Eliot Pattison - Water Touching Stone

Sophie was grazing on the bank of the road, where Marco lay basking in the sun. As Shan sat, the Eluosi studied him as if measuring him for something. "I'll buy you a coat in Alaska. One of those big fur coats, for the winter that Russia sends there. And a fur cap. A ushanka. You'll look like a little bear. Johnny Bear." He smiled, the first smile Shan had seen since the terrible night on the parapet, and a new thought seemed to light Marco's eyes. "We'll build a sweat lodge in the winter. Take off your clothes and get heated like the desert. Then we run out and roll in the snow. Bare Johnny." Marco laughed a small laugh, then paused with a surprised expression, as if he had not expected to ever laugh again, and the laugh erupted once more, until he was holding his belly, and Shan laughed, and laughed some more, and marveled at it, a laugh of a kind he had not felt in years. And with it came a realization of why. Because to Shan Marco was not a teacher, not a prisoner, not a student, not a warrior. Marco was only a friend.

Shan watched as Jowa, his eyes burning with a brightness Shan had never before seen in them, threw a ball with Deacon and the boy lama. Sophie nuzzled his ear and Marco spoke again of the cabin he would build. A butterfly passed by and Shan turned to see Jowa pointing it out to the boy.

The sound of a struggling engine reached his ears and a moment later a decrepit vehicle came into view, a decades-old cargo truck. Its rear bay, covered with a soiled, torn canvas, was nearly filled with crates of chickens. Lokesh laughed as the Maos helped him on board, into a space between the crates.

Shan could not take his eyes off the old man, going alone into the inhospitable Himalayas. He realized suddenly that he was standing, and his hands were trembling. He felt his mouth open and shut, but no words came.

At his side he heard Marco sigh heavily and saw him rise to work on Sophie's saddle, where their bags were tied. "On the other hand," Marco boomed out, as if for dramatic effect, "it can rain for weeks in Alaska. Hard place, if you're used to looking at the sky." Something landed at Shan's feet. His bag.

Lokesh was settling into the truck. Chickens were squawking irritably and fluttering in their crates. The Maos were waving at the old Tibetan, fond smiles on their faces. The engine sputtered back to life in a cloud of smoke and with a groan the truck began to climb the mountain again.

Shan looked into the Eluosi's eyes. "It's a lot of chickens for one man," Marco said in a grave tone, and something seemed to catch in his throat. He grabbed Shan's hand and clasped it hard for a moment, then handed him his bag. Shan only nodded, then took a small step, and another, then began to run. As he jumped on the bumper of the moving truck, his shoulder swung back, pulled by the weight of his bag. Then, just as Shan was losing his balance, a thin hand, spotted with age, reached out and pulled him inside.

While the characters and most of the places in this book are fictional, the struggle of the Tibetan, Kazakh, and Uighur people to maintain their culture and identity is very real. Many elements of this story are distilled from actual events in that fifty-year struggle, and from the rich and fascinating heritage of the Silk Road. The sands of the Taklamakan desert do indeed sometimes part to reveal ruins of lost Silk Road cities and tombs, and dedicated archaeologists from many nations do indeed work among the ruins, and do find ancient mummies and textiles, despite the political storms which rage around their work. Genetic research in the region and even scholarly assessment of scraps of cloth have attracted such political controversy that the simplest quest for knowledge in those distant quarters can be an act of heroism. And sadly, in Tibet the government of modern China has repeatedly interjected itself in the identification of reincarnate lamas.

For those readers who wish to learn more, many excellent sources are available, and deserve recommendation. Perhaps the most comprehensive works describing the Tibetan experience are John Avedon's In Exile from the Land of the Snows, and The Dragon in the Land of the Snows by Tsering Shakya. The many excellent first hand accounts by or about Tibetan survivors include A Strange Liberation: Tibetan Lives in Chinese Hands, by David Patt, Ama Adhe: The Voice that Remembers, by Adhe Tapontsang and Joy Blakeslee, Palden Gyatso's Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk, and In the Presence of my Enemies, by Sumner Carnahan. The details of the most public of Beijing's interventions in the selection of Tibetan reincarnations are set forth in Isabel Hilton's important work The Search for the Panchen Lama.

The fascinating horse-based culture of the Kazakh people is well described in Kazakh Traditions of China, by Awelkhan Hali, Zenxiang Li, and Karl W. Luckert, and China's Last Nomads, by Linda Benson and Ingvar Svanberg. Elizabeth Wayland Barber captures the remarkable archaeological discoveries being made in the Taklamakan in her The Mummies of Urumchi, which are explored even more comprehensively in The Tarim Mummies by J.P. Mallory and Victor H. Mair. Lastly, for any readers inclined to learn more about the world of cricket singers, Lisa Gail Ryan's Insect Musicians and Cricket Champions provides a lyrical introduction.

Glossary of Foreign Language Terms

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

Aksai Chin. A border region located where the Kunlun Mountains meet the Karakorum range, in the far southeast of Xinjiang, on Tibet's far northwestern border. Ownership of Aksai Chin is disputed between India and China, although it is occupied by the Chinese.

ani. Tibetan. A Buddhist nun.

ashamai. Turkic. A special soft saddle traditionally presented to Kazakh children when they reach the age of five, the age at which they typically stopped riding with their parents and began riding alone.

bumpa. Tibetan. A treasure vase, or ceremonial water pot, used in Buddhist ritual.

besik zhyry. Turkic. A cradle song.

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

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

dombra. Turkic. A two stringed lute-like instrument.

dopa. Turkic. A round brimless cap often worn by devout Muslims.

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."

dorje bell. Tibetan. A bell with a dorje handle.

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

Eluosi. Mandarin. A Russian, used to describe the Russian emigres who live in Xinjiang.

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

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

jinni. Turkic. A type of evil spirit.

karaburan. Turkic. A sand storm, specifically used for the "black hurricanes" that plague the Taklamakan desert.

karez. Turkic. The underground water system, consisting of tunnels, cisterns, and access shafts, which uses gravity to transport water from mountain springs to distant farms and communities. Some elements of the karez system in Xinjiang date back two thousand years.

khampa. Tibetan. A native of the Kham region of what was traditionally eastern Tibet.

khata. Tibetan. A prayer scarf, traditionally of white silk or cotton, often offered to a lama at the end of a ritual.

Kharoshthi. A language of Aramaic origin dating to the fifth century B.C., which was commonly used on the early Silk Road.

khez khuwar. Turkic. A Kazakh riding game, traditionally played between girls on one side and boys on the other.