This book is a lookout of historical process when Buddhism travelled from the north of India to the west,right up to the borders of Asia, touching Europe. By the Silk Road, merchants, monks and warriors carried the new faith to the fringe of China. Zen did not reach Japan right away. From the Chinese territory Zen spread into Korea. From there, Japanese artists, musicians and philosophers took home the novel ideology as the fragile young branch to be nursed with all love and care. Swift, subtle humour - off-hand jokes, pun - have long been linked with Zen. The masters were gifted in wordplay; a fair number of them did it in paintings and drama. Some of these were full of scowl,startling images, willful ridicule and lampoon.
This is the first attempt possibly to put at one place the amusing
flight of Zen through the ages.