Short description
Around the beginning of the common era, Indian Buddhists begam to collect fables illuminating various human virtues and foibles - from kindnes, cooperation, loyalty and self-discipline on the one hand to greed, pride, foolishness, and treachery on the other.
Long description
Around the beginning of the common era, Indian Buddhists begam to collect fables illuminating various human virtues and foibles - from kindnes, cooperation, loyalty and self-discipline on the one hand to greed, pride, foolishness, and treachery on the other. Instead of populquating these stories with people, they cast the animals of their immediate environment in the leading roles - which may have given the tales a universal appeal that helped them travel around the world, surfacing in the Middle Eas as Aesop's fables and in various guises throughout East and Southeast Asia, Africa, Russia, and Europe. Author and painter Mark McGinnis has collected over forty of these hallowed popular tales and retold them in vividly poetic yet accessible language, their original Buddhist messages firmly intact. Each story is accompanied with a beautifully rendered fullcolour painting, making this an equally attractive book for children and adults, whether Buddhist or not, who love fine stories about their fellow wise (and foolish) creatures.