"A story of substance . . . Samsara reveals a Thailand few foreigners ever see."
Joe Cummings, Lonely Planet
Exchanging Western values for far-off Thailand, Gunnar Ray plans to teach in the countryside and absorb the country's ancient wisdom. Helpless, he watches as the mountains surrounding his remote village are scraped clean of tree cover by illigal loggers. When monsoon rains hit, catastrophe strikes as the denuded hillsides send a torrent of water into the village and flood the river. Gunnar's innocence is swept downstream along with hundreds of Thai lives as a result of the man-made catastrophe.
Spiritually adrift, he washes up in the offices of the Bangkok Times, a crusading reporter hell bent on derailing corrupt officials at war with the Thai environment. He is not alone. A summons from an enigmatic Buddhist monk with rumoured mystical powers and a near militant love for the jungle is just the sort of lead that Gunnar thrives on. In a forgotten province, he will test whether his pen is indeed mightier than the military's sword. When the forest-protecting monk of the Northeast is arrested, Gunnar sets off on a cross-country journey to summon support.
With the monk's beautiful niece as his guide, he navigates the currents and eddies of remote provinces that few Westerners have penetrated. Gunnar's articles aimed at freeing the first-ever imprisoned Thai monk transform him into a high profile activist-and target. Ultimately he must choose: his growing love for the monk's niece and commitment to the cause, versus the now daily threat of an assassin's bullet.
Eco-thriller, love story, spiritual journey, Samsara scratches the bloody underbelly of a nation in conflict.
David Adams is a cultural anthropologist who completed
twelve trips to Thailand for his Ph.D.research.
He is the Director of the Institute for Cultural
Ecology that provides internships in seventeen countries.
Please click on internships tab above for listings.