Buddha, der Weg der Erleuchtung

This is the story of the Indian prince who, over 2500 years ago, abandoned a life of luxury and pleasure to find the one imperishable thing in this evanescent and pain-filled life.

In mid-life, at the end of a long spiritual search, Siddhartha Gautama underwent the experience in which he came the Buddha, of "The Enlightened One." Thereafter Sakyamuni, as he came to be called, spent forty years of wanderings, during which he preached the Good Law and the Four Noble Truths and founded a community of disciples.

The final chapter of this book deals with the development and spread of Buddhism, with its various schools and countless adherents.

The photographs, taken expressly for this book, richly complement the text in all its historical, religious and artistic dimensions. There are places associated with the Buddha during his life-time; the foothills of the Himalayas and the cultural centers of the Ganges river basin. There are the commemorative monuments and the great Buddhist temples and monasteries. And finally, there is the legacy of painting and sculpture which depict deities and bodhisattvas, Jataka tales and episodes from the life of the Buddha.