The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 29 March 2021
by Jeff Greenwald
Surveys show that the number one activity for Americans who are traveling at home or abroad is shopping, a fact that this reader finds just plain sad. The world is a multilayered place full of wonders of beauty, engineering, culture, nature and amusement. Why travel to the far side of the planet just to spend that time shopping? On the other hand, what is traveling if you can't bring home one or two souvenirs? Some of us might like to bring home something a little more significant than a snow-globe. Some of us go searching for something with great authenticity. Perhaps an artwork, an antique, something of personal or spiritual meaning. Indeed, some vacations are more laden with symbolism than others. For Western travelers heading to Asia, particularly the Himalayas, there is often a spiritual component to the journey. Such a trip becomes part of one's searching for meaning in this crazy life on planet Earth. In that case, maybe we're searching for a touchstone, something we can turn to to recreate the meaning we felt on the trip, something we can meditate upon, something that transcends a mere trinket. In that case, maybe, on our trips to Nepal in the 1970s and 1980s, as with author Jeff Greenwald, we may be looking for just the right Buddha statue with which to return home.
Thus we have Greenwald's discovery and adventures in and around Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. The book was first published in the early 1990s, and much has happened in the Nepalese cultural and political landscape since then. Thus, we have a 25th-anniversary edition brought out by Travelers' Tales Books, in which Greenwald updates some of his text and adds an introduction and postscript to bring us up to date. The author is extensively traveled in the Himalayas, and this book is just a chapter of his sprawling experiences. We sense that by some of the side adventures and implications of longer sojourns in the region, months spent living in Nepal and trips into Tibet. But the book distills his fascination with the Buddha, and with obtaining an authentic and skilled work of art depicting the seated Buddha exhibiting the mudra hand gesture of calling the Earth to witness.
Now, of course, there is much money to be made in selling Buddhas to eager tourists. Greenwald is determined to find something of real beauty and value. Millions of Buddha statuettes are sold. There are Buddha snow-globes, and there are ancient Buddha antiques being stolen and smuggled out of the country (so many that it is hard to believe any are left). Greenwald is sensitive to the cultural appropriation, the cultural theft by wealthy travelers insensitive to a country's heritage. He seeks out a newly-crafted, but skilled beauty. It might be no surprise that he finds it. But that isn't entirely the end of the story. Nepal is a nation given to periods of chaos on top of the appealing tumult of its native culture. The king himself plays a role in the story, along with the decaying remnants of an unfortunate crow. The book is an adventure. The writing is quick and engaging. Greenwald is sensitive to the people and places he encounters. It is the kind of travel from which we can all learn. This anniversary printing is highly recommended.
See also:[Travelers' Tales Guides: Nepal] [Video Night in Kathmandu by Pico Iyer]