Beyond Taunggyi, somewhere in middle Burma.
Having made their farewells to the Mountain Small Happy Cloud of Pleasure, the Party discussed its next plan of action. Po summed it up when he turned to the hunter, "Mr. Penrington, should we go NE along the trade route into China or go back to pick up our cold-weather stuff where the Fat Man can attack us?" Penrington answered, "That is the likely outcome if we can't find the golden bird." Ramsey assured the group, "The Fat Man will not take 'no' for an answer. If we persist in telling him we found no golden bird, he will decide that we are holding out on him and take action." The druidess realized that the Egyptologist had let the descriptor "drastic action" be unsaid deliberately, and swallowed convulsively. The group resigned itself to trying to purchase cold weather gear in China.
By the afternoon of the 3rd day of travel, Our Adventurers caught up with the caravan. The Ox Cart Driver gave Miss Costorari a knowing wink. He himself was going only to Lashio in the northern quarter of the Shan Plateau; he would not be crossing the border into China. The Party considered whether or not to forge ahead because the frequent stops made by the caravan to exchange goods and personnel considerably slowed the trip. Penrington consistently maintained that it was best to stay within a protected group rather than opt for speed.
Sometime after the Anglish guard claimed the caravan had crossed from Burma into China, Sister Sunshine awoke one morning to notice that her tiny simian companion had disappeared, leaving only a few withered leaves in her capacious sleeve. She had developed the habit of quietly thanking the creature for its help every night, but, even so, she felt sorry not to have told it farewell. Once again she would be less than useless to her companions until she could learn about the Old Ones of China.
In the slow trek through mountainous jungle, Miss Costorari, Mr. Steele and the druidess reported various glimpses of a great cat pacing the caravan some distance to the side.
Miss Costorari to Po: "Are there lions or some such here?" .
Po: "There are huge cats. Don't get near. Tigers are really dangerous!" .
Pack Merchants, trying to intimidate the Chinese boy, claimed that the tigers were supernatural, would appear out of thin air, would breathe fire, etc.; fantastic tales that did not agree amongst themselves. .
Penrington: "I could sneak into the jungle and take a look." .
Po, warningly: "Don't take on a tiger by yourself. They are stealthier than you!" .
Sunshine, looking hopeful: "Is it likely to be an Old One?" .
Po, firmly: "I do not recommend seeking out the tiger as an Old One." .
The druidess seemed unconvinced and, as camp was made that afternoon, Miss Costorari and Mr. Forester attempted to scout the area for tiger tracks. They returned insisting that there were no plate-sized cat tracks to be found and they could not figure out how to more easily penetrate the jungle. Po eyed the trackers suspiciously, but their fervent protests convinced the druidess not to strike out into the jungle herself. As the caravan approached the city of Kunming, there were no further cat sightings.
Kunming, Yunnan Province, China.
During several weeks of typical travel, crossing various rivers in the mountainous land of Yunnan Province, the caravan wended its way to the city of Kunming where there was still an Anglish presence albeit not a large enclave. The Chinese merchants that joined the caravan there seemed inclined to gamble, but none of Our Adventurers could be persuaded to join their games. Po could still make himself understood in Mandarin.
In Kunming, the druidess found that the common religions were a non-Tibetan form of Buddhism (which consisted of ancestor worship; they didn't seem to know Po) and Daoism (also ancestor worship along with a respect for totemic animals). Unfortunately, the Davis ancestors would be, to all expectations, far away back in Anglia. She observed that the Daoists put out milk for tigers and cooked eggs for dragons. She asked the Party if they would consider the purchase of a hen and a goat so that she could attempt such practises herself, but was not taken seriously. Jesting, they suggested that she find, instead, a rat, rather than a tiger or a dragon. Discomfited by the teasing, she chose not to do so.
Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China.
After the usual tea-trade in Kunming, the caravan proceeded north into Sichuan Province, heading towards Cheng-du. It traveled rapidly on the well-maintained Chinese roads. Approaching the outskirts of Cheng-du, the caravan passed what seemed to the Anglishmen a colourful parade heading out of town. It was, in fact, a Buddhist funeral procession for someone important, the attendees being saffron-robed priests.
Voronika to Po: "Do you see that one dark-haired woman not dressed in yellow walking next to the casket?" .
Po: "No. I presume that means you do." .
Voronika noted that the woman carried herself regally. "I'd like to follow them." .
Po: "If we're polite and hang back, it will be all right."
