This is a great book to use to teach children about Indian culture. The illustations are bright and unique. (Sangita- I alwasy knew you'd go far! :))This book is a must have for all school and public libraries.

I think this book was surprisingly cute and original. My son and I enjoy it very much.

This is an excellent book for children on the history of the bindi. I found it to be informative and accurate, but humorous and simple enough for children to understand. I plan on using it in my classroom- wonderful illustrations!

I had the pleasure of seeing a preview copy of this book. It isa must read as we move toward understanding what it might mean for thefuture in making China richer and more powerful through trade.

This book puts a gentle face on a very brave people who have suffered not only the largest land grab of the 20th century through the bloody invasion by China (Tibet is the size of Europe) but have suffered a genocide by the Chinese that is the most widely ignored in history.

This is a beautiful book and worth the price. Add to your reading list "Tears Of Blood" by Mary Craig and "In Exile From the Land Of Snows" by John Avedon.

China will be one of the 3 big stories of the next century if we make it richer and more powerful. This book is as important as it is a beautiful undertaking. Congratulations to Mr. Harrison END

This book is a must see and read. Stephen Harrison truly captures the personal side of Tibetans in Exile. As you read the stories behind the Tibetans portrayed in the photographs, it's as if you are in the background while Stephen Harrison interviews these most courageous Tibetan people. The portrait photography is wonderfully presented in a landscape format providing for a personal backdrop behind the emotion and suffering of each Tibetan portrayed. This is a one of a kind presentation providing a first-time moving experience each and everytime you open the book.

In Whispered Prayers: Portraits And Prose Of Tibetans In Exile, Stephen Harrison showcases the inner experiences of being a Tibetan refugee through a moving narration combined with exquisite photography. This wonderful exhibition is a worthy and valued contribution is further enhanced with a foreword by His Holiness, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. Whispered Prayers will be read with deep engagement by students of Buddhism, of Tibetan history, and all who seek an enlightenment path through perilous and stressful times.

I have ordered these books because I found them at a house I was visiting in Austin. An Indian couple generously invited me into their home to see these books after they found out I was interested in women's history. I was particularly impressed with the writings of the woman, Tarabai. She wrote a feminist treatise in 1873, excerpted in this anthology, which reminds me of a poem, Hombres Necios, written by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz in the seventeenth century. It also called to mind the work by Matilda Joslyn Gage in the U.S. a few years later, 1893--Woman, Church and State. Tarabai's words are so brilliant and inspiring. Fantastic! Our women's movement has a much longer history and a more global representation than I ever learned about in any of my schooling.

