"A Man in Saffron Robes" offers a unique Thai perspective on the tradition of entering the monkhood for the rainy-season retreat called "phansa." It is also the story of one man's journey of exploration to the far north of Thailand and his reflections on the culture and people of the North as seen through the eyes of this southerner from Nakhon Si Thammarat then living near the bustling metropolis of Bangkok. In 1974 Maitree Limpichart, author, newspaper columnist and government official, temporarily left a wife and two children behind to put on the saffron robes of a Buddhist monk. He...