Safran Road: A brief encounter with a Buddhist nun in India left a deep impression on Christine Toomey. This experience led her on a two-year journey of 60,000 miles to learn more about the modern women who are choosing in the thousands to become part of a long tradition of female spirituality, which is rooted in centuries and now embraces the radical possibility that the next Dalai Lama could be a woman.

In Safran Road, Toomey retraces the footsteps of previous generations of Buddhist nuns to trace the paths by which the philosophy has spread from an isolated order in a remote area of India in the 5th century BC, to 1950s San Francisco where Zen was promoted by the Beat generation, and to today's world-famous practitioners of mindfulness. Starting her journey in the Himalayas, near the birthplace of the Buddha, Toomey travels from Nepal to India, through Burma, Japan, and reaches North America and Europe, visiting modern monasteries to meet the women practicing there.

Among those she converses with are a group of "kung fu" nuns, an acclaimed novelist, a princess, a violinist, and former BBC journalist, as well as a former political aide in Washington. Through these discussions, the everyday reality of Buddhist existence is gradually revealed, along with the diverse spiritual paths that lead these women toward nirvana.

Combining travelogue, history, interviews, and personal reflection, Safran Road opens the door to a rarely observed world of rituals, discipline, and enlightenment.

Pages: 384, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm