Shambala

Lost Horizon was partly based on the idea of Shambala, which is an ancient traditional Tibetan Buddhist concept associated with Kalachakra Tantra. It refers to a Buddhist pure land. It has analogues in the Hindu and Bön religions as well, and various traditions speak to its actual location as a hidden kingdom.

The term Shambala has also found its way to Western culture, and I grew up more familiar with the term 'Shambala' than with 'Shangri-La'. This is mostly because of my Three Dog Night phase. While all the other kids were into Linkin Park and Evanescence, I was listening to:

"I can tell my sister by the flowers in her eyes
On the road to Shambala


I can tell my brother by the flowers in his eyes
On the road to Shambala


How does your light shine, in the halls of Shambala?"

Also: "Play something sweet/ play something funky/ Just let me lay back/ and  grin like a monkey"
Now that's good songwriting.

Some traditions refer to Shambala as a metaphorical destination in the journey to enlightenment. Quoth the Dalai Lama:


"Although those with special affiliation may actually be able to go there through their karmic connection, nevertheless it is not a physical place that we can actually find. We can only say that it is a pure land, a pure land in the human realm. And unless one has the merit and the actual karmic association, one cannot actually arrive there."

Shangri-La II

The name Shangri-La first appeared in the novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton. The popularity of the term Shangri-La today is a testament to both the pull of this concept on the Western psyche and to the tremendous popularity of the novel in its day, which also lead to a 1937 film directed by Frank Capra.

The book is public domain and thus freely available on the Internet. Because it was written during a time when there was an overwhelming fascination in the West with the forbidden and mysterious Himalayan kingdoms, I was not surprised to find that the book speaks a lot more to Western cultural values than to Tibetan ones. But I was surprised to find that I enjoyed the book quite a bit.

Two British government officials, a missionary and a mysterious oil-prospecting American are being evacuated from Baskul after an uprising against the British. Their plane is hijacked and flown over the Himalayas, and crashes somewhere in the mountain ranges of Tibet. They find themselves in Shangri-La, an idyllic isolated valley ruled over by a benevolent lamasery. The lamasery is rich and mysteriously equipped with modern amenities like central heating and a modern library and there are rumors that the atmosphere of the valley allows people to live extraordinarily long life spans. There are also several European monks, including one who claims to have been a former student of Chopin. Without giving away too many of the plot twists, I can tell you that reading it felt like watching a combination of the first and last seasons of Lost. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I seriously doubt that the writers of Lost were unaware of the plot of Lost Horizon. 

Lost Horizon: Like Lost, except much, much more British.

Also, more classy mustaches.

I would like to reveal one major plot twist, though, because it gets at the root of the term Shangri-La in our cultures and the particular nature in which the term represents the interaction between the West and the East. Conway, the highly intelligent and world-weary British protagonist, is eventually given an audience with the High Lama. In this meeting, it is revealed that the current monastery was founded three hundred years previously by a Roman Catholic friar who had been doing missionary work in Beijing. Over the course of a long life in the valley, the friar became enlightened and developed a particular fusion of Buddhism and Christianity by which he came to be regarded as an authority and demi-god by the Tibetan villagers living below. He also came across the method by which people in the valley live long life spans. Significantly, the lama notes that the anti-aging method works better on Europeans than on the native Tibetans. Sensing a coming world cataclysm (that would be WWII - good call, Hilton), he developed Shangri-La as a refuge of Western and Eastern knowledge and understanding, to preserve the pearls of human understanding against the coming onslaught. It is revealed that the High Lama is in fact the still-living friar, and that Conway has been chosen to be the new Jacob.

Here are some relevant quotes from the novel:

"And there came over him, too, as he stared at that superb mountain, a glow of satisfaction that there were such places still left on earth, distant, inaccessible, as yet unhumanized."

