An eminent swiss metaphysician and scholar of oriental languages, titus burckhardt (1908-1984) devoted his life to the timeless and universal wisdom present in sufism, vedanta, taoism, platonism and the other great esoteric and sapiential traditions his book sacred art in east and west appeared in german and in french description: its scope is wide, covering hindu, christian, islamic, buddhist and far-eastern sacred art, and the author succeeds in a remarkable way in conveing the distinctive qualities characteristic of each, while at the same time emphasizing their unity of principle.