人有れば蝿あり仏ありにけり
hito areba hae ari hotoke ari ni keri
where there's people
there's flies
and Buddhas
Kobayashi Issa *
1823
This is a Zen (Chan) Buddhist haiku by 19 century haiku-poet Kobayashi Issa. I have always enjoyed his simple, rural haiku, filled with irony, humor and undistilled Zen...
This haiku came up to my mind at one point of my recent Tibet journey. At one of the last points of the itinerary of the trip, in the very remote Sakya, there were so many flies that one had to wave ones hands all the time to avoid their landing on food, etc. Sakya is most notable (and named after) the famous monastery of one of the 4 most important Tibetan Buddhist sects, Sakya sect.Our objective of visiting Sakya was of course the famous monastery there...
Issa's haiku suddenly came up in my mind.
At this very remote, and very very poor place, I remembered Issa's haiku, which in an amazing and 'acurate" way described the whole trip...
People, flies and Buddhas.
I had a sort of revelation.
In Mahayana Buddhism EVERYONE has the potential to be a Buddha. Everyone. People, dogs, flies...Me, you.
I choose this paraphrased sentence of Issa's haiku, i.e. "Where there are flies, there are also Buddhas..." as the title of my Tibet's trip posts...I actually very much hope I can be able to organise a photographic exhibition in my hometown in the upcoming September with this title...Keep your fingers crossed!
Meanwhile. These past few days I have been caught in the net of having to do (and think) about other things which prevented me from initiating the posts about the Tibet trip...Another reason is my incapability to upload any pictures, which greatly upsets my plans for artfully/beautifully presented posts...The censorship's grip has become even tighter, lately it's hard to figure a way to go past it...
Meanwhile, at least titlewise I managed to outline some basic starting points of my recount of the trip...Actually I was very excited about the conceptual idea of putting my experiences, obsrvations and thoughts together...Kind of a project...
Anyway I will try to organise the upcoming Tibet trip related posts more or less in the following order:
The Itinerary
Altitude, Nature and Views
The Colonization of Tibet
Pilgrim's Path
Monasteries, Temples and Stupas
Buddha, Dharma and Sangha
Monks
Nuns
Khadags, prayer flags, butter tea and tsampa
No-harming of Sentient Life
Discussions, Debates and Raised Questions
Daily Needs
Lhasa, Towns and Villages
Museums
Photography Moments and Shots
Fellow Travelers
The Perpetually Weeping Bodhisattva
Chödröl
....
* Kobayashi Issa is without doubt one of my most favourite poets. His rural Zen Buddhist "sudden enlightenment" poems are one of the reasons why I find myself here in Asia, studying It's languages and cultures...From October based in Kyoto,I will do my best to learn Japanese if not for other reason then at least to be able to fully appreciate his (and other haiku poets') poems in original...
Here is a link to Kobayashi Issa haiku if you want to check out more of his poems. On this site there are more than 9,000!
http://haikuguy.com/issa/index.html
Friday 31 July 2009
Thursday 30 July 2009
Why Rebiya Kadeer is not the Dalai Lama. Why Xinjiang is not Tibet.
There has been almost a month since the tumultuous and bloody events in early July in Xinjiang.
It was a very important and thought provoking event with many complex reasons and implications.
Quite deservedly there have been many commentaries and analysis.
Unlike the events from March last year when for quite sometime Tibetans rose up in different parts of Tibetan territories for quite some time. Which prompted heavy military crush of the dissent,
and troubles during the international Olympic torch relay, which in turn spurred unseen nationalistic surge among the Han Chinese, the bloody events in Urumqi did not last for that long, and did not cause quite the effect of last years events.
But both events have their shared similarities, but also there are many differences as well.
I also have been thinking about the events, I'll try to express a few of my thoughts about the question...
Firstly,a really must-read post at the very good China blog "the China Beat":
The Urumchi Unrest Revisited
http://thechinabeat.blogspot.com/2009/07/reflecting-on-urumchi-events.html
(for those of you in China, since this is a blog on blocked by Chinese authorities site, i.e. the same one as my blog's, this link can be only opened by proxy or another means of circumvention of the Great Firewall)
A good post by Evan Osnos about the re-drawal of two Chinese film directors from Melbourn film festival...
