse spiritual paths leading these women towards nirvana.Combining travelogue, history, interviews, and personal reflection, The Saffron Road opens the door on the rarely glimpsed world of ritual and discipline, reflection and enlightenment.
