Xi tells me that in Mao’s time being rich and even dreams of getting rich were considered social crimes in China. But when his successor, Deng Xiaoping, assumed power in 1978, his first speech announced that helping every Chinese citizen become rich was going to be the driving force for the future of China. This… Continue Reading »
Xian: Day Five: We Come Upon a Pair of Butterflies and Xi Explains Why Butterflies Are Always Seen in Pairs Zhu Yingtai was a beautiful and intelligent young woman, the ninth child but only daughter of a wealthy family in Shangyu. At the time girls were not allowed to attend school, but she convinced her… Continue Reading »
Xian: Day Five: We Come Upon a Pair of Butterflies and Xi Explains Why Butterflies Are Always Seen in Pairs Zhu Yingtai was a beautiful and intelligent young woman, the ninth child but only daughter of a wealthy family in Shangyu. At the time girls were not allowed to attend school, but she convinced her… Continue Reading »
Lhasa, Tibet I was a Snake, slipping out from under a sleeping woman who smelled of lavender and smoke and coconut. She was tiny and I felt as large as a walrus beside her, both taking up too much space and not having enough room to get comfortable myself because it was a twin bed…. Continue Reading »
A Tibetan Creation Myth On a bus into the mountains above Lhasa to visit the Buddhist Sera Monastery, I asked Tendzin if he was taught any creation myths as a child. Tendzin said when he was a boy living on a farm in the mountains—37 years ago—he was taught that in the beginning was the… Continue Reading »
Religious Observance in Present-Day China and Tibet Having visited the Sera Monastery today with hundreds of monks debating in the courtyard, and seeing all the pilgrims arriving at the monasteries and temples, I wonder about the religious persecution I was led to expect. Xi says there are official and unofficial restrictions on what a religious… Continue Reading »