Histories can be two-dimensional; these contain information strung along timelines. Other histories are three-dimensional; fleshing the basics out with descriptions and explanations. And then there are the four-dimensional histories; best savored slowly. ‘Pioneers; Prisoners; and Peace Pipes’ falls in this last category. John L. Moore’s four-dimensional tales draws the reader into a world long gone in such a way that the reader gets lost in a distant place – with no desire to leave. This master story teller has discovered hidden eddies of history. He artfully weaves original source material into accounts that still touch the heart. There is the couple coming home to find their children kidnapped and their home ransacked … There is a husband searching for a lost wife; and – years later – finding and being reunited with her. There is a 16-year old man/boy lost in a military adventure; captured by the enemy; and spilling all he knows during polite but businesslike interrogations. The settings are all over Pennsylvania; the times are the late 1700s. All true stories. And if these stories all seem weirdly contemporary; it’s simply because people have always been – people. Readers will have their favorites in this collection of 11 true American historical vignettes. Among mine: ‘Boy soldier nearly starves in the woods’ … This tale starts; “Michael La Chauvignerie was a 16-year-old French soldier who left his home in Canada during the summer of 1756; bound for the Ohio Country. Michael didn’t know it as he left Montreal and sailed up the St. Lawrence River; but he had embarked on the first leg of a prolonged and complicated adventure that would take him to Philadelphia and; ultimately; to the Caribbean Sea.†Maybe you could stop reading at this point – but I had to continue. And rest of La Chauvignerie’s true story delivers! Elsewhere in “Pioneers; Prisoners; and Peace Pipes†the words of chastened but wise Ackowanothie ring true today; almost 250 years after they were uttered: “Your nation always showed an eagerness to settle our lands. Cunning as they were; they always encouraged a number of poor people to settle upon our lands. We protested against it several times; but without any redress or help. We pitied the poor people; we did not care to make use of force; and indeed some of those people were very good people; and as hospitable as we Indians … but after all we lost our hunting ground; for where one of those people settled; like pigeons; a thousand more would settle; so that we at last offered to sell it … and so it went on ‘til we at last jumped over (the) Allegheny hills and settled on the waters of Ohio. Here we thought ourselves happy.†Poor deluded Delawares! Good history; in my opinion; makes one think. And think. And think. It also makes one feel. And emotion is the secret of “Pioneers; Prisoners and Peace Pipes.†Moore brings one face to face not just with facts (as important as they are); but with a larger and richer four-dimensional reality infused with feelings. He gently reminds us that humans without emotions have never existed; and that history without that dimension is not history; but simply a cheap cardboard imitation. “Pioneers; Prisoners and Peace Pipes†is four-dimensional work crafted with love. Enjoy it! Thomas J. Brucia is a bibliophile who lives in Houston; Texas. His favorite subjects include European and Asian history. Many of his reviews appear on Amazon.com
#1362578 in Books 2013-03-19 2013-03-19Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 7.50 x .80 x 6.50l; .94 #File Name: 1614290555192 pagesShips from Vermont
Review
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. fine translation of a Tibetan travelogue (lam-yig) from 1539By inner exileGiven the brevity and scope of this work bearing the short title "Celebration of the Cuckoo" (dPyid-kyi rgyal-mo'i dga'-ston); Cyrus Stearns latest book is less ambitious than his previous tome about King of the Empty Plain: The Tibetan Iron-Bridge Builder Tangtong Gyalpo. The present one is a praiseworthy undertaking; nonetheless; that has come to completion thanks to the crucial guidance of Dezhung Rinpoché; Chogyé Trichen Rinpoché; and Khenpo (abbot) Gyatso (Dehradun; India); and also because until very recently (2006) this autobiographical piece by Tsarchen Losal Gyatso - believed by some to be the embodiment of mahásiddha Virúpa; ?837-909?; p. 155 - had been available only in its extracted form from the Great Fifth Dalai Lama's biography of said Sakya tantric master (not of the mad adept/drubnyön mould; as far as I can tell) who was trained in the Shangpa Kagyü and Nyingma traditions as well.We can retrace the steps - or more precisely hoofprints since he rode mostly on horseback to spare his ailing legs - of his third journey to Ãœ; starting from his seat at Tupten Gepel (south of Sakya) and arriving in the vicinity of Rinpung; close to the south bank of the river Tsangpo/Brahmaputra. En route he and