The Party turned aside to watch the funeral observances. After the burial, Voronika noticed that the woman had vanished, apparently behind some trees. As Po listened to the final elegy, he recognized his own family name. Realization struck. Po said, "Was that my mom?" Penrington, having with the others also caught the family name, said, "I'm very sorry, Po," but the boy had wandered into the group of mourners. As he paid his respects at graveside, the yellow-robed ones started bowing or kneeling to him. .
Ramsey to Costorari: "Does the spirit react to all this?" .
Voronika: "I see only a peaceful graveyard." .
Sunshine: "Perhaps the words of the ritual place the spirit back on the Wheel."
As Po meditated graveside, he felt that his mother's spirit could understand what he had wanted to say to her. Eventually he turned to the eldest priest, "What happened?" .
Abbot: "It came her time and she stepped out of this life onto the wheel." .
Po: "Thank you. Will you be heading back to Chengdu?" .
The abbot bowed. Po returned to his companions followed by a line of saffron-robed monks.
Chengdu is an agricultural town with the Jinjiang river (River of Brocade) running through its center. There are many markets featuring beautiful clothing and fine brocades. Its people form a melting pot: Chinese, Mongols, various mixes. Po ignored the Mongols. .
Penrington, heartily: "So, you're home!" .
Po: "I was not born here?" .
Penrington: "Was it chance she came here to die just as you arrived? Where were you born?" .
Po: "In a small coastal city near Hong Kong."
The group passed through the town noting some Daoist temples and one small thatch-roofed shrine. Voronika asked a monk about the latter and learned, "That is the House of poet Du Fu, revered because of his writing. He moved from the wars of court to peaceful poverty some thousand years ago." They continued on to a small Tibetan-Buddhist temple featuring a statue of the standing buddha (whose face seemed sadder to the Anglishmen than those of other buddhas) and a wall on which there were 2 prayer wheels and an obvious space for a third. A gong rang as the group entered.
Voronika asked about the prayer wheels. .
Abbot: "We keep that space empty because we keep a piece of the kalachakra." He turned to Po, "Do you want to see it?" .
Po: "I will be meditating; it will take some time." The Party looked disappointed at the boy's response, recalling that "kalachakra" meant wheel of time and seemed linked to the wooden pieces they had been collecting. .
Voronika to the abbot: "When was the original prayer wheel taken down?" .
Abbot: "We took down the 3rd wheel when He brought the piece. He brought it here in a previous life, 428 years ago today." .
The Party considered the evidence that Po had indeed lived previous lives:
Voronika asked, "Do you know of the Mother of All Mountains." .
Abbot: "Chomolungma." .
Pleased to have a familiar name confirmed, Penrington asked: "Where is it?" .
Abbot: "Somewhere in Tibet in the great mountains. We get messages from Lhasa, a city in Tibet if you follow the road. No one here has walked the road but merchants must know because we occasionally get new prayer wheels and treasures from Tibet." .
Penrington was unable to resist asking about treasures. .
Abbot: "When Buddha walked, he placed treasures of writing to be used when time had dulled the learning."
Ramsey tried to follow up on the subject of the kalachakra: "If the parts were gathered in one place, what would happen?" .
The abbot did not seem to understand: "The Wheel of Time is a thing and no thing. It carries us further at all times." .
Voronika: "Is the piece you keep the first representation of the Wheel of Time?" .
Abbot: "He understands better than we do." The Party takes all such references to "he" to mean Po. Voronika persuaded Po to ask for the temple's piece of the Wheel, explaining that it could not be coincidence that we have been finding or have been given pieces. Clearly we are expected to collect the pieces of the wheel. .
Abbot: "It is kept in with the book." .
Po: "Which symbol does it bear?" .
Abbot: "The hare" .
Po: "What will happen if we assemble the Wheel of Time?" .
Abbot: "The Wheel of Time is." .
Po: "It will be best if we take the piece with us to Tibet." .
Abbot: "Of course. Do you want it now?"
In the room where book and piece were kept, the monks at their workstations stopped work when Po entered. The piece was in the podium under the book. Sister Sunshine noted that the book looked like the other book she and Ramsey had examined, the Bardo Thokal. When asked about the word "bardo", the Abbot explained: "Bardo is the place in between life and death. Where one waits for the wheel or joins the enlightenment." Penrington theorized that Temujin was waiting in such a place and that evil sorcerers might try to reincarnate him as a baby in someone already pregnant. The name "Dark Moon" went unspoken. He insisted, "Indications are that our opponents are trying to bring Temujin back into the world."
