At the age of 16, Bimal Dey, a Bengali from Kolkata, ran away from home.
He found himself, months later, in Tibet, an ordained Buddhist monk.
This travelogue is about the moment he runs away from home in 1956 to the moment he arrives back in India, as well as his second trip to Tibet many years later, in 2000.
This man is truly something. The insight he shows in this book feels nothing short of real—like the insight we might get if only we focused hard and long enough. There is little extraordinary here, but the story itself is extraordinary. He does a fairly good job of balancing the narratives of the Tibetans in 2000 Tibet, both those who have nothing but good to say about China, and those who mourn for the Tibet of their past.
And did I mention this guy traveled the world on a bicycle?? Truly an inspiring individual.
http://bimaldey.com/
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I am a huge Lahiri fan. However, this book didn’t really do anything for me. Her writing style is as fierce as ever, but by the middle of the book, you find yourself growing bored about the Bengali-American, annoyed with the lack of true resolution.
She is an excellent writer, but I’m afraid that unless she finds a way to reinvent herself and break out of writing the same stories, her fans will leave her. She should not be afraid of branching out, and as is the problem with many ethnic writers, her agent should give her the freedom to write about other material. Many ethnic writers are pigeon-holed today and that leads to ruined careers; I hope Lahiri won’t follow that trend.
My book does not have this cover, as it is only for sale in India and has a different cover. I’ll admit that tickles me quite a bit. :)
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Here is an exerpt from this book: http://www.shambhala.com/html/learn/features/buddhism/excerpts/index.cfm
“So, what makes you a Buddhist? You may not have been born in a Buddhist country or to a Buddhist family, you may not wear robes or shave your head, you may eat meat and idolize Eminem and Paris Hilton. That doesn’t mean you cannot be a Buddhist. In order to be a Buddhist, you must accept that all compounded phenomena are impermanent, all emotions are pain, all things have no inherent existence, and enlightenment is beyond concepts.”
I found this book to be a very well-written, funny book exploring the four seals of Buddhism. The author is a Tibetan Buddhist (of which sect I am not sure) but is clearly hip to the ways of the modern world, something many Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns are. It was a quick, interesting read and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in Tibetan Buddhism, or Buddhism in general.
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