Bone Mountain is-3

by Eliot Pattison

  "I don't know. I suppose so," Shan said in confusion.

  Lokesh pulled again, to no avail, then let Shan try. The staff was lodged firmly in the stone. Lokesh twisted it, and pushed it, and pulled it again. Still nothing.

  A strange cloud settled over the old Tibetan's face, and he sat on a nearby rock, staring at the staff- Jokar's staff- that held fast, protruding almost vertically from the ledge.

  "I could bring some water to put on the stone," Shan suggested.

  "It's not that," Lokesh said in a grim tone, and he began a mantra. After five minutes he tried the staff again, without effect. He wrapped both hands around the end of the staff, and stared at the top of Yapchi Mountain. "There are people to be healed in Beijing," he said in his loud voice again. "They have heart wind there, an epidemic of heart wind." He tried the staff again, without luck.

  "I will find something else for a staff," Shan suggested. "You can lean on my back until then."

  Lokesh did not look at him, just shook his head grimly. He spoke another mantra, looking at the mountaintop all the time as if conversing with it. Nearly a quarter hour passed, then he tried the staff again, without moving it. Finally he hung his head on his arms, still raised around the staff, and sighed. He looked back at Shan with a weary expression. "I never expected this," he said, and turned back to sit on the rock again. He stared into his hands for nearly five minutes, then rose to the staff again and fixed the mountain with a deliberate stare. "I will not go to Beijing to see that Chairman," he offered in his loud voice. He twisted the staff and it came free.

  "All right," the old Tibetan said to Shan after examining the staff for a long time. "We will do it your way."

  Shan cocked his head in inquiry.

  "You know," Lokesh sighed. "We'll have to keep patching deities one at a time."

  Shan said nothing, but picked up their bags and followed Lokesh as he hobbled down the trail. His old friend studied Yapchi Mountain while he walked, then picked a purple flower which he examined in silence.

  After half a mile Lokesh paused again. "If we go to Rapjung," he called back, "we have to go on the low trail, the easy trail, because of my foot. I am sorry."

  They walked along the stream until they reached a small rise in the land, where Lokesh raised his hand for Shan to stop, lowered himself onto a wide boulder, and reached into his pocket. His letter to the Chairman appeared in his hand and Shan watched, perplexed, as Lokesh unfolded the letter and seemed to read it. Then Lokesh straightened the paper over a rock and carefully began making new folds in it. He labored over the paper for several minutes, then hobbled to the top of the rise, his back to the wind. Shan followed, and as his old friend raised the paper in his extended arms Shan recognized it. Lokesh had crafted it into one of his spirit horses. He waited for Shan to reach his side, extended the horse over his head and released it. The paper floated lazily in the breeze, then suddenly a gust seized it and the paper soared away, scudding high toward the northeast horizon, toward Beijing.

  "That Chairman in Beijing," Lokesh said in a cracking voice, "he could be driving in the mountains someday. His limousine could break down and he could be stranded. When he finds my paper it will work its magic. So he can travel to a new place on a good Tibetan horse."

  They watched the paper until it was a tiny dot in the sky, and then it was gone. Lokesh turned back toward the old flooded road and without a word stepped away. For a long moment Shan watched him hobble across the rough landscape, then silently followed.

  They had walked for another hour, following the rush of water from the valley, when Lokesh paused again, putting both hands on his staff as he studied the rock formations at the top of a low ridge across the stream, half a mile away.

  Shan recognized the expression on his friend's face, and set the bags down.

  "That rock," Lokesh said slowly, squinting toward the ridge, rubbing the white bristle on his jaw. "It is very like a formation my mother described once. She said it was actually a turtle deity just pretending to be a rock, that it would soar over the mountains at night." He looked at Shan with apology in his eyes. "She said it spoke the words of Buddha."

  Shan studied the swift, shallow stream that separated them from the ridge, and the vast open landscape beyond. "It's going to take us a long time to get to Rapjung, isn't it?" he asked his friend.