The group tried to recite from the Prophecy at the wedding. When the druidess reminded Po of the section that had been literally pointed at him, the boy did it as a "dramatic recitation." The abbot recognized same as a quotation from the Book of Dying, the Bardo Thorkal. The "red, black, and white" mentioned were an illustration of three abysses on the route through Bardo. "This is partway through the land of Bardo. There are several steps of judgement where one may step onto the lighted path or return. If you see the light, you may step into the column of light and choose. Some will go past the column of light and encounter fierce beasts and cannibal ogres. Then they must cross the abysses. There one can also return to the wheel of life. Each abyss means something different. And at the end, again there will be the white light."
The abbot also recognized the "nonsense sounds" of the Prophecy to be the "elements of the Universe":
| Element | Sphere | Other Belief System |
|---|---|---|
| La | Vitality | Earth |
| Sok | Potential of Life | Air |
| Lu | Health | Fire |
| WangThang | Personal Power | Water |
| Lungta | Wind Horse that goes through all things invisible. | Aether |
The Party also discussed the fact that the orient used an element for each month and each year, thus the present time was Wangthang La, Water Year of the Rat, month of Earth.
The druidess brought up her own personal concern with finding Old Ones.
Abbot: "Myingma, Old Ones in the ancient language (Tibetan), wrote the treasures. That is, writing from the time of the 1st Buddha, now recovered. The great teacher Samantabhadra spoke on the Emei Mountain, several days travel from here enroute to Leshan City."
Penrington: "How does one recognize this treasure?"
Abbot: "Only a knowledgeable sage would recognize and write about it."
Po to Sunshine: "I suggest that you not spend time hunting Old Ones in China when we will soon leave for Tibet." The druidess kept her own counsel.
Leaving the temple, Our Adventurers found an inn. Miss Costorari exercised her knowledge of Mandarin to bargain as Po would not. She had been pleased to discover that China was less expensive than she expected. At the conclusion of the bargaining, the innkeeper said, "Bon jour" with a Chinese accent. That brought Miss Costorari back to converse about possible French visitors.
Innkeeper: "Oh yes, there is a woman staying here that looks like [he pointed to the druidess and then back to the gypsy] you."
In the lounge of the inn, the group found a white woman lunching with a young Mongol-Chinese man. She said, "Hello" in French-accented Anglish to Sister Sunshine. Introductions discovered her to be, Alexandra David, about 20 years old, and her companion Emza Norgay.
Miss David: I have been teaching him French. He speaks Tibetan. I've been fascinated by Tibetan-Buddhism. It's difficult to get to some of the places though."
Miss Costorari: "Have you been to Tibet?"
Miss David: "I've been in Tibet. I encountered a nice Scotsman who recommended that I go elsewhere to learn mountain climbing. He recommended some places in Switzerland."
The Party proceeded to highly recommend Randolph Neal as a trainer in Switzerland. [Historical Note: Alexandra David became Mrs. Néel in 1904. Later she adopted a Tibetan monk.]
Miss David had come from Tibet down the road from Lhasa, about a four-week journey from Chengdu.
Penrington: "Did you hear tales of a pass."
Miss David: "I've not been down to Nepal, between Tibet and India. I never got to Katmandu."
Po: "Aren't you a little young to be traveling on your own?"
Miss David: "My parents think so. But when I was 4 years old, I made it to the outskirts of Paris from my own home - a journey of 80 miles. I've always been a restless seeker." She continued with her tale of Tibet. "It is difficult. Women are not allowed in the sacred city of Lhasa." To Miss Costorari's exclamation she answered, "I disguised myself." She, Miss Costorari and Mr. Ramsey proceeded to exchange insights as to appropriate disguises.
Po, sounding a little shocked: "Were you not concerned about breaking rituals?"
Miss Davis, with an aplomb understandable to an Anglishman: "I wanted to see and learn and write about it."
Miss Costorari: "When did you start?"
Miss Davis: "Two years ago. I'd met Norgay who has been invaluable and he found me a mountain-bred horse for packing."
The Frenchwoman's companion gave Our Adventurers names of villages and relatives of his in Tibet from whom guidance might be found. None of the villages were as far West as the Kingdom from which the horse had come from - the Kingdom of Mustang.
