Hard Travel to Sacred Places [Paperback]

Rudolph Wurlitzer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 11, 1995

Hard Travel to Sacred Places is the record of a personal odyssey through Southeast Asia, an external and internal journey through grief and the painful realities of a decadent age. Wurlitzer—novelist, screenwriter, and Buddhist practitioner—travels with his wife, photographer Lynn Davis, on a photo assignment to the sacred sites of Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia. Heavy Westernization, sex clubs, aging hippies and expatriates, and political dissidents provide a vivid contrast to the peace that Wurlitzer and Davis seek, still reeling from the death of their son in a car accident. As Davis with her camera searches for a thread of meaning among the artifacts and relics of a more enlightened age, Wurlitzer grasps at the wisdom of the Buddhist teachings in an effort to assuage his grief. His journal chronicles the survival of age-old truths in a world gone mad.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After the untimely death of their 21-year-old son, novelist/screenwriter Wurlitzer ( Little Buddha ) and his wife, photogapher Lynn Davis, embarked on a spiritual journey through Thailand, Burma (now Myanmar) and Cambodia, seeking solace and enlightenment from Buddhist sacred places. They found instead a consumer culture in which material desire has displaced the spiritual center with disastrous consequences for the indigenous practice of Buddhism. By the end of their journey, Wurlitzer and Davis have failed to find the illumination and peace they had so desperately sought. Unfortunately, readers will gain as little from this book as the authors did from their trip, for Wurlitzer's style is pretentious, and his questions, for one who claims to have practiced Buddhism, are sophomoric and self-conscious. Had he remembered that in Buddhism enlightenment comes only after one has forsaken all desire, he might have been able to transcend the physical and spiritual exhaustion that dominated his journey. Since he did not however, his readers are left likewise exhausted and without enlightenment.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Wurlitzer, the screenwriter for Bertolucci's Little Buddha, offers a fragmented narrative of a multipurpose fling through Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), and Cambodia. The author and his wife, a photographer on assignment, were mourning the death of his stepson (her son), exploring film projects, seeking spiritual soothing by visiting such sites as Tham Krabok and Angkor Wat, reporting on the sex shows of Bangkok, and apparently writing this book to pay for it all. The text is heavily larded with quotes on Buddhism and newspaper clippings of current events. Wurlitzer's contribution details the couple's fevers and aches-and inoperative hotel plumbing. The result is a superficial view of the area. Many good books are being published on this region and what its cultures can mean to us, for example, Sue Downie's Down Highway One (Allen & Unwin, 1993) and Stan Sesser's The Lands of Charm and Cruelty (LJ 5/1/93). This isn't one of them.
Harold M. Otness, Southern Oregon State Coll. Lib., Ashland
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala (September 11, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570621179
• ISBN-13: 978-1570621178
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #725,324 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Travel > Asia > Myanmar
  • #50 in Books > Travel > Asia > Cambodia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Profound and moving., September 26, 2004

By 

Vote Sizing Steve (Cartagena, Colombia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hard Travel to Sacred Places (Hardcover)

I couldn't differ more with the review by T. Gilbert! Sure this book is self-absorbed - but as the author journeys into himself he finds a universal suffrage. The author's courage to face off against death is remarkable in these times of flippancy and shallow know-it-all attitudes. The author is a wonderful guide through the darkness - and to be admired. There's nothing at all sophomoric that I could find in the book, nothing. It's as serious as it gets. The way that the author divides up the journey into a lusting/ignoring/hating triad of suffering is as an intuitive an expression of Buddhism as I have ever come across in my studies. Perhaps "every one has experienced loss in their life"; but few of us dare to share the accompanying humiliation with each other, or ourselves. Thank you Mr. Wurlitzer!

I also suggest Inside Thai Society: Religion, Everyday Life, Change by Niels Mulder and Bali, Sekala and Niskala: Essays on Religion, Ritual, and Art by Fred B. Eiseman for an exploration of how Buddhism can help guide us over, around, and under the many hurdles in life.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stunned by Grief, January 9, 2010

By 

Ben S. Leet (San Leandro, Calif.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hard Travel to Sacred Places (Paperback)

The author and his wife have been stunned by the accidental death of their 21 year-old son. They take an assignment to capture photographically the Buddhist images of the three countries toured in the book, Thailand, Myanmar (Burma) and Cambodia. It's very depressing, outwardly and inwardly. They cannot escape their grief, they encounter much more grief in this perverted war-ravaged part of the world. It becomes an existential malaise, no exit, quite moving. He quotes nicely different Rinpoche's, such as "All this doing has no more meaning than walking around a desert . . All this exertion produces no result." Touring the dilapidating temples of Anghor Wat the ennui becomes palpable. The book is a heroic fight against despair. Author and wife win, but at some cost. Good introduction to Buddhist scriptures that interlace and support narrative. I ended up admiring the author, thinking of buying his latest novel. He brings to life the old Buddhist story of the woman whose child died, beseeching Buddha for medicine to bring the son back to life, ending with, "Holy one, enough of this business of mustard seed. Only give me refuge."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intense meditation of life and death, September 23, 2008

By 

Ronelle Coburn "Your Destiny Decoder" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hard Travel to Sacred Places (Paperback)

Not for the faint of heart (or the heartless). This compassionate and compelling little book packs a mighty wollop and takes you on a deep journey to the place inside of you that asks, "What's life all about anyway?"