Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India |  | Author: William Dalrymple
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $16.79
as of 9/5/2010 04:42 CDT details
You Save: $10.16 (38%)
New (34) Used (8) from $15.00
Seller: allnewbooks
Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 8,694
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 0307272826
Dewey Decimal Number: 294.092254
EAN: 9780307272829
ASIN: 0307272826
Publication Date: June 15, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780307272829 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
From the author of The Last Mughal (“A compulsively readable masterpiece” —The New York Review of Books), an exquisite, mesmerizing book that illuminates the remarkable ways in which traditional forms of religious life in India have been transformed in the vortex of the region’s rapid change—a book that distills the author’s twenty-five years of travel in India, taking us deep into ways of life that we might otherwise never have known exist.
A Buddhist monk takes up arms to resist the Chinese invasion of Tibet—and spends the rest of his life atoning for the violence by hand printing the finest prayer flags in India . . . A Jain nun tests her powers of detachment as she watches her closest friend ritually starve herself to death . . . A woman leaves her middle-class life in Calcutta and finds unexpected fulfillment living as a Tantric in an isolated, skull-filled cremation ground . . . A prison warder from Kerala is worshipped as an incarnate deity for three months of every year . . . An idol carver, the twenty-third in a long line of sculptors, must reconcile himself to his son’s desire to study computer engineering . . . An illiterate goatherd from Rajasthan keeps alive in his memory an ancient four-thousand-stanza sacred epic . . . A temple prostitute, who initially resisted her own initiation into sex work, pushes both her daughters into a trade she nonetheless regards as a sacred calling.
William Dalrymple chronicles these lives with expansive insight and a spellbinding evocation of circumstance. And while the stories reveal the vigorous resilience of individuals in the face of the relentless onslaught of modernity, they reveal as well the continuity of ancient traditions that endure to this day. A dazzling travelogue of both place and spirit.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
 Indian spirituality December 10, 2009
rmsai (Puttaparthi India)
55 out of 59 found this review helpful
The Bangalore bookshops are prominently showing this book and having read William Dalrymple before and liked his scholarship and easy style I bought it. I wasn't disappointed, in fact i hated to see the book come to an end. The common theme of heartfelt devotion is told simply and openly through nine diverse and extraordinary lives. You feel that each one is a person you've come to know and like. I am an American living in South India and this book helps me appreciate living here even more. It helps me appreciate William Dalyrmple even more too. He writes wonderful books!
a wondrous "read" about good people whom most of us will never otherwise hear. June 25, 2010
webwiz99 (Chicago, USA)
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
Highly interesting, wonderfully researched, beautifully written, as are all of this author's works.
A main question seems to be whether often-isolated, syncretistic, devotional religious practices will continue in the face of India's burgeoning economy and, presumably, growing secularism and consumerism, on the one hand, and the exclusionary fanaticism of a militant segment of Hindus and Muslims, on the other. While much will be gained by greater educational opportunity and a higher/healthier standard of living for the rural and urban poor and powerless, rich, curious, sometimes bizarre religious practices in the name of the gods will probably fade away.
This book is not about mainstream religious practices or faiths of the great religions --- or even of "smaller traditions" that have gained acceptance, if not understanding, because of their great age. The `Sacred" referred to in the title are approaches to gods/God that are, for all the integrity of those interviewed who practice them, mightily strange.
The book certainly shows that devout, faithful approaches to belief are common to all levels of people and a belief in a "greater power" is sustaining in the most difficult of situations. The book is a wondrous "read" about good people whom most of us will never otherwise hear.
Beautiful, Well Written, Touching, and Interesting Book August 7, 2010
S. Broussard (New Orleans, LA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed reading this book. It was the first book I have read by William Dalrymple and for some reason I had expected his writing to be academic and dry. I could not have been more wrong. He writes with such a flow and ease that his words carry you on a journey with him. The journeys that he takes you on with this book are so touching and beautiful. The nine stories are of nine people from throughout India and from many different religious paths. It not only introduces you to these people and their way of life, but also shows how modernity has made an impact on their religious traditions. You get a history and current affairs lesson with many of the stories. It seems as if Dalrymple wants his readers to understand his subjects within the context of history and of present day. I appreciate the way he stepped back and let these people tell their own stories. It showed humility and respect and I thought it was well done. I can not recommend this treasure of a book any more.
Packs in many eye-opening insights perfect for spiritual and general-interest lending collections alike August 14, 2010
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
NINE LIVES: IN SEARCH OF THE SACRED IN MODERN INDIA provides a powerful survey of religious life in India and comes from the author's twenty-five years of travel in India. From a Jain nun who watches her closest friend ritually starve herself to a temple prostitute who pushes both daughters into a trade she regards as sacred, this packs in many eye-opening insights perfect for spiritual and general-interest lending collections alike.
Nine Lives- Nine Hundred Loves June 26, 2010
Suzanne Olsson (New York and India)
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
I have lived in India. I inhaled the air at higher altitudes in the Himalayas, and wondered if oxygen deprivation causes this deeper awareness and spirituality. But then everything is heavily laden with spirituality up there, every rock, every tree, every drop of water is pregnant with a rich history. I have watched the sadhus walk by on pilgrimages of one sort or another. After a brief glimpse of curiosity at each other, we moved on to our appointed destinies, each regarding the other as irrelevent in the greater scheme of the Universe. But not so for Mr. Dalrymple. He delved deeper. He noted their humbleness as having just as legitimate place as yours or mine in the Universe, and he did it with a wonderful writing style. He flooded me with memories of all the things I missed that he captured so well on the journey. And if you haven't made such journies, you will feel enriched for reading this book and taking the journey through this very competant author's pages.It's almost like being there. Well done, William Dalrymple. You are a truly gifted author.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 10
|
|
|