"It was, indeed, a strange and half-incredible sight. A group of colored pavilions clung to the mountainside with none of the grim deliberation of a Rhineland castle, but rather with the chance delicacy of flower petals impaled upon a crag. It was superb and exquisite. An austere emotion carried the eye upward from milk-blue roofs to the gray rock bastion above, tremendous as the Wetterhorn above Grindelwald. Beyond that, in a dazzling pyramid, soared the snow slopes of Karakal."

"Shangri-La was lovely then, touched with the mystery that lies at the core of all loveliness."

"'This ain't a bad place, when you get used to it. The air's a bit snappy at first, but you can't have everything. And it's nice and quiet for a change. Every fall I go down to Palm Beach for a rest cure, but they don't give you it, those places--you're in the racket just the same. But here I guess I'm having just what the doctor ordered, and it certainly feels grand to me. I'm on a different diet, I can't look at the tape, and my broker can't get me on the telephone.'" (This is the American talking, if you couldn't tell)

"'Te Deum Laudamus' and 'Om Mane Padme Hum' were now heard equally in the temples of the valley.'"

"There was a reek of dissolution over all that recollected world... The whole game was doubtless going to pieces... But here, at Shangri-La, all was in deep calm. In a moonless sky the stars were lit to the full, and a pale blue sheen lay upon the dome of Karakal."

"'Here we shall stay with our books and our music and our meditations, conserving the frail elegancies of a dying age, and seeking such wisdom as men will need when their passions are all spent. We have a heritage to cherish and bequeath.'"


Shangri-La has never been about Tibet. Right from the get-go it was about big city folk needing an escape from the maddening business and politics of their own world, to be found in an isolated paradise of wisdom and simple living. And even today that is exactly what Shangri-La represents: the ultimate vacation spot. That is why the word is seen on posters in Kathmandu that advertise cheap flights to Mustang or Tibet or Bhutan, the proclaimed last vestiges of uncommercialized, mystic, traditional perfection.

Shangri-La I

The shrine has "Love is Life" written on four corners in English, Nepali, German and Spanish -  my four languages 

This is Shangri-La International School, a private school in my village. It was started by a German aid organization and has a full Nepali staff. It is connected to the Shangri-La Orphanage, which is practically next door to the school in which I taught. Occasionally German volunteers live in Boharatar and work in the school or the orphanage. The village is isolated enough from the main roads of the valley that I was often mistaken for a German volunteer. Shangri-la School provided building materials to our school, and scholarships to many of the poor students in the area. I've played at their soccer field (recently sold for crop land) and ping pong tables. The Shangri-La students I met were generally more proficient in English because Shangri-La is English medium and the teachers are trained by European professionals. The volunteers I've met were dedicated and concerned that their 4-month stints making projects for the school should be sustainable.

This is Hotel Shangri-La, one of the nicest hotels in Kathmandu. The back face is only a stone's throw away from my apartment in Lazimpat. Fulbright has had receptions there, and I have played the grand piano in their lobby a few evenings. The former crown prince Dipendra, before he allegedly murdered most of the royal family because of their refusal to accept his choice of bride, was rumored to have illicit rendezvous at this hotel as it is a short walk from the Royal Palace. There is a large casino in the hotel, which is open 24 hours a day and caters mainly to Chinese businessmen and Indian tourists. They serve free drinks and food to gamblers, including something called a 'chicken popsicle' (which is much tastier than it sounds). There are few Nepalis in any of the casinos in Nepal because gambling halls are illegal for Nepali citizens, although they are open to tourists. 

In 2001, the name of Zhongdian County in the Yunnan Province of Southwest China was changed to "Shangri-la" in order to promote tourism in the area. 

One year later, The Washington Times* interviewed Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, one of the leaders of the Maoist insurgency that was sweeping the country:

"What motivated you to start the armed uprising in a country so tranquil the world knew it as a Shangri-la?"

