Read of the Week (Dec 14 to Dec 20)

We think of Buddhism as a faith of peace — rooted in compassion, patience, and nonviolence. But across South and Southeast Asia today, the robe is being turned into a weapon, as radical monks and nationalist movements unleash hatred and war.

In The Robe And The Sword, acclaimed journalist Sonia Faleiro travels from Sri Lanka’s riot-scarred towns to the homes of refugees along the Myanmar border to Thailand’s fortified temples, uncovering how militant monks have transformed a tradition of nonviolence into a tool of terror. Through vivid portraits of zealots, survivors and dissident monks fighting to reclaim their faith, Faleiro delivers an unflinching investigation into the colonial trauma, economic grievances and political forces fuelling a dangerous new extremism.

The Robe and the Sword is a searing and indispensable work of narrative nonfiction, urgently needed to understand how sacred traditions are being weaponised — and what is at stake for the future of our interconnected world.

Sonia Faleiro is the author of two acclaimed works of non-fiction. Her reporting and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Financial Times, Harper’s, Granta and The Times Literary Supplement.