Virginia Woolf created the persona of Shakespeare's sister - an equally talented writer whose creativity was stifled under the rigid Elizabethan society. Her Indian counterpart could be called Tagore's sister. Actually, Rabindranath Tagore did have an older sister, Swarnakumari Devi, who became an accomplished writer and journalist in her lifetime. However, rather than being patronized so often, had she received the same encouragement and support as her younger brother, she may have reached an equivalent level of international acclaim today. Editors Tharu and Lalita's anthology is an excellent collection of works by women who throughout Indian history have rarely been encouraged express themselves. Male critics have often ignored women's writing or have been condescending. Until the 20th century, female literacy in India has seldom been advocated. This book captures the development of women as writers in India, from early 6th century Buddhist nuns to the social reformers of the 20th century. Devotional writing provided a safe outlet for the Indian woman, and the bhakti (devotion) movement began in south India in the 8th century, and moved north through Maharastra, Gujarat and Rajasthan by the 16th century. A bhakti poet could express her feelings under the guise of religion, surpassing caste and gender barriers. For example, romanticism and eroticism is acceptable through the lovers Lord Krishna and Radha. Another acceptable method was to invoke the inspiration of Krishna, as Tarigonda Venkamamba (19th century Telugu) did before she imagined Lord Vishnu as her husband. A woman of a low caste, normally forbidden to read the scriptures, could create her own religious songs by attributing it to divine inspiration. Atukuri Molla, from a Telugu artisan caste in the early 16th century, actually revised the Hindu epic, Ramayana. She produced 138 slokas (verses) in six sections within five days, and Molla Ramayanam depicts the story from Sita's point of view. Like most women writers, she was apologetic about herself, "I am no scholar . . . " and said divine powers had given her this voice. A particular mark of the bhakti writer is the ankita - the author's name embedded in the text. An example is Mirabai, a 16th century Gujarati and Hindi writer, whose songs and poems are legendary today. *"Mira is the servant of her beloved Giridhar (Krishna) And she cares nothing that people mock her." (p. 93) Although there are no reliable manuscripts, Mirabai's songs have survived thanks to their lyrics and strong rhythm. Tharu and Lalita have definitely broadened the scope of women's writing in India by embracing the folk song. India has a rich oral tradition of singing at weddings, lullabies, and during house and field work. There is also a stronger collection of songs about with intense statements about childbirth and mistreatment by in-laws and husbands. In this collection, the readers can witness the centuries of oppression, as told by the women in their own words. Rassundari Devi (19th century Bengal) wrote of her own life -- weeping as child bride, bearing and raising eleven children, running a household on an empty stomach at times, and secretly learning to read behind her kitchen stove. She writes: *"I kept the sheet in my left hand while I did the cooking and glanced at it through the sari, which was drawn over my face . . . Wasn't it a matter to be regretted, that I had to go through all this humiliation just because I was a woman? Shut up like a thief, even trying to learn was considered an offense . . . the little that I have learned is only because God did me the favor" (p. 202) These women struggled for a voice within their own households - confronting forced marriages, abuse and neglect by husbands and in laws, the denial of education and the ostracization of widows. There is an especially moving personal and anonymous account of the dehumanizing treatment of widows in the 19th century. If she only knew that a hundred years later, her words had survived. One of the most insightful stories was written by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (19th/20th century Bengali) whose essays on the rights of women have been compared to English feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. In "Sultana's Dream," she envisions a society in which men are restricted to the murdana (men's quarters), while women are free to rule the country, and excel in science and politics. She sharply and logically details the women's acquisition of power and how they utilized it to create a utopic society. This dialogue is indicative of Rokeya's wit: *"[Men's] brains are bigger and heavier than women's. Are they not?" "Yes, but what of that? An elephant also has got a bigger and heavier brain than a man has. Yet men can enchain elephants and employ them according their own wishes."(p. 347) There are 140 women writers from 13 languages in this collection and every one has a singular story deserving to be told. Many pieces have been unearthed for the first time, while others are now translated into English. This collection is most likely available at university bookstores.

This book was a major find for me, since I'm Indian-American and most fiction I read in college was by white male American and European authors. It's great to have a book like this one and its companion volume. Many of the pieces have never before been translated into English. For example, there is a version of the Ramayana, one of the major Indian epics, written by a Telugu woman, parts of which are translated here.

Women Writing in India is great for curling up with in the evenings, and is a wonderful resource (the ONLY resource, as far as I can tell) for Indian women writers through the ages. Buy it now!

this is one of the finest stories read by me of f.w.dixon. i was really inquistive to know it's contents as i am from mumbai. the story is centered around the movie sets of bollywood. it is an very intresting book that can captivate the hearts of all it's readers!

One of the best I've read.The Hardy Boys come to Bombay to investigate sabotage in a movie set.Explosive action and a mind-bending plot will keep the reader hooked.

Titus Foster a long-time devotee of Swami Prakashananda has done the world(All of us) the greatest service. He has brought to the world the wisdom and stories of one of the most loving compasssionate souls to ever walk this earth. In a world colored by hatred and prejudices of every kind. This man didnt live for name or fame or power.As he said,"I came for Love and Knowledge and service to humanity"- and he got it! After Muktanandas death, Baba took on the task of helping many of Muktanandas orphaned children continue their spiritual destiny under his compassionate wing. Being part of a large group of devotees around Muktananda, I had always wished for the close contact and training of a great being. In Prakashananda I found a simple loving presence of great light and over-whelming spiritual beauty.I had the Opportunity to live with Prakashananda and Titus off and own for years. It is of great importance that the genuine article is now available for everyone and my only wish is that Babaji now to enjoy the "Name and fame" that he ironically so deeply deserves in service to humanity.Thankyou Harihar!

