108 sourires, published by Editions de la Martinière
Matthieu Ricard

A true smile can convey joy, contentment, benevolence, amusement, relief, rejoicing, buoyancy, inner peace, and many other moods. The uncomplicated joy of the Tibetan people’s everyday life is what Matthieu Ricard shares with us today through his new published work. 108 sourires, with its smiles from children, nuns, hermits, and the young and old, is a veritable ray of sunshine. Smiles and Buddhist spirituality come together around the number 108, sacred in the Indo-Buddhist world. In his introduction, Matthieu Ricard describes the 18-smile typology established by his friend Paul Ekman, an eminent specialist of emotions and facial expressions, and provides a scientific resonance to this panorama of smiles.