Benares Seen from within

English 640 (In Full Color & B & W Illustrations)From the Jacket :A rare combination of creative photography and cultural history put together by one man, this book both visually and textually is the most massive presentation of this extraordinary city ever attempted. It is the fruit of a lifelong interest in Benares from 1953 until the present day.The populace of Benares lives within a historical environment spanning at least three millennia of continuous habitation. Though now beset with all the characteristic urban ills of the age, it is arguably the oldest living city in the world. A centre of learning since antiquity, its way of live has not essentially changed. Its fame as the spiritual capital of India was given added luster two thousand five hundred years ago when the Buddha commenced his ministry there. The book includes an absorbing account of the Buddha's life and the significance of his teaching today.Lannoy's Benares is no tourist's idyll, nor yet is it an exercise in...