Jia Zhangke and Rebiya Kadeer
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2009/07/jia-zhangke-rebiya-kadeer.html
In the usual (and extremely imbecile) way Chinese local and central authorities said the ethnic and race violence in Urumqi was "an organised and plotted act by foreign hostile forces, lead by the "terrorist" Rabia Kadder".
That's a claim that the Chinese CG claims to have prove of, but has yet to provide evidence of, but we can reasonably doubt such claim's credibility.
The parallel with last year is obvious. Dalai Lama (and "his separatist forces") was said to have plotted the demonstrations, violence and riots of the Tibetans. A claim that the Chinese authorities NEVER really showed a prove of.
It was a very important and thought provoking event with many complex reasons and implications.
Quite deservedly there have been many commentaries and analysis.
Unlike the events from March last year when for quite sometime Tibetans rose up in different parts of Tibetan territories for quite some time. Which prompted heavy military crush of the dissent,
and troubles during the international Olympic torch relay, which in turn spurred unseen nationalistic surge among the Han Chinese, the bloody events in Urumqi did not last for that long, and did not cause quite the effect of last years events.
But both events have their shared similarities, but also there are many differences as well.
I also have been thinking about the events, I'll try to express a few of my thoughts about the question...
Firstly,a really must-read post at the very good China blog "the China Beat":
The Urumchi Unrest Revisited
http://thechinabeat.blogspot.com/2009/07/reflecting-on-urumchi-events.html
(for those of you in China, since this is a blog on blocked by Chinese authorities site, i.e. the same one as my blog's, this link can be only opened by proxy or another means of circumvention of the Great Firewall)
A good post by Evan Osnos about the re-drawal of two Chinese film directors from Melbourn film festival...
Jia Zhangke and Rebiya Kadeer
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2009/07/jia-zhangke-rebiya-kadeer.html
In the usual (and extremely imbecile) way Chinese local and central authorities said the ethnic and race violence in Urumqi was "an organised and plotted act by foreign hostile forces, lead by the "terrorist" Rabia Kadder".
That's a claim that the Chinese CG claims to have prove of, but has yet to provide evidence of, but we can reasonably doubt such claim's credibility.
The parallel with last year is obvious. Dalai Lama (and "his separatist forces") was said to have plotted the demonstrations, violence and riots of the Tibetans. A claim that the Chinese authorities NEVER really showed a prove of.
Monday 27 July 2009
China Strong (black humor mock-newspaper article)
While I'm trying to organise my thoughts and impressions about my recent Tibet trip, and hopefully start a series of posts about it very soon, I'm also, (news "hungry", since for at least 2 weeks didn't read or follow news much) trying to catch up with news and events that happened meanwhile while I was on the road...
Needless to even doubt it, the biggest news for the past two weeks was the Urumqi ethnic violence which erupted just a day before I took off from Beijing...
I'm also trying to catch up on reading posts on blogs I'm following...
Following a link from Evan Osnos' LETTER FROM CHINA ( a very good China blog) on the New Yorker, came across a very funny mock-edition of newspaper called "The Onion" which recently had a China-dedicated edition...
Below is a short China related article in The Onion that I find quite funny (and short enough) to reprint...
CHINA STRONG
NEW YORK—According to all sources, the People's Republic of China is strong. The nation is united, the military unmatched, the economy vibrant, and the people ever joyful.
Similarly correct sources verified that China has always been triumphant.
In other news, the Chinese government is fair, all-knowing, and wise, propelled by the strength of two billion loyal hands, all pulling together as one under the Great Celestial Bureaucracy high above.
Experts all agreed that there can be no question of this claim, as this claim is the truth.
As of press time, the brute and inexpressive English language could not convey the full magnificence of China, nor its excellence in every arena, nor the protective warmth of the red sun that shines forever on its borders, nor the innumerable glories of its Great Leaders.
