Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains cover art

Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains

Misadventures on a Buddhist Pilgrimage

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains

By: Paul Barach
Narrated by: Paul Barach
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

About this listen

Age 28 and fed up with the office job he settled for, Paul Barach decided to travel to Japan to follow a vision he had in college: to walk the ancient 750-mile Shikoku pilgrimage trail.

Here are some things he did not decide to do: learn Japanese, do any research, road test his hiking shoes, or check if it's the hottest summer in history.

And he went anyway, hoping to change his life.

Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains is the absurd and dramatic journey of one impulsive American's search for answers on a holy path in an exotic land. Along the pathway connecting 88 Buddhist temples, he'll face arduous mountain climbs, hide from guards in a toilet stall, challenge a priest to a mountaintop karate battle, and other misadventures.

He'll also delve into the fascinating legends of this ancient land, including a dragon-fighting holy man, a berserker warrior-priest, haunted temples, and a vendetta-driven ghost that overthrew a dynasty.

Told with humor and humility, Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains is a funny, engaging memoir about the consequences of impulsive decisions, and the things you can discover while you're looking for something else.

Also, that boars are terrifying in person.

©2014 Paul Barach (P)2015 Paul Barach Asia Travel Writing & Commentary Haunted Funny Witty
All stars
Most relevant
Good story but awful echo/reverb on the first few chapters made this very hard to listen too

Awful echo's in the first few chapters

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I appreciate the story, but this did not seem like a journey worth writing a book about. Perhaps a blog post with pictures would have sufficed.

Ok listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.