Rainbow Road: From Tooting Broadway to Kalimpong: Memoirs of an English Buddhist

This is the first set of memoirs by Sangharakshita. Set out on the Rainbow Road and take an extraordinary journey from wartime London to the dusty villages, ashrams and mountain caves of India. Long before thousands of Westerners flocked to Asia in search of themselves, Dennis Lingwood set out to search for the Buddha’s teaching in the land that gave birth to Buddhism. Accompanying him in his quest, we can follow his life as a homeless wanderer and witness his ordination as the Buddhist monk Sangharakshita. Although full of fascinating characters and keen insights, The Rainbow Road is not just an entertaining travel book—it is a remarkable record of a journey of spiritual exploration.

"Non-fiction it may be, but he makes his points with all the finesse and resonance of a novelist.... His deft prose should invite comparison with E.M. Forster."—Times Literary Supplement.

The Rainbow Road was originally published in two parts: Learning to Walk and The Thousand-Petalled Lotus. Further Memoirs by Sangharakshita: Facing Mount Kanchenjunga, In the Sign of the Golden Wheel, Moving Against the Stream.