New reports also indicate that China will grow stronger yet. 鱼
link:
China Strong
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/china_strong
Needless to even doubt it, the biggest news for the past two weeks was the Urumqi ethnic violence which erupted just a day before I took off from Beijing...
I'm also trying to catch up on reading posts on blogs I'm following...
Following a link from Evan Osnos' LETTER FROM CHINA ( a very good China blog) on the New Yorker, came across a very funny mock-edition of newspaper called "The Onion" which recently had a China-dedicated edition...
Below is a short China related article in The Onion that I find quite funny (and short enough) to reprint...
CHINA STRONG
NEW YORK—According to all sources, the People's Republic of China is strong. The nation is united, the military unmatched, the economy vibrant, and the people ever joyful.
Similarly correct sources verified that China has always been triumphant.
In other news, the Chinese government is fair, all-knowing, and wise, propelled by the strength of two billion loyal hands, all pulling together as one under the Great Celestial Bureaucracy high above.
Experts all agreed that there can be no question of this claim, as this claim is the truth.
As of press time, the brute and inexpressive English language could not convey the full magnificence of China, nor its excellence in every arena, nor the protective warmth of the red sun that shines forever on its borders, nor the innumerable glories of its Great Leaders.
New reports also indicate that China will grow stronger yet. 鱼
link:
China Strong
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/china_strong
Thursday 23 July 2009
Pilgrimage To The Land Of Snows
I'm just back from Tibet.
I came back late last night and the rich mix of experiences, impressions, thoughts, feelings boil in me...It's quite strange to find myself in my old room that I have lived in for 7 years, back to the city that I have considered "home" for 8 years...
It's quite a big difference. Not a difference that can be measured in the cities difference in development. It's a difference of soul.
For me Beijing has no soul. Tibet has.
I don't know quite how to "adapt" to my old self, and I'm really not sure if I wish to...
For at least couple of weeks I have almost completely forgotten about my long-time sorrow and sadness, my loss of motivation and purpose...
I'm not quite uncertain how to express most of my thoughts and observations which are many and put some of them into words.
No doubt. It was a trip which in my current confused emotional state I needed badly. A new experience to hopefully stir change. I haven't traveled for very long.
At this time that I find myself at my life's crossroads, with big changes awaiting, a trip like this came as a gift...
Perhaps deeply inside I was asking for some turn for the better in the way things are...
So it was more of a pilgrimage than any trip I have taken.
Visiting temples and "power places" in the land where native people still believe mountains and lakes to posses unimaginable great powers over humans...A land where there are god-like spirits to be made tame by offerings made by the pilgrims...Having seen the vast expanses of the majestic land is Tibet I can't help seeing the "logic" in this expressed reverence for Nature...One is simply dwarfed among the vast expance of endless land, high mountains and mountains...
At least before the Han Chinese came with tanks, buldozers and railways to "tame" the land...
Hm, I actually don't even know from where to start relating my trip's experiences and observations...A couple of recent comments encouraged me to try to share some of it here. I will try to do my best and somehow organize things in my head and heart and make it somehow post-able.
There are too many things that have stirred my deep thoughts and deeply impressed me. Personal, spiritual, political, ethnical, social...
I took many pictures, but only very few are digital since I'm very 'oldfashioned' and use still obstinately film and a completely manualy operated camera...
I have a feeling for some very good shots, but that remains to be seen when I manage to develop them...For now, I have 25 films in my fridge...
Apart from taking many pictures and enjoying nature, undoubdedly I saw many things that stirred my deep reflexion on many issues...
The intimidating military armed patrols all over Lhasa and Tibet, the control, the obvious colonization process that is underway, the extreme poverty, the problems of modernization, the destruction and rebuilding, the overwhelming landscape that has moulded this land's people culture...This trip gave raise to many questions and many musings...
I will try my best to put at least some of them in some kind of order and share them here as a series of posts...
It was a good trip. Very rich in experiences and observations. As nearer to a "spiritual trip" as I have been.
I'm asking myself - in what capacity was I - a traveler, a researcher, a photographer, a pilgrim, or merely just a tourist?!