His response:

"The so-called Shangri-la has merely been a misnomer, where the oppressed and exploited majority have meekly tolerated the inhuman brutality and violence of a handful of kings and priests for ages. You would surely agree that the silence of the graveyard is not peace and tranquility. It is now high time that this age-old violence and terror against the toiling majority be ended and a real 'Shangri-la' be created in the lap of the mighty Himalaya."

The name Shangri-La evokes the picture of an unspoiled paradise, a peaceful mountain utopia. It is not surprising that the name bedecks the posters of countless travel agencies and the signs of countless hotels and restaurants in the touristy areas of Nepal, despite the fact that the idea of Shangri-la is vaguely thought of as a Tibetan phenomenon.

Shangri-La is not an inherently native concept, neither in Nepal nor in Tibet. Business-savvy Nepalis know the term because it makes foreigners go all dewy-eyed. The Chinese renamed a whole county so that they could cash in. Even the Shangri-Las that have grown deep roots in Nepal have a distinct element of outsider ownership: Foreigners but not Nepalis can gamble at Hotel Shangri-La. Shangri-La International School was started and is funded through a European organization (though the current director and staff are Nepali). According to The Washington Times, "the world" knew Nepal as a Shangri-La. Still, it is a pretty word and a nice idea, and the appeal is powerful.

The word Shangri-La is vaguely Tibetan; I'm told '-la' means a mountain pass. But the name itself was created by an English writer in 1933. Shangri-La is a fictional utopia depicted in the incredibly successful novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton.

Next time: a book review, the connection between gospel rock and the Dalai Lama, and more scattershot rantings from yours truly.

* "Maoists Seek a Democratic Nepal: Interview with Baburam Bhattarai" - email interview by Chitra Tiwari in The Washington Times 14 December 2002

Chinese Well-Known Trademark Playing Cards

Texting and Endangered Languages

A cool article referred to me by a couple of friends:

Teenagers Revive Dead Languages Through Texting

Samuel Herrera of The Institute of Anthropological Research in Mexico City talks about teenagers who are texting each other in endangered languages. Textspeak and 1337 are common examples of how language technology can act as a code for in-group identification; people are picking up these languages for that purpose. Some linguists are excited because it suggests that these languages might be picked up by enthusiastic young speakers, who are the ones who hold in their hands the fate of these dying languages.

Reading the article reminded me of texting in Nepal. From what I've seen in Nepal there is a lot of code-switching between Nepali and English, which also acts a shibboleth. There are numerous examples of English-Nepali (and my attempts to keep up) on my Facebook wall. Nepali is by necessity written with a Roman script. The Nepali version of "What's up?" is "के छ ?" - "ke chha?"('What is?') But in text messages this is often written:

"k 6?"

Why does '6' represent the word 'chha'? These are the Devanagari numbers 1 to 9:


  १          २          ३          ४           ५          ६          ७          ८          ९
ek             dui           tin           char         páach        chha         saaT        aaTh          nau


Notice that the Nepali word for 6 is 'chha.' The word for 'six' is a homonym for 'to be' (third person singular). Also, the Devanagari character is almost the same: ६. When written as a word, the character has a bar across the top (छ). In other words, 'chha' means both 'six' and 'is.' So the Arabic numeral (6) stands in for the Devanagari numeral (६), which stands in for the Devanagari word (छ).


I thought that was a particularly clever example of cross-cultural 1337speak. People who say that teenagers are dumb generally do not spend very much time around them. Although this is pretty cool, I'll get really excited when teenagers start texting each other in Chintang or Raj or any of the other endangered languages here.

Describing Heaven to the Ruler of the Sky

English:

     Don't judge a book by its cover.

     The early bird gets the worm.

     The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Nepali:

     अफू तक्छु मूडो, बन्चरो ताक्छ घुँो ।
     aphu takchhu muDo, bancharo takchha ghunDo
     I aim for the log, but the ax aims for my knee.

