| THE RIVERSIDE MUSEUM COLLECTION OF TIBETAN ART -- 2 Born in the glacial Himalayas, water -- as the holy rivers Brahmaputra, Indus and Sutlej -- eroded its way down as a pilgrim to India. Each river washed down sand impregnated with gold that exists universally distributed in the crystalline rocks of the main Tibetan upheaval. It is easily taken by the handfuls from natural hollows in steam beds where it collects. Later, in reverse, came spiritual gold traveling into Tibet, also as easy of access in cups of minds-stuff. The thick philosophy of Tantric Buddhism came from India to the high wind-torn plateaus of Tibet. The Tantras, which means literally salvation by "spreading" or teaching, contributed much to Lamaism. It is one of the deepest "systems" ever plumbed by man, and the land mass of Tibet is one of the densest lived upon. The rarefied thought and the subtleties of a cosmic wind permeates them both. There at great elevations, rock met stratified mentation. The consequence is what is called Tibetan culture. It is built completely upon these two: the geography of Tibet and Buddhist thought. Beneath all the complexities of Tibetan thought is laid sound. Above that, all the symbolic stone and fire of the earth. Its basic foundations are revealed in its art to help in our epoch of destruction. This is the Kali age, named after the destroying goddess. Flowing hot under pressure, molten stone allows the speaking of the basic oracles in the earth. A continent is heaving. Its height makes air gasp, pushing up. Inside, the gold is separated by soil-binding frosts. Outside, the pine forest is an outer blue. Mists and ice cover the pressures of building, rising. Inevitably out of the open crust come screaming hot geysers. Sometimes, in the intense cold air, these steaming eruptions of water immediately crystallize as columns of translucent ice. These point higher into immaculately clear skies. There all breath is. This is a geography that makes breathing come a certain way. It is built into the landscape, valley next to valley. From an ethnographic viewpoint, Tibetan culture has no borders that exist on maps. It crosses vast empty mountain slopes southward into Nepal, or wanders through the empty mists of Bhutan, Western China, or Mongolia. The wind (lung) blows the seed (bija) of the Tibetan views across a plateau of emptiness (sTong-pa) over a precipice into the void (mKha), to fertilize a neighboring area and grow homes for tutelary gods. The dividing lines necessarily fade, whispering away as its vibrations move from Central Tibet. Even real borders, such as the Bhutan 11,500 foot contour between the boundaries of the upland pine forests and lowland bamboo, are of a fuzzy sort. Tibet is vast by any measurement. Its high area and mountain walls are similar to its own diagram of the universe. On the south it is hemmed in by Mt. Everest and other peaks. On the north it is bound by more vast mountain ranges whose passes average three thousand feet higher than the Himalayan passes. It never narrows to a single range of mountains, but remains in multiples. Its northern lakes are like so many giants, being the highest in the world (Hospa Tso is at 17,930 feet) and among the largest (Kokonor is 1630 square miles). Remnants of glaciers at the head of the Brahmaputra look down, off to the river regions, to the south, east and west. The eastern mountains arrest the monsoon and it drops rain and snow on the southern slopes all year. The west is drier but colder. In the north unhindered winds whip across vast desolate solitudes, too cold for grain or trees. There is intense heat in the summer and intense cold in the winter. The most hospitable areas are in the southern and eastern valleys which contain the cities of Lhasa, Shigatse and Gyantse. Here there are groves of trees and good soil. It is well-irrigated and richly cultivated. The Tsang-po ("purifier") river valley is the great arterial valley of South Tibet. Most of Tibet's vegetation is stunted, but in these "hotlands" a warmer climate prevails and is more hospitable to barley, buckwheat, potatoes, and even to peaches, apples, apricots, and grapes. |
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 Aum Mani Padme Hum
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