Perhaps a bit of all.
Somehow on some level deeply I probably hope to have "gained" enough merit with all the homage that I paid to Buddha images and altars, the offered kataks (katak, or "hada" in Chinese pronuncion,is a white Tibetan silken/flaxen scarves used as offering objects at temples, etc.), with all the khorras (khorra is circumambulation, or walking around an object of reverence)around statues and temples...enough to turn the wheel of my life in a new positive direction and stop the sorrow of loss and the feeling of lack of motivation...
I don't know if this very close to religious experience will have this result. But if nothing else I got a new name. A Tibetan name. For more than 8 years I had a Chinese name and many people that I have met for the last years knew me as my Chinese self.
I got asked a few times if I'm a Buddhist. I answered affirmatively. I'm not religious, but yes, my worldview is undoubtedly Buddhist. I see no contradiction. In many ways I'm a practicing Buddhist, without being a religious follower, without believing in prayers and rituals, without feeling affiliation to a community of others, there are many things in my way of life, in my understanding and ideas that make me such. So if I have to label myself I would not mind terribly labelling myself as a Buddhist.
It's not a matter of religious faith, it's a matter of accepting as true some (or most) of the explanations of human existence that Buddhist idea offers.
At the same time although I feel very remote from the Tibetan Buddhism, and hardly know anything deeply about it, each time during my travels the experiences in Tibetan Buddhist temples have brought me the closest to a religious experience...
During this trip I got a new name. I see this now as standing out with a special significance.
My new name is Chödröl, which translated means Dharma Tara, Tara of the Teaching. Tara (or especially as i am told the White Tara which my new name implies, is a female Buddha painted in white, a peaceful image in many Tibetan murals and statues)...I was given this name by the nuns in the Sakya nunnery in Southern Tibet. They were very kind and hospitable and I feel very honored to be given this name by them...
So with a new name I hope I can have a chance for a new, fresh start.
I wish I had enough wisdom to see trough all the sorrow and the things that make me sad even now...Just enough to be able to take a breath and look around myself clearly with hope...
Having experienced the physical shortness of air and oxygen in the high altitudes of Tibet I realize that I have almost stopped 'breathing' during the past couple of years...
I need to start anew somehow.
With a new name, a name full of positive power, I hope I will somehow manage to turn the Wheel...
I came back late last night and the rich mix of experiences, impressions, thoughts, feelings boil in me...It's quite strange to find myself in my old room that I have lived in for 7 years, back to the city that I have considered "home" for 8 years...
It's quite a big difference. Not a difference that can be measured in the cities difference in development. It's a difference of soul.
For me Beijing has no soul. Tibet has.
I don't know quite how to "adapt" to my old self, and I'm really not sure if I wish to...
For at least couple of weeks I have almost completely forgotten about my long-time sorrow and sadness, my loss of motivation and purpose...
I'm not quite uncertain how to express most of my thoughts and observations which are many and put some of them into words.
No doubt. It was a trip which in my current confused emotional state I needed badly. A new experience to hopefully stir change. I haven't traveled for very long.
At this time that I find myself at my life's crossroads, with big changes awaiting, a trip like this came as a gift...
Perhaps deeply inside I was asking for some turn for the better in the way things are...
So it was more of a pilgrimage than any trip I have taken.
Visiting temples and "power places" in the land where native people still believe mountains and lakes to posses unimaginable great powers over humans...A land where there are god-like spirits to be made tame by offerings made by the pilgrims...Having seen the vast expanses of the majestic land is Tibet I can't help seeing the "logic" in this expressed reverence for Nature...One is simply dwarfed among the vast expance of endless land, high mountains and mountains...
At least before the Han Chinese came with tanks, buldozers and railways to "tame" the land...
Hm, I actually don't even know from where to start relating my trip's experiences and observations...A couple of recent comments encouraged me to try to share some of it here. I will try to do my best and somehow organize things in my head and heart and make it somehow post-able.
There are too many things that have stirred my deep thoughts and deeply impressed me. Personal, spiritual, political, ethnical, social...
