BOOK REVIEW: Turtle Feet: The Making and Unmaking of a Buddhist Monk

By Nikolai Grozni
Riverhead Books, 2008, $24.95

Turtle Feet (the title is based on a description of the body of the Buddha by Maitreya, translated from the Tibetan by the author) is the true-life adventure story of a musical prodigy who leaves his studies at the Berklee College of Music and a potential career as a jazz musician to answer a call to deep inner transformation. On a day like any other, at 10 o'clock in the morning, author Nikolai Grozni, then 20 years old, was in his apartment getting ready for classes, after a late night of drinking with friends. Suddenly, "somewhere between the bathroom and the living room," he "lost his sense of purpose" and came to the realization that to continue on his current path would never bring him any closer to finding ultimate truth. While his roommates still slept, Grozni made the decision to move to India. He sought out the Tibetan exile enclave at Dharamsala, shaved his head, and took vows as a Buddhist monk.

Grozni soon learned that hours of study and living in a simple hut near the Dalai Lama's residence would not shield him from the influences of the world. Dharamsala provided refuge to some of the most colorful characters he had ever met: strong-willed nuns, young monks struggling to deal with raging hormones, outlaw foreigners, and refugees from war and devastation all found their way to the promise of this country-within-a-country. Friendships with the inmates involved him in schemes that put his vows at risk, but ultimately it was these relationships that provoked Grozni's journey into the awareness of what life - and his own place in it - was really all about.

Nikolai Grozni was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and educated in the United States and India. His three earlier novels were published in Bulgaria. Turtle Feet is his first nonfiction work.