VISIONS OF BUDDHIST LIFE

This book's foreword by Huston Smith does what all forewords should do, but succeed at doing all too rarely: help the reader understand what is coming. When he first examined this book, Smith writes, he was looking for words to explain Farber's attraction to Buddhism, and for some verbal communication of Farber's love for the individual Buddhists who populate these pages. He was frustrated that he found none. After several days of this, Smith realized that the photographs themselves were Farber's expressions, and that Buddhism, with its long history of visual and oral communication, is the perfect religion to depict in images rather than words. Understanding that, readers can then go forward to experience the richness of these photographs without imagining that the book's textual sparseness is a deficiency. This gorgeous, near-square coffee-table volume is a loving, beautifully realized tribute to Buddhists around the world. (Nov.)