I took many pictures, but only very few are digital since I'm very 'oldfashioned' and use still obstinately film and a completely manualy operated camera...
I have a feeling for some very good shots, but that remains to be seen when I manage to develop them...For now, I have 25 films in my fridge...
Apart from taking many pictures and enjoying nature, undoubdedly I saw many things that stirred my deep reflexion on many issues...
The intimidating military armed patrols all over Lhasa and Tibet, the control, the obvious colonization process that is underway, the extreme poverty, the problems of modernization, the destruction and rebuilding, the overwhelming landscape that has moulded this land's people culture...This trip gave raise to many questions and many musings...
I will try my best to put at least some of them in some kind of order and share them here as a series of posts...
It was a good trip. Very rich in experiences and observations. As nearer to a "spiritual trip" as I have been.
I'm asking myself - in what capacity was I - a traveler, a researcher, a photographer, a pilgrim, or merely just a tourist?!
Perhaps a bit of all.
Somehow on some level deeply I probably hope to have "gained" enough merit with all the homage that I paid to Buddha images and altars, the offered kataks (katak, or "hada" in Chinese pronuncion,is a white Tibetan silken/flaxen scarves used as offering objects at temples, etc.), with all the khorras (khorra is circumambulation, or walking around an object of reverence)around statues and temples...enough to turn the wheel of my life in a new positive direction and stop the sorrow of loss and the feeling of lack of motivation...
I don't know if this very close to religious experience will have this result. But if nothing else I got a new name. A Tibetan name. For more than 8 years I had a Chinese name and many people that I have met for the last years knew me as my Chinese self.
I got asked a few times if I'm a Buddhist. I answered affirmatively. I'm not religious, but yes, my worldview is undoubtedly Buddhist. I see no contradiction. In many ways I'm a practicing Buddhist, without being a religious follower, without believing in prayers and rituals, without feeling affiliation to a community of others, there are many things in my way of life, in my understanding and ideas that make me such. So if I have to label myself I would not mind terribly labelling myself as a Buddhist.
It's not a matter of religious faith, it's a matter of accepting as true some (or most) of the explanations of human existence that Buddhist idea offers.
At the same time although I feel very remote from the Tibetan Buddhism, and hardly know anything deeply about it, each time during my travels the experiences in Tibetan Buddhist temples have brought me the closest to a religious experience...
During this trip I got a new name. I see this now as standing out with a special significance.
My new name is Chödröl, which translated means Dharma Tara, Tara of the Teaching. Tara (or especially as i am told the White Tara which my new name implies, is a female Buddha painted in white, a peaceful image in many Tibetan murals and statues)...I was given this name by the nuns in the Sakya nunnery in Southern Tibet. They were very kind and hospitable and I feel very honored to be given this name by them...
So with a new name I hope I can have a chance for a new, fresh start.
I wish I had enough wisdom to see trough all the sorrow and the things that make me sad even now...Just enough to be able to take a breath and look around myself clearly with hope...
Having experienced the physical shortness of air and oxygen in the high altitudes of Tibet I realize that I have almost stopped 'breathing' during the past couple of years...
I need to start anew somehow.
With a new name, a name full of positive power, I hope I will somehow manage to turn the Wheel...
Sunday 12 July 2009
Dalai Lama calls for democracy and reform for the future Tibetan leadership
(This is a scheduled post...I'm actually not in Beijing right now, but I believe this is news worth mentioning...And since I'm not going to be posting for a while I have made this a scheduled post...And since my trip is to the "Land of Snows" this news is relevant in a way too...)
Dalai Lama says favours democratic leadership
(Reuters)The Dalai Lama has encouraged Tibetans in exile to embrace the democratic system of electing a leader, saying it was essential to keep step with the larger world and to ensure the continuity of their government.
In a video clip shown to hundreds of monks, nuns and lay people in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala late on Saturday, the 73-year-old also said it was no longer essential to thrust spiritual and political leadership on one person.
"The Dalai Lamas held temporal and spiritual leadership over the last 400-500 years. It may have been quite useful. But that period is over," the Nobel Prize winner said in the clip, according to a translated transcript.