  Lokesh shrugged. "I could collect herbs along the way," he suggested, and extended his staff to Shan as he balanced on his good foot. "And you need to learn how to look for tonde."

  Suddenly, unexpectedly, Shan smiled. Anchored to the earth by the lama's staff, he bent to let Lokesh climb onto his back, stepped into the stream, and set off in search of the turtle Buddha.

  Glossary of Foreign Language Terms

  Terms that are used only once and de.ned in adjoining text are not included in this glossary.

  Amdo. Tibetan. One of the traditional provinces of Tibet, constituting the northeastern lands of historic Tibet. Renamed Qinghai Province by the People's Republic of China.

  Bardo. Tibetan. A term used for the Bardo death rites, specifically referring to the intermediate stage between death and rebirth.

  bayal. Tibetan. Traditionally, a "hidden land," a place where deities and other sacred beings reside.

  bharal. Tibetan. A "blue" sheep found in high elevations in Tibet, today almost extinct.

  chakpa. Tibetan. A bronze funnel used to convey sand onto a mandala sand painting.

  chang. Tibetan. Tibetan beer, typically made of barley.

  changtang. Tibetan. The vast high plateau which dominates north central Tibet.

  chenyi. Tibetan. Literally, "right eye."

  chorten. Tibetan. The Tibetan word for a stupa, a traditional Buddhist shrine including a conspicuous dome shape and spire, usually used as a reliquary.

  chuba. Tibetan. A heavy cloak-like coat traditionally made from sheepskin or heavy woolen cloth.

  dhakang. Tibetan. The assembly hall of a monastery.

  dobdob. Tibetan. Traditionally, a monk policeman, employed in large monasteries to maintain discipline.

  doja. Tibetan. A red cream, derived from whey, used by nomads on the skin as a shield from the high-altitude sunlight.

  dongma. Tibetan. A wooden churn traditionally used to churn buttered tea.

  dorje. Tibetan. From the Sanskrit "vajre," a scepter-shaped ritual instrument that symbolizes the power of compassion, said to be "unbreakable as diamond" and as "powerful as a thunderbolt."

  drong. Tibetan. A wild yak.

  dropka. Tibetan. A nomad of the changtang; literally, "a dweller of the black tent."

  dungchen. Tibetan. A long ceremonial trumpet.

  durtro. Tibetan. A charnel ground, where Tibetan dead are dismembered in preparation for feeding to vultures.

  gau. Tibetan. A "portable shrine," typically a small hinged metal box carried around the neck into which a prayer has been inserted.

  Golok. A Tibetan tribal people who traditionally inhabited the Amnye Machen mountain range in south-central Amdo Province.

  gompa. Tibetan. A monastery, literally a "place of meditation."

  gonkang. Tibetan. A protector deity shrine, often found in monasteries.

  goserpa. Tibetan. Literally, "yellow head," one of the terms used to refer to any foreigner.

  khata. Tibetan. A prayer scarf.

  kora. Tibetan. A pilgrim's circuit, a circumambulation around a holy site.

  lama. Tibetan. The Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit "guru," traditionally used for a fully ordained senior monk who has become a master teacher.

  lao gai. Mandarin. Literally "reform through labor," referring to a hard-labor prison camp.

  lha gyal lo. Tibetan. A traditional Tibetan phrase of celebration or rejoicing; literally, "victory to the gods."

  lhakang. Tibetan. A Buddhist chapel or temple.

  mai xioa nu. Mandarin. Literally, "women selling smiles," a slang term for prostitutes.

  mala. Tibetan. A Buddhist rosary, ty
pically consisting of 108 beads.

  mandala. Literally, a Sanskrit word for "circle." A circular representation of the world of a meditational deity, traditionally made with colored sands. (Tibetan: kyilkhor.)

  mani stone. Tibetan. A stone inscribed, by paint or carving, with a Buddhist prayer, typically invoking the mani mantra, Om mani padme hum.

