Half raucous adventure and half inspirational memoir, Rude Awakenings documents an unusual pilgrimage. Two very different men--life-loving naturalist Nick Scott and austere Buddhist monk Ajahn Sucitto--together spend six months retracing the Buddha's footsteps through India. Told alternately by Sucitto and Scott in their distinctive voices, this story blends self-effacing humor, philosophical explorations, drama, travel observations, and the occasional giant fruit bat. Rude Awakenings is a heady record of survival and spirituality set against the dramatic backdrop of one of India's most lawless regions.

Rude Awakenings: Two Englishmen on Foot in Buddhism's Holy Land , Ajahn Sucitto & Nick Scott, Wisdom Publications, Paperback, 2006, 318 pp, $16.95

Ajahn Sucitto, a Theravadan Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest Tradition for twenty-eight years, is the Abbot of Chithurst Monastery in England. He is a popular teacher of meditation who conducts retreats around the world.


Dr. Nick Scott is a botanist and ecologist who has worked most of his life in conversation. He lives in Chithurst, outside London.