"Today, it is clear to the whole world that democracy is the best system despite its minor negativities. That is why it is important that Tibetans also move with the larger world community," he said.
The Dalai Lama has suggested before it is up to Tibetans whether they continue with the spiritual institution after he dies, and could order an election among Tibetans abroad.
"When we put the whole responsibility in the person of the Dalai Lama, it is dangerous ... it is appropriate that a democratically elected leader lead a people's movement," he said.
"In reality, a change is happening in the responsibility of the Dalai Lama as the temporal and spiritual leader. This, I think, is very good ... a religious leader having to assume political leadership, that period is over," he said.
"As election takes place every five years, irrespective of whether the Dalai Lama is there or not, the exiled political system will remain secure, stable and sustainable in the long term," he said in the clip broadcast on Saturday.
See the full Reuters news report at
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20090621/tpl-uk-tibet-dalailama-b3150e0.html
-------------
Dalai Lama says favours democratic leadership
(Reuters)The Dalai Lama has encouraged Tibetans in exile to embrace the democratic system of electing a leader, saying it was essential to keep step with the larger world and to ensure the continuity of their government.
In a video clip shown to hundreds of monks, nuns and lay people in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala late on Saturday, the 73-year-old also said it was no longer essential to thrust spiritual and political leadership on one person.
"The Dalai Lamas held temporal and spiritual leadership over the last 400-500 years. It may have been quite useful. But that period is over," the Nobel Prize winner said in the clip, according to a translated transcript.
"Today, it is clear to the whole world that democracy is the best system despite its minor negativities. That is why it is important that Tibetans also move with the larger world community," he said.
The Dalai Lama has suggested before it is up to Tibetans whether they continue with the spiritual institution after he dies, and could order an election among Tibetans abroad.
"When we put the whole responsibility in the person of the Dalai Lama, it is dangerous ... it is appropriate that a democratically elected leader lead a people's movement," he said.
"In reality, a change is happening in the responsibility of the Dalai Lama as the temporal and spiritual leader. This, I think, is very good ... a religious leader having to assume political leadership, that period is over," he said.
"As election takes place every five years, irrespective of whether the Dalai Lama is there or not, the exiled political system will remain secure, stable and sustainable in the long term," he said in the clip broadcast on Saturday.
See the full Reuters news report at
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20090621/tpl-uk-tibet-dalailama-b3150e0.html
-------------
Wednesday 8 July 2009
Trip To The Roof Of The World
As some of you know well, I am away at the moment...
If everything goes as scheduled I am already in Tibet (proper)!*
It is a trip I have long wanted to make...and have been really looking forward to these few weeks...
I have 30 colour films for my camera. The chances are I am going to probably use them all and even at some point wonder why didn't I get more...but let's see...
It has been a LONG time since I was on a trip and almost as long since I took pictures...I'm really looking forward to it...
Will probably and hopefully post more and much when I get back...
At this moment I'm on The Roof of The World!!!
This is probably the closest to the sky and stars I will get...
* By which I mean TAR (Tibetan Autonomous Region).
I have made several different trips during the span of the last 8 years to other Tibetan regions and areas on the Qing-Tibetan Plateu, to some Tibetan autonomous regions in Si Chuan, Gan Su, Qing Hai and Yun Nan Provinces, but this will be my first trip to the so-called U-Zang region.
---------------
UPDATE:
(The Great Firewall of China doesn't allow me to have the capability of posting a comment in my own blog...so I answer here...)
Hey,Thanks for the comments and encouragement!
Will do my best to post as much as possible about the trip...
"Just a girl", thanks for the interest! I'm quite flattered that my blog has caught the attention of strangers...
Dear M. I laughed at your funny and witty comment (I'm sure it was your intention to make me laugh. It is appreciated), but no, I'm sorry, I didn't meet Karlsson anywhere...hm, some travelers of old claim to have seen levitating/flying Buddhist lamas/monks in Tibet...I was not so fortunate ;)
Saw a few Tibetan antelopes and a couple of wild foxes, many many pilgrims and some monks, marching military and tourists, but no flying humanoids on the Roof...But now that I think about it, I saw at least two snipers, Han Chinese soldiers, based on the roofs of Lhasa...