This small book consists of a short biography of Swami Prakashananda (58 pages) plus a lot of parables he told as his way to answer to requests of his pupils. This Swami seems to have had a very "rich" life. Lot's of travels and deep spiritual insights. One would really like to know more about him, but since he was not in the limelight, nearly nothing has remained about his pilgrimages. Nevertheless, it shows one, that there are great souls out there, even if nearly unknown. In the later part of his life he was a pupil of Swami Muktananda, and one learns here, that Muktananda would have liked Prakashananda to become his successor, Prakashananda declined, and therefore Chidvilasanda and Nityananda have been choosen. As we know from other sources, Nityanda left the "position", so nowadays one hears only about Chidvilasananda, when it comes to SYDA Yoga. But Swami Prakashananda was a man of his own and basically a Shakta in his Temple Sapta Shring. The book is short, but touching and worth reading. The author lived with the Swami for eight years and tells the story without bringing himself into it, which is quite an achievement. Thank you Titus:-)

I have recently picked up this book and read it only in bits and pieces but I must say that I am enjoying it immensely. I am not much of an expert on photography and can't speak about the technical aspects of this book but I must say that the photos with matching oral histories make this one a really absorbing affair. Some of the stories are quite hilarious, such as a patriarch who is bit of a tyrant as well an expert on time pieces, having written many books on the subject including a dictionary! He has got his own wife, his sons and their wives, and the grandchildren into this subject and so you have this extended family living with an unbelievable collection of watches and clocks. There are clock fashioned inside a banjo and a guitar, and there are these five-foot high, giant alarm clocks. It is also a very fascinating insight into the whole extended family system that you find less and less in neighborhoods today. The old patriarch says that nobody grudges the watches and clocks taking away all the space in their small flat because this was the condition "I put before my own marriage and then before the marriage of my two sons." So you have this photo of this eight-member family living in this one room tenement with these 2000 watches and clocks.

Photography on serious themes like homelessness, HIV, old age homes are always being done in that grabbing shots/reportage style which work very well in a newspaper context but don't have the same effect when put out in the form of a book. This book however goes in the other direction, taking the large format environmental portrait route more common to celebrity portraiture. More importantly, both in terms of the pictures and the narrations accompanying them, it addresses its theme with a lot of thought and patience. Just as well, since the book deals with the theme of ageing. Although, it has its share of celebrities, I could recognize only one - Pandit Ravi Shankar the famous sitar player, what makes it more interesting and valuable is its focus on the unknown, the forgotten or those who are simply down and out.

In another important change from the work done with such people and such environments, this one lets the people do the talking for a change, even when they don't seem to take very kindly to the book's writer or photographer. In the process this book highlights a world that even when far removed from ours, has human connections and concerns that are universal. The optimism, as one lady in this book puts it, "the years are like sugar in your tea cup. The last sip is sweetest," or the pessimism, as a traditional toy maker puts it, "what is a long life worth for those with limited means?" Then there are characters with their own peculiarities, a 100-year old soldier who thinks his teeth are coming back or a Chinese newspaper publisher, (that India also has a Chinese population was a revelation), who feels that the motto of the young is, "go for the cupboard keys first, then just say bye-bye."

The most inspiring person I came across the 130 in this book was an eye surgeon who has been going around to really far removed places that have no hospitals and treating people for free. He has done more surgeries than anybody else in the world and has been at it for last 50 odd years. To me he seemed to be like Dr. Sheiwitzer who spent all those years in Africa and was immortalized in Eugene Smith's photo essays for LIFE magazine. But unlike the missionary-doctor this one wears his achievements lightly and says, "I am just an ordinary man and will serve as God wants me to. My instruments are my prayer and the operating room is my temple. My work has therefore been my pilgrimage."

I was trained in art history at Smith College, so I thought I had some notion of the world's greatest art monuments. NOT!

Alchi is every bit as sophisticated, refined and important as the Sistine Chapel, the Pompei frescoes, etc. that we in the West are already familiar with.

Seeing Alchi in person blows you away - you're amazed that something this precious and beautiful exists, and, miraculously, has survived so many chances at oblivion. Go to see it - or, failing that, buy this book. You can't take pictures inside anyway, so either way, buy this book. An astonishing and deeply moving masterpiece (both the place and the book).

