Dear Burma

In May 2007, American neuroscientist James Stone decides to become a Buddhist monk and flies to Rangoon, Burma--now known as Yangon, Myanmar. Despite being hot and humid, Rangoon is like a Buddhist Disneyland, and at the iconic Shwedagon Pagoda, James meets U Nanda, a flamboyant monk who brings him to a nearby monastery, where he takes vows. Dissatisfied with the laxity of mainstream monastic life...