Moby Dick

Randy sent me a chapter of Moby Dick. The following is an excerpt:

"

Look not too long in the face of the fire, O man! Never dream with thy hand on the helm! Turn not thy back to the compass; accept the first hint of the hitching tiller; believe not the artificial fire, when its redness makes all things look ghastly. To-morrow, in the natural sun, the skies will be bright; those who glared like devils in the forking flames, the morn will show in far other, at least gentler, relief; the glorious, golden, glad sun, the only true lamp—all others but liars!

Nevertheless the sun hides not Virginia’s Dismal Swamp, nor Rome’s accursed Campagna, nor wide Sahara, nor all the millions of miles of deserts and of griefs beneath the moon. The sun hides not the ocean, which is the dark side of this earth, and which is two thirds of this earth. So, therefore, that mortal man who hath more of joy than sorrow in him, that mortal man cannot be true—not true, or undeveloped. With books the same. The truest of all men was the Man of Sorrows, and the truest of all books is Solomon’s, and Ecclesiastes is the fine hammered steel of woe. “All is vanity.” ALL. This wilful world hath not got hold of unchristian Solomon’s wisdom yet. But he who dodges hospitals and jails, and walks fast crossing graveyards, and would rather talk of operas than hell; calls Cowper, Young, Pascal, Rousseau, poor devils all of sick men; and throughout a care-free lifetime swears by Rabelais as passing wise, and therefore jolly;—not that man is fitted to sit down on tomb-stones, and break the green damp mould with unfathomably wondrous Solomon.

But even Solomon, he says, “the man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain” (i.e. even while living) “in the congregation of the dead.” Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it invert thee, deaden thee; as for the time it did me. There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar."

Some pictures from Tibet

On a plane home

:((((((( majorly.

Some anecdotal evidence as to why one should be paranoid about the media (yes, even the NYT you latte-sipping, tree-hugging, pinko-hippie terrorist)

Tibet got a lot of attention last year due to the 3/14 riots. The international media was up in arms. Human rights activists called for a parallel human rights torch relay as a mockery of the Olympic torch relay. From what one could decipher from the news media, it seemed like a classic Elves vs. Orcs tale. The Chinese were unequivocally wrong.

The following are a couple of conversations I've had with Tibetans and Han Chinese. This isn't necessarily the truth about the situation in Tibet, but it does make the picture a bit more nuanced, something I never read or heard about while watching the news coverage in the US:

1. A Tibetan girl selling maps for money noted that the riots was basically the result of "the Dalai Lama messing around." The Dalai Lama is enlightened, yes, but he is also the political leader of Tibet. So that means he isn't just some religious guru that transcends the politics. Rather, he gets right into the dirt as well.

2. Monks and religious leaders live in the nicest conditions, far above those inhabited by ordinary Tibetans. Tibetans are deeply religious, so this is understandable, but I think this has led to sharply divergent views on Tibetan within Tibetans. It seems that the monks are the ones who deeply oppose government rule, not ordinary Tibetans. Monks require children to not talk to PLA soldiers or accept their food.

3. Not all PLA soldiers are heartless monsters. One was practically begging for a tourist to put out his cigarette in the Potala Palace compound for the sake of protecting the sanctity of the palace. No one wants violence.

4. Han and Tibetans get along. I believe that if it wasn't for the government and it wasn't for the monks, there would be no conflict. Its not ethnic, but political.

5. Despite all this, repression of religious freedom is real. Soldiers are everywhere.

6. If the Chinese propaganda ministry (I don't use propaganda ministry negatively here because that's what it is along with the White House press secretary, etc.) wasn't so stupid, China would have a much better public image in the world right now. They don't understand that press freedom actually helps them because reporters would then become more understanding.

7. Most of the participants of Tibetan riots, according to several people, were Sichuanese Tibetans, who are considered a separate group from Tibetans from Tibet.

Sky burial

There's something incredible about being kilometers up in the sky and the clouds so close that you can just reach up and wiggle your fingers to have them touch you. Being high makes you want to go even higher. That feeling pushes itself until you're not just with the clouds, but surging and flying past them. All you want to do is climb every mountain around you and then after that, climb even higher.

It would be wrong to ignore the fact that the sky burial was most likely borne out of practical considerations: the lack of fuel source for cremation, or the rockiness of the ground, preventing in-ground burial. But I'd like believe to some degree that it also encapsulates that wish to fly straight up into the sky after a lifetime of being so agonizingly close.

The burial goes like this: the corpse is cut into tiny pieces by Tibetan specialists. Bones and cartilage are ground into a pulp and mixed with yak butter and others. It is all left on a mountaintop, where vultures and elements wear the body down until ideally nothing remains. The birds and the wind carry every piece of the body into the sky. Some sources say that it is a final act of compassion to the rest of the world, giving alms to the birds. At the same time, it perhaps also reunites the body with that which resides just above it.

Either way, its a practice that as far as I know only exists in Tibet. There's a sort of perfect sense to it that is awe inspiring.

Anyways, what is it about retrospective romanticizing? There was hardly any reflection while I was in Tibet - only afterwards.

Undisputed Fact

Tibetans are the friendly people.

Chengdu

Just a few more words about what Chengdu has been like since I'm in this hotel and I have internet access:

So we haven't made it to Tibet because we don't have original copies of documentation from the Chinese government authorizing our entry into Tibet. Luckily, for once, it seems that things are on track. We had Lhasa ship the original documents for about 5 USD and we received it in about six hours. We are set for tomorrow if everything goes as planned.

The driver of the hotel shuttle from the airport to the aforementioned hotel was interestingly in cahoots with every single business in town, it seems. In fact, while driving the hotel shuttle, he recommended for us to to go to a different hotel. "You know, don't tell my bosses, but my friend has a great hotel that you guys can live in. Its cheaper and bigger for sure."

Later on, we asked him to recommend a good place to eat local Sichuan food. He maintained that there was no good place to eat around here since it was the boondocks, far away from Chengdu proper. We asked him to take us to the airport instead. We drive for a while and he pulls over in front of a little restaurant. "Oh yeah, this place is great, my friend owns it." Good man.

After dinner, we walked to the airplane cargo service to pick up our documentation. The cargo service involved walking down a narrow, unpaved road for about 45 minutes or so. We got a rickashaw man (friendly guy) to carry us about halfway for 4 yuan, which is a measly amount: 70 cents. We saw people digging through trash on the way back for copper to sell or other odds and ends. We wasted about 1000-2000 yuan the past three days.