From its shadows emerge hunters like the cobra and the tiger. Largest of the Asian carnivores, the tiger prowls with chilling stealth and power. Dawn spreads over the water lily marshland where swampbirds with long toes tread on floating leaves in search of flood. Closer to the coast, tidal channels penetrate an extensive mangrove woodland where flying foxes cling upside down to branches. Under the ocean's surface, a shimmering kaleidoscope of juvenile fish shine like gems floating above the coral, transforming the reef into an underwater nirvana.
Low tide exposes an endless beach where thousands of bubble crabs toil to make pellets out of sand.
Soon, the incoming tide will wipe away all trace of their industry. Night falls a final time, and in the darkness atlas moths struggle free from their cocoons. They will mate, give birth and die - all before the morning's dawn. Buddhists believe that birth, metamorphosis, union and death are elements of a continuous cycle that lies at the very heart of nature. To see the world through Buddhist eyes is simply to look beneath the surface for a vision of things as they really are.