Contents: Prologue. 1. Raising the curtain. 2. The lay of the land. 3. Life begets death, death begets life: the life course begins. 4. Adolescent discord: family needs versus spiritual deeds. 5. Growing through travel: the pilgrimage for knowledge and prestige. 6. The merits of matrimony: commencing the householder life. 7. High peaks and deep valleys: the imponderable nature of everyday life. 8. Anticipating the end of the life course: the anxieties of old age. 9. Parting breaths: death is but a transition. 10. Transcending death: rising corpses and reincarnations. Appendix: place names. Notes. Glossary. References. Index.
