A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants

Six years ago at the age of twenty-one, Jaed Muncharoen Coffin, a half-Thai American man, left New England's privileged Middlebury College to be ordained as a Buddhist monk in his mother's native village of Panomsarakram--thus fulfilling a familial obligation. While addressing the notions of displacement, ethnic identity, and cultural belonging, A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants chronicles his time at the temple that rain season--receiving alms in the streets in saffron robes; bathing in the canals; learning to meditate in a mountaintop hut; and falling in love with Lek, a beautiful Thai woman who comes to represent the life he can have if he stays. Part armchair travel, part coming-of-age story, this debut work transcends the memoir genre and ushers in a brave new voice in American nonfiction.

Author: Jaed Coffin
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 01/08/2008
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.55lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.50w x 0.50d
ISBN13: 9780306815263
ISBN10: 0306815265
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs
- Religion | Buddhism | History
- Biography & Autobiography | Cultural, Ethnic & Regional | Asian & Asian American

About the Author
Jaed Coffin holds a B.A. in philosophy from Middlebury College and an M.F.A. from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast Writing Program. A boxer, sea-kayaker, and lobster fisherman, he lives in Brunswick, Maine.