He brings back to life a world which will never be seen again. In the tradition of Italian travellers from the days of Marco Polo, Maraini went to Tibet to learn, to understand, to give and to receive. His encounter with the people of Tibet, from princesses to peasants, aided as he was by a good knowledge of the language, is a true meeting of minds. The text, which attests to the disciplines of the scholar allied to the sensitivity of the poet, is enriched by the narrative value of the author's photographs, including many Buddhist temple artefacts now forever lost.From the Hardcover edition.

    The translation by Ivan Morris is outstanding." —The New York Times**Winner of the 1952 Yomiuri Prize**This haunting novel explores the complete degradation and isolation of a man by war. Fires on the Plain is set on the island of Leyte in the Philippines during World War II, where the Japanese army is disintegrating under the hammer blows of the American landings. Within this broader disintegration is another, that of a single human being, Private Tamura. The war destroys each of his ties to society, one by one, until Tamura, a sensitive and intelligent man, becomes an outcast.Nearly losing the will to survive, he hears of a port still in Japanese hands and struggles to walk through the American lines. Unfazed by danger, he welcomes the prospect of dying, but first, he loses his hope, and then his sanity. Lost among his hallucinations, Tamura comes to fancy himself an angel enjoined by God to eat no living thing—but even angels fall.Tamura is never less than human, even when driven to the ultimate sin against humanity. Shocking as the outward events are, the greatness of the novel lies in its uplifting vision during a time of crushing horror. As relevant today as when it was originally published, Fires on the Plain will strike a chord with anyone who has lived through the horrors of war.

    Statistical normality is perfectly compatible with a high degree of folly and wickedness. In so far as he is a psychotherapist, the Oriental philosopher tries to help statistically normal individuals to become normal in the other, more fundamental sense of the word. This process of intellectual and psycho-physical adjustment to the Nature of Things is the «supreme doctrine"­ of Zen Buddhism, which Dr Benoit discusses in the light of Western psychological theory and Western psychiatric practise. This is a book that should be read by everyone who aspires to know who he is and what he can do to acquire such self-knowledge. From the Foreword by Aldous Huxley The Supreme Doctrine is a cogent statement of what Zen thought had to offer the practising Western psychiatrist. This is a book which assuredly still speaks for itself. T. H. Barrett, SOAS, University of London

    This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

    Roy Whitecross was one of the few Australian prisoners-of-war who survived slavery on the Burma-Thailand railway and, in this moving account, he reveals the full horror of the tortures they endured.