The Indian cartoonist, Bharath Murthy, converted to Buddhism in 2009 and chronicled his pilgrimage to the ancient sites of the religious founder, Siddhartha Gautama, in India in the graphic travelogue "The Vanished Path".
Bharath Murthy was born in Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat in 1978. This fan of the Japanese Manga and subculture works as a cartoonist, teacher and filmmaker.
Buddha is the title for an enlightened one. The first Buddha was Siddhartha Gautama, founder of the religion. He died at the age of 80 in Kushinagar (Uttar Pradesh) after - according to a legend - eating tender boar. The giant sandstone Buddha statue, inside the Nirvana temple there, is six meters long and is said to show exactly the position of Buddha's death. The golden layer came later, from the gold foils pilgrims put on the statue.
Sarnath is a place in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, ten kilometers north of Varanasi. After attaining enlightenment in Bodhgaya (589/525 BC), Siddhartha Gautama preached the foundations of Buddhism for the first time in the wildlife park in Sarnath: the Four Noble Truths. And thus founded Buddhism. It was in this sacred place that the Buddha also created the Buddhist order, the Sangha. In addition to Bodhgaya, Kapilavastu and Kushinagar, Sarnath is one of the four most important Buddhist pilgrimage destinations.
In India, chai stands for tea. It has been a part of the everyday life on the subcontinent for centuries. The aromatic hot drink with milk and sugar will be enough for all occasions: when buying a sari, when the visitors come, for all important business and family decisions - and also in trains. Chai in its pure form is a black tea (with milk). Chai Masala is refined with a mixture of spices. Because masala means "mixture" in Hindi. The recipe is not clearly defined. Cloves, caraway seeds, cardamom, cinnamon and ginger are mostly included.
Uttar Pradesh (UP for short) is an Indian state with an area of 240,928 square kilometers. With almost 200 million inhabitants, Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state. The capital is Lucknow. Famous tourist hotspots include Agra with the Taj Mahal and the holy cities of Varanasi, Ayodhya, Mathura and Allahabad (since October 2018 called Prayagraj) - on the banks of the holy rivers Ganges and Yamuna.
Jens Wiesner on "The vanished Path"
On the other hand, the choice of a manga-like drawing style based on Bharath Murthy’s socialisation in the manga scene, is interesting: Buddha meets Doraemon – that’s fresh and unusual."