     धन देखदा महादेवको पनी तिन नेत्र ।

     dhan dhekda mahadevko pani tin netra

     Seeing wealth, even God opens three eyes.

     आकाशको फल आँख तरी मर

     aakasko phal ankha tari mara

     The eyes die staring at the fruit in the sky.

Tamang:

     न्हि बिसाम छामे थोबोरी बिसाम रा मे ।

     nhi bisaam chaame thobori bisaam ra me

     The woman is beautiful but her head is full of lice.

     आमा आबाला माया जामे काला रि जामे ओला रि मन युम्बा फिरी ।

     aamaa aabaalaa maayaa jaame kaalaa ri jaame olaa ri man yumbaa phiri

     Parents give their love to their children; children give their hearts to a stone.

     बिझी बिबाराम्बा अनुहार च्याजि सिबाराम्बा ।
     bijhi bibaaraambaa anuhaar chyaaji sibaraambaa
     Head held high when speaking; head held low when doing.

     

Newari:     

     ज्या ढासा आता आता आता नह ढासा बाटा बाटा ।

     jya dhasa ata ata nahu dhasa bata bata

     At work time people step back, back; at meal time people step forward, forward.

     वा मरु व्याची लै नेमा ।

     wa maru byachi lai nema

     The toothless frog wants a radish.

     आलु वे हु ढासा भान्ता वे वनी भान्ता वे हु ढासा आलु वे वनी

     alu be hu dhasa bhanta be wani bhanta be hu dhasa alu be wari   

     At the potato harvest he goes to the eggplant fields; at the eggplant harvest he goes to the potato fields.

I did a lesson on proverbs for my eighth grade class about a month ago. The first day I presented some common English sayings on cards and had a separate set of cards with corresponding figurative meanings. In groups, students had to match the sayings to their meanings.

The second day students had to bring back cards with a saying in their own language, like in the picture above. I told them to ask their parents to help with this little mini-project, and to use languages other than Nepali if they could. The next day I received 21 cards with a total of 28 distinct sayings. Twenty were in Nepali, four were in Newari, and four were in Tamang. We spent the next class period working on English translations of the sayings.

     एक थुकी सुकि सय थुकी नादी ।

     ek thuki suki say thuki nadi

     Spit once and it dries; spit many times and it makes a river. (Nepali)

Unfortunately, "translation" can mean different things in this context. Some students wrote their best literal English translation of the sayings (like in the picture). This was very difficult for many in the class, and they instead wrote down the figurative meaning of their sayings on the back of the card in Nepali. The Newari and Tamang speakers mostly translated their cards from their own language into Nepali, but some of them wrote only the figurative meanings and left the literal meaning untranslated. It took quite some time to sort out the mess.

Also, I noticed that a surprising number of students wrote down the same few Nepali expressions. They had discovered a novel way to cheat: their 8th grade Nepali textbook had a list of sayings in the back of that they simply copied. Meanwhile, all four of the Newari speakers copied down Nepali expressions from the book and then made their own word-for-word translations into Newari (the three Newari  sayings at top were contributed by a teacher at my school). It seems like they take great lengths to avoid bringing their work home, but I can't fault students for their ingenuity.

     चोक्त खान गाएको बवडी झोलमा डुबेर मरी ।

     chokta khaane gaaeko buDi jholmaa dubera mari

     In search of the meat, the old woman drowns in the soup. (Nepali)

Why am I deliberately confusing my students by bringing in other languages into the English classroom? Because these are the native languages of the students, the languages with which the fullest expression of their minds bears fruit. These are the languages of their home life, their culture, and their society, and the majority of these languages are criminally undervalued. English conversational competency is the goal, and so English is the primary medium of instruction and direct translation is kept to a minimum. But with these sorts of projects the students have an opportunity to share their own culture in the classroom, which makes the classes much more interesting.

