`Buddha: The Living Way' -- Photographs by deForest Trimingham -- published by Random House, New York.

*** A sharp revival of interest in Buddhism, helped along, no doubt, by a spate of recent Hollywood movies on the tragic history of Tibet, should ensure a world-wide audience for photographer deForest Trimingham's recently published volume on the subject. It is indeed this upsurge of interest that has supplied the book's underlying theme which explores how the philosophies of this 2,500-year old religion have become as relevant for the West as for its followers in the East.

In addition, there is a superb accompanying essay written by the noted travel writer and novelist Pico Iyer and, creme de la creme, a Foreword written by no lesser a personage than His Holiness the Dalai Lama himself.

Sumptuously produced, with more than 200 images that range from the barren highlands of Tibet through the lush tropicality of Sri Lanka to the crisp morning sunshine of a Vermont hillside, this fascinating volume may be viewed on at least two levels: for many, it will be a uniquely beautiful travel book which, since most of the images do concentrate on the East, captures the exotic allure that those lands hold for so many westerners. For others, it will provide a rare and revealing glimpse into the arcane world of this ancient religion-philosophy.

In keeping with the `no beginning, no end' concept of the traditional Buddhist scroll, this book has been similarly conceived. Hence, it begins with a pictorial overview of the geographic landscape, dotted with the distant temples and stupas that gradually begin to dominate the land around them. The architecture itself then becomes more and more elaborate until we are confronted with the massive, impenetrable wall of the forbidden city of Lhasa, spiritual home of the Dalai Lama; this leads to the essence of Buddhism itself, represented by the bare minimalism of a Kyoto retreat, beyond which are seen the many but inevitably inscrutable manifestations of Buddha. The final section of the book is devoted to the ways in which Buddhism is practised on a day to day basis around the world, linking historical core traditions with today's world. Even so -- and part of the delight of this book -- is the mingling of the mundane with the mystical, so that even the humble umbrella manages to take on a slightly comical aspect when cheerfully toted by a scarlet-robed monk.

Mr. Trimingham, who was recently granted a solo show at New York's Leica Gallery, has spent many years travelling around Asia -- the last three spent in amassing literally thousands of photographic images for this book.

Technically, he possesses strong compositional insight (note the placement, for instance, of a ruined pagoda against the golden splendour of an adjacent similar edifice in Burma, or the synchronism in a line of shuffling monks, bare toes peeping out beneath their robes, looking for all the world like a flamboyantly arrayed corps de ballet). He is also a brilliant colourist, whose camera seems almost automatically to seek out the paradoxes of the oriental landscape: lakes are drained of colour in the dawn, while grey mists lend added fantasy to temples that seem about to topple off vertiginous mountains.

Just as suddenly, though, he revels in the clashing symphonies of colour that accompany the Buddhist way of life; sometimes these tend toward the primitive, as in the brilliantly exotic rock paintings of Lhasa and sometimes, awesomely intricate, as in the golden headdresses of Burmese dancing girls or the decorative golf leaf, mirrors and bells of a Bangkok temple roof.

It is his inherent sense of poetry, however, that lifts this collection of images well above the norm, and this is revealed on virtually every page. As the Dalai Lama writes, "These pictures show the stillness and calm at the heart of Buddhist practice, even as they show people applying these principles in daily life.'' So his discerning lens captures not only the symbolism of the lotus flower that rises in creamy beauty from the dirty soil; the smouldering incense sticks; the geometrically raked gravel of a meditation garden; the row of embroidery-booted, gaily dancing feet in a festive moment in that mysterious kingdom of Bhutan, or the cellopane-wrapped Buddha statues lined up for sale in a Bangkok shop.

Random House has proclaimed, with some justification that, with this book, Pico Iyer may well have written the best contemporary short introduction to Buddhism. He is certainly well qualified to do so, for although not a practising Buddhist, the Hindu-born American went off to live for a while in a Zen temple and has since spent much of his life in Japan. As always with Iyer, the essentially informed narrative is laced with laconic humour: as he notes, `Buddhism... has precious little to do with contemplating nature...and everything to do with cooking noodles...and chopping wood at dawn', performed by monks who ride around on Honda Hurricane bikes or even a baby blue tricycle decorated with cartoons of Donald Duck.

Commenting on the spread of Buddhism to the West (occasioned partly by refugees from communist dictatorships settling in the Americas and Europe), Iyer points out that this has brought its "unchanging images'' to places as far apart and disparate as Scotland, New York or Dusselfdorf and, most curious perhaps, the fact that the Nobel Prize-winning Dalai Lama, since his exile from Tibet now "seems a part of the neighbourhood almost, laughing with rabbis in New York...tapping into the Internet and addressing crowds of 20,000 in concert halls usually reserved for pop stars'', where his message remains one of essential simplicity and practicality -- "My religion is kindness''.

Altogether, an unusual and beautiful book which, in the person of deForest Trimingham, elevates Bermudian talent into the mainstream of international cultural life.

PATRICIA CALNAN costs $35.