Ocean of Life

Silverstone, one-time editor of Art News and a freelance photographer, emigrated to India and, after 14 years, became a Buddhist nun. She intends with this book, ""to give people who have no contact with Buddhism a sense of it.'' She achieves this aim admirably with a stunning photojournal of India, Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal. Her color photos depict occasions rich with ceremony: solemn weddings, dancers adorned with ferocious masks at a ritual ``preview of the after-death state'' dance, services at monasteries and shrines; and beauty: snow-covered homes on the Jhelum River, white sand dunes along the Ganges, a desolate plateau behind the Himalayas. Traditional songs and sutras accompany the photos. Foreign rights: Aperture. November