  mani wall. Tibetan. A wall made of mani stones. Traditionally, pilgrims visiting a shrine would add a mani stone to such a wall to acquire merit.

  mudra. Tibetan. A symbolic gesture made by arranging the hands and fingers in prescribed patterns to represent a specific prayer, offering, or state of mind.

  naga. Tibetan. A deity that is believed to reside in water.

  nei lou. Mandarin. State secret; literally, "for government use only."

  peche. Tibetan. A traditional Tibetan book, typically unbound, in long narrow leaves which are wrapped in cloth, often tied between carved wooden end-pieces.

  purba. Tibetan. Literally, "nail" or "spike," a small dagger-like object with a triangular blade used in Buddhist ritual.

  Rinpoche. Tibetan. A term of respect in addressing a revered teacher; literally, "blessed" or "jewel."

  RMB. Mandarin. Renminbi, a unit of Chinese currency.

  rongpa. Tibetan. A farmer.

  samkang. Tibetan. A brazier, often found in monasteries, used for burning fragrant woods.

  tamzing. Mandarin. A "struggle session," or "criticism session," typically a public criticism of an individual in which humiliation and verbal and/or physical abuse is utilized to achieve political education.

  tangzhou. Mandarin. Comrade.

  Tara. Tibetan. A female meditational deity, revered for her compassion and considered a special protectress of the Tibetan people.

  thangka. Tibetan. A painting on cloth, typically of a religious nature and often considered sacred.

  tonde. Tibetan. Small relics excavated from the ground, thought to hold particular power or bestow blessings.

  tsampa. Tibetan. Roasted barley flour, a staple food of Tibet.

  Author's Note

  While Bone Mountain is a work of fiction, the struggle of the Tibetan people to maintain their spiritual and cultural identity is all too real. There is indeed a Bureau of Religious Affairs which deploys a small army of bureaucrats against the practice of spirituality and ritual in everyday life and licenses monks based on their political, not their religious, faith. The lands of Tibet have suffered as severely as its people. It is no coincidence that Beijing's maps refer to Tibet as Xizang, its Western Treasure House. Sacred mountains have been deforested then leveled for their mineral content, scores of thousands of Chinese miners have displaced traditional farmers and herders and more than a few Tibetans have been imprisoned for trying to prevent bulldozers from despoiling their sacred grounds.

  For over a thousand years Tibetan medicine drew from a vast pharmacopoeia of Tibetan herbs and Buddhist teachings to uniquely integrate the spiritual and physical aspects of healing. Sophisticated medical colleges taught noninvasive diagnostic methods and treatments unknown in the West. That rich legacy has been largely annihilated in the Chinese occupation, many of its treasured texts and teachings lost forever. But a handful of medicine lamas did indeed survive by fleeing to India, where they quietly labor to piece together the remnants of those important traditions.

  Readers interested in learning more about the struggle of the Tibetan people will find excellent overviews in Tsering Shakya's The Dragon in the Land of Snows and John Avedon's In Exile from the Land of Snows. Many powerful autobiographical tales by or about Tibetan survivors have become available in recent years, including Ama Adhe: The Voice that Remembers, by Ahde Tapontsang and Joy Blakeslee, Sumner Carnahan's In the Presence of My Enemies, David Patt's A Strange Liberation: Tibetan Lives in Chinese Hands, Born in Lhasa by Namgyal Lhamo Taklha, and The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk by Palden Gyatso. The forces at work against Tibet's natural environment are comprehensively reviewed in Tibet 2000: Environment and Development Issues, available from the International Campaign for Tibet. Introductions to the remarkable traditions of Tibetan medicine are offered in Terry Clifford's Tibetan Buddhist Medicine and Psychiatry, and Healing from the Source by Dr. Yeshi Dhonden. Lastly, readers who wish to further explore how Tibetan Buddhists blend sand and deities would find a valuable starting place in David Cozort's Mandala of Vajrabhairava.

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