The Snow Leopard: Peter Matthiessen

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Chapter 20: Corporate Business and the Conservation of the Snow Leopard: Worlds That Need Not Collide Subchapter 16.3: Hunting of Prey Species: A Review of Lessons, Successes, and Pitfalls – Experiences from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan Besides the excitement of actually finding this evasive animal, the book contains descriptions of the color and markings of its coat, the number of miles it travels, and the way it hunts.

Genesis: how the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program and the Snow Leopard Initiative were formed A masterpiece of travel and nature writing that gloriously transcends both genres. This is one of the best books I've ever read in the English language. Yes, that's right. I'm including a quote at the end of this review so you can see what I'm talking about. When you get to that quote, try reading it aloud. The beauty of those words spoken will break your heart. The 'Snow Leopard' is a metaphor. The author never sees the animal, as much as he tries. But is continually aware of its near presence. From fresh marks on snow. From scat. From the movements of Blue Sheep. A massive old growth tree fell in Redwoods National Forest not a hundred feet from our tent, a victim of the worst drought in anyone's memory. The exposed roots were sadly dusty. Park workers told of the loss of many such trees. What the hell were we doing there, while the landscape and the people there were suffering?! What kind of self-indulgence had traveling become as the planet was dying before our very eyes? Was this just a naïve (and selfish) “vacation” on our part, to think we could just enjoy nature and somehow pretend for a time that we as a race were not in the process of contributing to this devastation? Maybe. Maybe we should have taken the trip money and contributed it to environmental organizations?

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Down in the valley the soldiers came, in search of gold and slaves. They came with fire and fear, and the villagers fled. Subchapter 16.2: Argali Sheep (Ovis ammon) and Siberian Ibex (Capra sibirica) Trophy Hunting in Mongolia This is the account of a journey to the dazzling Tibetan plateau of Dolpo in the high Himalayas. In 1973 Matthiessen made the 250-mile trek to Dolpo, as part of an expedition to study wild blue sheep. It was an arduous, sometimes dangerous, physical endeavour: exertion, blisters, blizzards, endless negotiations with sherpas, quaking cold. But it was also a 'journey of the heart' - amongst the beauty and indifference of the mountains Matthiessen was searching for solace. He was also searching for a glimpse of a snow leopard, a creature so rarely spotted as to be almost mythical.

Despite a few more forays into the spiritual journey, the expedition and scientific research parts of the book are much more heavily featured in the following chapters. A masterpiece that exceeds the boundaries of the travel genre and envelops you with its incredible prose.” — Wall Street Journal

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He comments on the degradation of the environment that he sees - trees felled for firewood causing soil erosion for instance and I wondered if he had read the 1972 " Limits to Growth" or CIA reports based upon it, or if his vision of the Nepali countryside was coloured by his mourning face - but of course it needn't be either or, it could be both. His is a refreshingly bleak vision this is not a land ripe for adventurous tourists, but one moving ever closer to environmental catastrophe.

The language is in no way dumbed down for children, as you can see from my opening paragraph. This is good. I listened to this read by Gunnar Johnson in Swedish, the translation having been done by Maj Frisch. Both the translation and the narration are in my view exemplary. I had no trouble listening. The narrator’s calm tone fits the book’s message well. Four stars to Gunnar Johnson. I will keep an eye out for this narrator in the future. But this is not a research thesis. There is a lyrical quality about his prose, particularly when he describes the natural environment or life in the remote, high altitude villages through which he travels. He describes the mountain people and their difficult life with a certain empathy that is often missing in the accounts of Western travelers of that era.But I am not ready to let go, and so I shall not resolve my koan, or see the snow leopard, perceive it. I shall not see it because I am not ready.”

Tl;dr - A great winter book with stunning illustrations and a rather mythical, mystical bent to it. I'm not giving it five stars because I am not clear on some things. Where are the girl's parents? Were they killed by the invaders? Does anyone notice the girl is missing? Does the girl miss her family when she is taken away by the snow leopard and taught how to be a mystical protector? Too much is up in the air for me to be completely satisfied with this book. I read this book slowly, partly due to my recent schedule but mainly to savor the words, as seemed best upon my encounter with them. The related journey is a combination of sheer arduous traveling, a Buddhist history of the region, a seeker’s inner path, a traveler’s account of the lives of the people living there, and as usual with this writer, lyrical descriptions of the natural world in its many forms.

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High in the Pamir mountains a guardian spirit or Mergichan, in the form of a snow leopard, watches over a remote and peaceful valley. She sings the stars to life, clothes the world in white, and builds walls of ice to protect the village in the valley. Growing old, she begins to search for a replacement, her song finding a young girl, and speaking to her in her dreams. When soldiers invade the village, the cat collects the young girl, and drives the interlopers away with dreams of demons. Teaching her new charge everything she needs to know, the snow leopard departs for the stars, leaving the girl transformed into a snow leopard herself - the new guardian of the valley... The Lama of the Crystal Monastery appears to be a very happy man, and yet I wonder how he feels about his isolation in the silences of Tsakang, which he has not left in eight years now and, because of his legs, may never leave again. Since Jang-bu seems uncomfortable with the Lama or with himself or perhaps with us, I tell him not to inquire on this point if it seems to him impertinent, but after a moment Jang-bu does so. And this holy man of great directness and simplicity, big white teeth shining, laughs out loud in an infectious way at Jang-bu’s question. Indicating his twisted legs without a trace of self-pity or bitterness, as if they belonged to all of us, he casts his arms wide to the sky and the snow mountains, the high sun and dancing sheep, and cries, 'Of course I am happy here! It’s wonderful! Especially when I have no choice!'” In Zen, one seeks to empty out the mind, to return it to the clear, pure stillness of a seashell or a flower petal. When body and mind are one, then the whole thing, scoured clean of intellect, emotions, and the senses, may be laid open to the experience that individual existence, ego, the "reality" of matter and phenomena are no more than fleeting and illusory arrangement of molecules". John Gatta, Storrs (2004). Making Nature Sacred. Oxford University Press. p.191. ISBN 0198036949 . Retrieved 21 June 2014.