The Saffron Road: A Journey with Buddha's Daughters - Softcover

'There are lessons for life on every step of The Saffron Road. Christine Toomey, long-time foreign correspondent and truth-teller to the powerful, shows that philosophies are sometimes best understood from a suitcase, writing as she learns and learning as she writes. Fortunate is the reader who follows' -- Peter Stothard, author of Alexandria

'The Saffron Road is a 'mala' - prayer beads as stories, threading together brave, pioneering and sometimes lost women. It has a wild cast, and Toomey dances elegantly between the nuns' stories and her own journey in this graceful book of devotion and the devoted' -- Justine Hardy, author of In the Valley of Mist

'Christine Toomey takes us on a heart-felt journey around the world meeting women of all ages embarked upon The Saffron Road. Her book is a beautifully written, here-and-now account of both traditional and new ways for women to live as Buddhist nuns. There is no doubt in my mind that Jack Kerouac would have bought this book for his mother. In fact, he might have benefitted from reading it himself' -- Ann Charters

'Openness may explain why The Saffron Road is so much more than a sum of its parts. With a rich and compelling narrative voice, it is a text with the power to inspire a new perspective on how to live, how to view those around us, and how to find deep and lasting happiness in what we already possess' -- Financial Times

'Illuminating... As well as affording her interviewees ample room, Toomey admirably attempts to place herself in the footsteps of those she studies, adding depth to her reporting. In some ways, this story can be seen as the unravelling of Toomey's idealized vision of Buddhist nuns. Instead of peaceful, woman-centred, enlightened people ready to offer healing to the world, Toomey finds the much more interesting story of Buddhist women throughout the world' --Times Literary Supplement

'Toomey is an astute and watchful observer and a sympathetic listener who writes movingly of her travels and encounters, judiciously sharing her own experiences and the growing self-understanding she derives from her immersion in Buddhist teachings and from the example of those she writes about' --Mick Brown, Resurgence and Ecologist

'A revelation' -- Top 10 holiday reads, World Travel Guide --World Travel Guide

A brief meeting with a Buddhist nun in India made a deep impression on Christine Toomey. It sent her on a two year, 60,000-mile odyssey to learn more about the contemporary women choosing in their thousands to become part of a long tradition of female spirituality that stretches back through the centuries and now embraces the radical possibility that the next Dalai Lama could be female. In The Saffron Road, Toomey follows in the footsteps of earlier generations of Buddhist nuns to trace the routes by which the philosophy has spread from a solitary order in a remote area of India in the 5th century BC, via 1950s San Francisco where Zen was popularised by the Beat generation, to the globally-renowned practitioners of mindfulness of today. Beginning her journey in the Himalayas, close to the birthplace of the Buddha, Toomey travels from Nepal, to India, through Burma, Japan and on to North America and Europe, along the way visiting contemporary nunneries to meet the women who practise there. Amongst those she talks to are a group of "kung fu" nuns, an acclaimed novelist, a princess, a concert violinist, a former BBC journalist, and a one-time Washington political aide. Through these conversations, the daily reality of the Buddhist existence is gradually revealed, together with the diverse spiritual paths leading these women towards nirvana. Combining travelogue, history, interviews and personal reflection, The Saffron Road opens the door to a rarely glimpsed world of ritual, discipline and enlightenment.