Upon the northern edge of the Indian subcontinent, in the hilly folds near the Himalayas, east of Kashmir near the Tibetan border south of the Indus river is Ladakh. Its valleys have long been a great trade and invasion route to the north of India. There is Alchi, a distinct daedal of Buddhist temples with splendid wall paintings and clay sculptures that have survived for the past eight hundred years to reveal some of the best preserved and unaltered images, an iconography of a flourishing Varjayana Buddhism. This sumptuous limited edition offers a detailed photo survey and archaeological description of one of the most impressive of the temples at Alchi, the Sumtsek (Three-Tiered) Temple. The building itself is a composite blend of Tibetan and Kashmiri elements that demonstrate some central Asian components. The wall paintings are in an elaborate and delicate Kashmiri style. This style is known to still exist only in a few other temples in Ladakh and western Tibet. The minuteness and finesse of the form and style of many of the paintings appears to be a transposition of techniques developed for miniatures in manuscripts onto the larger surfaces of walls. The adept vision of the monk artists of the Sumtsek combines a lavish display of tantric teachings, with still evolving artistic styles and methods. These are blended with the requirements of a donor's personal vision into structural possibilities of the building's interior design and access to light. All this culminates into a integrated sanctuary, one of the great gems of early tantric iconography. It is a treasure in its own right as valuable as the Sistine Chapel or Saint Marks Basilica. The wooden panels of the ceilings are painted with a rich variety of textile motifs, some deriving from Greco-Iranian and Sassanian sources, others similar to those found on the pantheon figures of the Buddhist wall paintings, pointing to the international character of the northwest Indian and Kashmiri medieval civilization. The text provides a full introduction to the icons and historical social religious context of the building as best as that can reconstructed through archaeological and scientific methods. In many ways the volume is also a plea for the international preservation of these treasures of Buddhist art due to of the recent rapid deterioration because of changes in climate and rainfall. The paintings reveal early forms of iconographic cult that offer important means of interpreting the evolution of the ritual use of painting. The book ALCHI contains over 300 color plates, maps, and plans. They are beautifully integrated into the text and are important evidence of the development of the cult meditation Buddhas of the Varjayana tradition. This volume is an important documentation of some world class art on the verge of extinction.

A true treasure of a book, Art Treasures of the Mahabharata combines well-told short stories from the Mahabharata with excellent photographs of an amazing work of sculpture that really brings to life this ancient and intriguing epic. As a coffee table book, it never fails to impress my guests, even those who have little knowledge of the ancient Vedic culture. The author, Bhaktisiddhanta, is obviously a highly talented individual who has produced a work that offers homage to beauty, ancient Eastern culture, God, and the soul. I feel good just having this book in my home.

With Life And Its Poetry, Mary Ann Fleck Legacy presents a collection of poems composed at various stages of her life in order to express her thoughts and feelings. Her's is a remarkable and literate poetry that reaches across boundaries of background and place to touch something universal in the human experience. Salvation: I trod the path that all must go,/into the Hell of Mind's deep glow./I did not wait for earthly death/to pass the Gate of Fire expressed.//Heaven's anger does not depend/on Man's concept of body end,/but finds the faring on its path/long before the vent of its full wrath.//It's then we know none escape/the Keeper of the Holy Grate--/Lucifer and all his counterparts/do rend the best of human hearts.//Before God rips the earthly bonds,/and we transcend the body state,/He puts us to a rigid test/the Soul must pass to find a rest.//It's then we learn no future date/will send us into Eon's fate,/but Hell is here, and Heaven, too--/Eternity is all we do.

Being in the Spa/Beauty industry Ayurveda is a word being used more frequently. I was unable to answer ques. about it when people would call the Spa I worked in and it was quite embarrassing. I bought this book, and it has helped me gain the knowledge to answer the ques. intelligently and sparked an interest to futher my education. It is a very interesting and educational read that I recommend to anyone who is new to Ayurveda.

Nancy Bruning and Helen Thomas have done an excellent job of presenting Ayurveda. This book is easy to use and understand. They offer the concepts of Ayurveda in a simple and enlightening fashion. I especially like the daily lifestyle schedules, and the A-Z guide of various ailments. This book is a great start for everyone interested in Ayurveda and better health.

it's too good. iimb - institute of business management in bangalore - india is also designed by mr. doshi. i want to know if any book is been published on this building.

Hello, My name is Meghna Phadol. I would like to know more about the great building by Mr. Balkrishna Doshi, i.e. Gandhi Labor Institute, in ahmedabad. I want "detailed" information on the construction of the building.

I would be pleased if I could get more information for the same. Thanking you.

P.S. : I have mentioned my mail address on the top, and hope to recieve a mail to the earliest.