his fellow mendicants visited key centers of learning (Jonang; Bodong; Ngor Ewam; Shalu; etc.); sacred sites; some of whose glory had eclipsed by then; and politico-strategically important forts and castles (Panam; Nakartsé; Gyantsé).As was common for monks of his standing; we find Tsarchen at the bestowing and receiving end of various teachings/transmissions; occasionally having ecstatic visionary experience of the wrathful manifestation of Vajrayoginà (Náro KhecarÃ) or those of dharma protectors like Takshön ("Mounted on Tiger"); et al.While going through the prose parts that are followed by poems recapturing and embellishing their gist; the reader can come across:a) evocative description of the landscape: "All the rivers and streams were fully swollen; like a sea of sapphires suddenly welling up; beautiful with garlands of waves whose white foamy smiles laughed in a hundred directions" (p. 31);b) admonition to the devout: "Small-minded persons; who accept as true the baseless gossip people speak at crossroads; risk revealing their own and many other people's faults; with a song of groundless; nervous alarm" (p. 69);c) advice to fellow pilgrims: "(a lay chieftain clever in trivial matters [i.e.; parsimonious district officers and secular governors]) is of no use except as a pack ram's leather bag that dashes a fox's daylong hopes" (p. 87). To appraise the sharpness of this observation; Khenpo Gyatso comes to our aid: "[A] fox might see from far away that a leather bag has fallen from the back of a ram that is carrying provisions for a band of nomads...That night he sneaks to where the bag has been dropped but finds that it is just full of salt; and his daylong hope of something to eat is destroyed" (p. 145).Much to the delight of those who can read Tibetan; the original text is given in dbu-can script on the left-hand pages. Both the introduction and the translation themselves come with scholarly endnotes (pp. 17-21; 124-55) of the religio-cultural/historical kind; while 20 highly relevant; bw photos decorate the corpus; in addition to having the same map on the inside cover as well as on pp. 22-3; bibliography (157-62); index (163-73); + xvii (preface).Addendum:In connection with the reportedly 120-feet-tall (!) Maitreya statue at the Tropu (Khro-phu) monastery (p. 59; 134); it's worth to note there was another giant gilt copper image of the same future Buddha housed in the aptly named monastic complex of Great Maitreya in Rong (Rong Byams-chen - also called Byams-gling - chos-sde; of which a cursory mention is made on p. 153); a mile or so south to Rinpung ("Heap of Preciousness").It was completed and consecrated in 1474; possibly under the supervision of the second abbot Kun-dga' bKra'-shis-ba and his patrons; Nor-bzang (1403 - died b/w 1467 and '71) and his eldest son alive; Kun-bzang of the House of Rin-spungs (see fol. 4a/131.1-3 in Yar-lungs-pa's "Rinpung Genealogy" referenced in the bibliography on p. 161; and pp. 623.21-624.2 in "Chos-'byung dPag-bsam lJon bzang" (1748 - "Wish-Granting Tree. A Religious History") by Sum-pa Ye-shes dpal-'byor (Kan-su'u Mi-rigs dPe-skrun-khang 1992).Estimates for the height of this gilt copper (gser-zangs) statue greatly differ: at the bottom end a three-storey mgon-khang (endnote 247 in THE GEOGRAPHY OF TIBET ACCORDING TO THE 'DZAM-GLING-RGYAS-BSHAD translated and annotated by T. V. Wylie; Rome 1962) is said to have contained a Maitreya 10 metres in height (Victor Chan Tibet Handbook (Moon Travel Guide) p. 845; Gyurme Dorje Footprint Tibet Handbook : The Travel Guide p. 252); whereas at the top end its parameters of 75 khru (~ cubit?) x 145 mtho (~ span?) found in "Vaidurya ser-po" (Yellow Beryl) correspond in Wylie's reckoning to 112.5 and 72.5 feet; respectively (ibid.).The monastery soon became a local hub for clerical education with four Sa-skya-pa colleges (under the names of sTeng-rgyas; dPal-'byor-sgang; Shar-chen and lDum-ra-sdings); two affiliated with the Bo-dong bKa'-brgyud-pa-s (Nor-bu-gling and Chen-khang); and a dGe-lugs-pa one called bDe-chen.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. ... to publish something of his extensive research on this great master Tsarchen Losal GyatsoBy CustomerI have been waiting years for Cyrus Stearns to publish something of his extensive research on this great master Tsarchen Losal Gyatso; but I had no idea of the beauty of Tsarchen's own writings. The poems are meditations in themselves. Please; Cyrus; finish translating and publish the Tsarchen biography by the Fifth Dalai Lama so we here in the west can benefit from this enlightened being's example. - Kunga Dekyi0 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Song of the Road a different kind of movieBy white tigerI enjoyed the movie which had me thinking about mans narrow perspective on life. The in your face materialism of the western worldis mimicked throughout the movie. A movie worth viewing as thought provoking.