For example, there is a 7th grade English reading passage on the spread of the Indo-European languages and how languages such as Nepali and English are related. Before I taught it, the passage struck me as absurdly beyond the reach of many of the students. Yet it was probably the lesson in which I saw the students most engaged. This was partly because as a student of linguistics this is a topic of great interest to me, and so I was very careful to explain the concept to my students in simple terms (brother/sister languages, parent languages) and to come up with examples of similarity that are catching to the eye:


English:     My          name           is         Luke.
German:    Mein       Name          ist         Luke.
(Germanic)

Spanish:   Mi          nombre        es          Luke. 
French:     Mon       nom             est         Luke.
(Italic)


Hindi:      Mera       naam           Luke      hai.
Nepali:    Mero       naam           Luke      ho.
(Indic)

Then we played games where students had to recognize numbers in over a dozen languages, and we talked about these same words in Newari and Tamang, and how these languages are not Indo-European, but are related to each other (and to Chinese).

      बाँदरलाई लिस्नो
      baandarlaai lisno
      Like giving a ladder to a monkey (Nepali)

I've mentioned before that about two-thirds of my students are ethnically Tamang, a few are Newari, and the rest are Nepali-speaking Brahmin-Chhettris. So why did so few of the students write down expressions in Tamang? Well, many students copied the Nepali expressions from the book, or from each other. Many of the Nepali-speaking students wrote down four or five expressions on their card, while Tamang and Newari expressions generally came one to a card.

But I would guess that even by 8th grade students are not very used to speaking Tamang in the school setting. The school is English medium, and the teachers generally speak Nepali to the students out of class. Most of the teachers know some basic Tamang, but none could answer my questions about the meanings on the cards (I had to talk to students for that, which means that the Tamang expressions are much sketchier translations - in fact, I've probably I've made a few mistakes in all three languages). Tamang, unlike Nepali and even Newari, is not stereotypically known as a language of learning and civilization. It is the language of a historically oppressed Buddhist hill tribe. That is one reason I wanted to hear it more in the classroom.

If you dig deep you can find interesting comparisons to discuss. In all four languages, we find rhymes, we find parallel structure, and we find cross-lingual similarities in meaning. I had a lot of fun trying to think of similar English sayings to share with the students.

     जस्को शक्ति उसको भक्ति ।

     jasko shakti usko bhakti

     Who has power, he is worshipped. (Nepali)

... is similar to...

     Might makes right.

     इन्द्रका अगाडी स्वर्गको बयान ।

     indraka agodi swargako bayan
     Describing Heaven to the Ruler of the Sky (Nepali)

... is similar to...

     Preaching to the choir

In a country in which less than 50% of the population speaks the national language as a mother tongue, schools must take the languages of their students into account. Most classrooms in Nepal are like my classroom, with students speaking several languages side-by-side. We can look at this as an institutional impediment to understanding or we can look at it as an opportunity for educational enrichment.

Articles in NELTA Choutari Magazine

An article of mine appeared in the July issue of NELTA Choutari Online Magazine along with an article written by my good friend and fellow English Teaching Assistant Kent. This is the discussion forum for NELTA (Nepal English Language Teacher's Association). 

So Many Textbooks, So Little Time - Kent Grosh 

Speaking a Foreign Language Makes You Less Intelligent - Luke Lindemann

Kent's article addresses the important issue of inappropriate supplementary English textbooks that are adopted by schools to complement the government textbooks. 

My article contains one or two of the same points as my blog post of the same name, but it is an expanded general summary of my ideas about the Nepali educational system and the issue of medium of instruction. I'd would love it if people would read and comment on the website - heap praise, add stories, provide criticism and counter-examples, revile and abuse, whatever. 

Graffiti Art II

[Part 1 is here]

"COOL AS ICE"

Creepy Laughing Babies framed by "White Mischief" Vodka near Pulchowk

"WE MAKE THE NATION"

This is in front of the Himalayan Hotel, where the Maoist slogan mentioned here first appeared

North of Ratna Park