Penrington offered to buy the horse. Sister Sunshine examined the shaggy pack pony and was surprised when it winked at her. Thereafter, however, it was clearly "her" horse. She spent time grooming and talking to it, remembering that one line of the Prophecy was "Mustang Horse". The horse occasionally smiled at her.
The Party continued to encourage Miss David to talk about the route through Tibet and learned that it was a relatively poor country. "A few yen go a long way. It is no longer strong. Instead of being united as it once was, it now consists of separate kingdoms which, although they do not war amongst themselves, are not strong enough to hold off Chinese encroachment. They remember well the Mongol incursions."
Penrington: "Did the Mongols reach Nepal?"
Miss David was not sure. "Anything important was taken by the Mongols. One of the Mongol emperors built the palace here."
Miss Costorari: "Who?"
Miss David: "Kublai Khan."
Steele: "Any relation to Ghengis Khan?"
Miss David: "His grandson, I believe."
Thereafter the Party considered their points for gathering information: the merchants of Chengdu who traveled to Tibet, the Palace of Kublai Khan, and the original hillside where Col. Lynn Selby-Forth's division had fought rebels and an old man had given him a piece of prayer wheel.
The next morning, Miss Costorari practised her Mandarin in the merchant section, managing to average the various verbal directions she was given and reporting back that she believed she understood the route to Lhasa. Rarely do people go all the way, but there's lots of intermediate trading.
Penrington as a professional soldier noted a couple of hills near Chengdu that might have been worth the effort of military shelling. In the afternoon, the Party investigated one, coming up empty of information.
The following morning, Sister Sunshine noted that the horse had set himself at an angle in his stall. She was convinced that he "points" west. The Party was highly skeptical.
Penrington led the group to the other, eastern hill. There they found animal husbandry, um, pigs in pen. Penrington searched an old shell crater.
Po: "You'll find pig droppings."
Penrington retorted: "That's what I expect." The druidess, failing to recall the zodiacal symbol of the swine, looked puzzled. Penrington found metal shards, confirming his opinion that the battle had been fought on this hill, but seemed at a loss as to how to continue investigating. Sunshine reminded the group that the old man with the prayer wheel piece had been found in the shell of a building.
Miss Costorari climbed a tree but could see only trees.
Po used his Clairvoyance to find a source of water and to try to follow it to the ruins of habitation.
Penrington and Ramsey headed down hill to an inhabited hut to borrow a shovel from a pig farmer. The farmer told them that there were "stones near the spring."
The Party converged on the spring. Only rubble and a 6-foot stretch of wall remained. Forester and Ramsey used their archaeological skills to determine the original layout: a 6-sided building. None of the group could guess what that meant. They located a door site pointed into the hillside. Steele proceeded to dig. He found a stone archway into the hill. Inside was light - a candle in a paper lantern - dangling from a corner of the room that seemed to have no other form of egress, and an old oriental in a loincloth. Po addressed the old oriental man sitting under the lantern, "Hello." The old one smiled, showing one tooth. Penrington, remembering the story, gave the ancient a blanket. In turn, the old Chinese handed back a piece of the prayer wheel. Its symbol was the pig. Miss Costorari gave the old man two rice balls. Po tried for more conversation but got only smiles and nods.
Forester made a sketch of the archway and of the layout as it had been determined in their surveys.
The Chinese zodiac, in order, is composed of Rat, Ox, Tiger, Hare, Dragon, Serpent, Horse, Ram/Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig/Boar.
The Party has collected the following:
| Symbol | Source |
|---|---|
| Ox | Ramsey via mail from Joseph Daggeral (Burma) |
| Hare | temple at Chengdu |
| Dragon | Chinatown shop in London |
| Serpent | Col. Lynn Selby-Forth (from Old Man in ruins on hill outside Chengdu) |
| Ram | Ancient temple in Timbuktu |
| Monkey | Old Man in temple atop Mountain Small Happy Cloud of Pleasure (Burma) |
| Pig | Old Man in ruins in hill outside Chengdu |
The Party has yet to find:
Rooster
Tiger
Rat
Dog
Horse
In considering these, someone noted that, perhaps, the opportunities to secure the Tiger and the Rat were passed up in the jungles before and in the city of Kunming. Someone expressed the hope that there will be more than one chance.....
Next run: The Road to Lhasa? The Ancient Hunting Lodge of Kublai Khan?
(a) Cumulative (b) Cumulative since Volume II (c) Cumulative since Volume III
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