A TIME cover story is expected to surround, probe and analyze the subject, showing all sides as well as depth. Few issues have so many sides, and few need so much to be explored and explained as this week's cover subject--the ancient religion of Buddhism, now emerging as a new political force in Asia.

To suggest the many-faceted nature of the story, Artist Bernard Safran painted representations of Buddha based on actual figures from four different countries, placing them on a background of the traditional Buddhist robe. At the top is the reclining Buddha in the Shwe Dagon pagoda in Rangoon, Burma, a 28-ft.-long, 19th century figure representing the attainment of nirvana. (For a look at the other side of this Buddha, see the photograph above.) The dominating figure in the center of the cover is copied from the Great Buddha of Kamakura, which is perhaps the best-known representation of a Buddha in the world. The 42-ft.-high bronze figure has 656 curls, 6-ft.-long ears and a yard-wide mouth on its 7-ft.-high face. Seated, with hands in lap, palms up and thumbs together in the traditional Buddhist attitude of contemplation, it was completed more than 700 years ago on the seaside near Tokyo, and has withstood tidal waves (1495) and earthquakes (1923). The figure on the left in the cover design, from Thailand, and the one on the right, from Nepal, are familiar examples of the thousands of images of Buddha around the world.

To report on the many complexities of the force that is Buddhism in the world of 1964, we called on twelve correspondents and stringers spread throughout the lands where Buddha is a pervasive figure. The key correspondent was Tokyo Bureau Chief Jerrold Schecter, who ranged over most of the Buddhist-influenced territory and who, not so incidentally, is finishing a book on Buddhism and politics in Southeast Asia. Absorbing all the reporting along with the rich store of existing Buddhist literature caused Writer Jason McManus to spend, appropriately enough, even more time than most cover stories require in sheer contemplation of all that the subject means. The result is a story that reveals Buddhism, the ancient religion assuming new political power, as a force with which thinking people around the world must be prepared to reckon.

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