If everything goes as scheduled I am already in Tibet (proper)!*
It is a trip I have long wanted to make...and have been really looking forward to these few weeks...
I have 30 colour films for my camera. The chances are I am going to probably use them all and even at some point wonder why didn't I get more...but let's see...
It has been a LONG time since I was on a trip and almost as long since I took pictures...I'm really looking forward to it...
Will probably and hopefully post more and much when I get back...
At this moment I'm on The Roof of The World!!!
This is probably the closest to the sky and stars I will get...
* By which I mean TAR (Tibetan Autonomous Region).
I have made several different trips during the span of the last 8 years to other Tibetan regions and areas on the Qing-Tibetan Plateu, to some Tibetan autonomous regions in Si Chuan, Gan Su, Qing Hai and Yun Nan Provinces, but this will be my first trip to the so-called U-Zang region.
---------------
UPDATE:
(The Great Firewall of China doesn't allow me to have the capability of posting a comment in my own blog...so I answer here...)
Hey,Thanks for the comments and encouragement!
Will do my best to post as much as possible about the trip...
"Just a girl", thanks for the interest! I'm quite flattered that my blog has caught the attention of strangers...
Dear M. I laughed at your funny and witty comment (I'm sure it was your intention to make me laugh. It is appreciated), but no, I'm sorry, I didn't meet Karlsson anywhere...hm, some travelers of old claim to have seen levitating/flying Buddhist lamas/monks in Tibet...I was not so fortunate ;)
Saw a few Tibetan antelopes and a couple of wild foxes, many many pilgrims and some monks, marching military and tourists, but no flying humanoids on the Roof...But now that I think about it, I saw at least two snipers, Han Chinese soldiers, based on the roofs of Lhasa...
Sunday 5 July 2009
Film: Seven Pounds
In an earnest effort to reduce the China-related posts, here is a post about a film that I watched the last couple of days and which impressed me for several reasons...
The film is "Seven Pounds", and though produced and filmed in the United Stated is unconventional for an American movie. Apart from the incredibly talanted performance of Will Smith, the beautiful music, great direction (the same director who made the very beautiful movie "The Pursuit of Happiness" again with Will Smith as the lead actor), etc. the most important that makes this film stand out is the story.
It's a story about goodness, self-sacrifice for the sake of the well-being of others and love. And while I'm sure that the makers of this movie are perhaps completely unaware of it's Buddhist connotations, for me it touched on topics that I am very much emotionally or academicaly interested in...It's actually very closely connected in a way with the topic of my theses - bodily self-sacrifice in order to safe someone else's life...It's also a very unconventional gentle love story involving self-sacrifice. Me, being uncurably romantic and naive as I am, find such story moving, touching and "real".I don't wish to give out more of the plot because it is interesting to watch without knowing what is actually happening.
Highly recommend this film.
It's a film that is very human and thought provoking. The best kind.
The film is "Seven Pounds", and though produced and filmed in the United Stated is unconventional for an American movie. Apart from the incredibly talanted performance of Will Smith, the beautiful music, great direction (the same director who made the very beautiful movie "The Pursuit of Happiness" again with Will Smith as the lead actor), etc. the most important that makes this film stand out is the story.
It's a story about goodness, self-sacrifice for the sake of the well-being of others and love. And while I'm sure that the makers of this movie are perhaps completely unaware of it's Buddhist connotations, for me it touched on topics that I am very much emotionally or academicaly interested in...It's actually very closely connected in a way with the topic of my theses - bodily self-sacrifice in order to safe someone else's life...It's also a very unconventional gentle love story involving self-sacrifice. Me, being uncurably romantic and naive as I am, find such story moving, touching and "real".I don't wish to give out more of the plot because it is interesting to watch without knowing what is actually happening.
Highly recommend this film.
It's a film that is very human and thought provoking. The best kind.
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