Faces of Tikon

This is what the village of Tikon looks like the first time you arrive and the rain has just stopped and the sun comes out and you are very happy to have finally made it. You are up at over 4000 feet and things have started to get a little chilly.

And this is what the village looks like in the late afternoon when you've walked out to find the path to tomorrow's transect and you turn back to check out the landscape. Magical. [NOTE: It was clear and sunny every day that we worked in the field and only started raining the last day when we walked out to Mile 25 camp. Magical].

Tikon

 

N 25.50226°
E 95.02700° 

Back in Yangon with internet. Image above shows the start of Transect 1 (note red transect rope) in the forest outside of Tikon in the Naga Hills Autonomous Region of Sagaing Division. Some of the most beautiful tropical montane forest I've ever seen. Tikon is a lovely Chin/Naga village of 13 households that has been in the same place for 96 years. You walk for ten miles to get there. More on this incredible place later.

Re-Visiting Shwedagon

Took 18.5 hours of sitting on a plane, but I made it to Yangon this morning and will fly to Sagaing Division tomorrow to start fieldwork. I will definitely go to bed early tonight, but I want to try to get on the right time zone. Best way I know to get over jetlag is to walk up the street to Shwedagon Pagoda (see Sunday at Shwedagon and several other posts). This is one of my favorite places in the whole world. [NOTE: Was wonderful, but I am still very sleepy].

Apple Picking

Spent a lovely afternoon last Sunday picking apples at Outhouse Orchards in North Salem, NY. McIntosh and Cortland (a variety of McIntosh) trees were at perfect ripeness and laden with fruit. Hope that the other apple pickers knew that the vines climbing all over the trees were poison ivy (see below).  [NOTE: You can get some delicious apple cider donuts and pumpkin cheesecake here, too. Great spot to spend a Fall day].

That Dam

That Dam, or 'Black Stupa", is an imposing landmark in the center of a quiet roundabout in Vientiane, Laos. The bricks are crumbling and the entire structure is covered with moss and a weeds, but there is still quite a a bit of folklore associated with this stupa. It is called the black stupa because: 1) it was originally covered with gold but the Siamese armies stole it when they invaded the city in 1828 leaving the stupa black, or 2) the stupa is inhabited by a black, seven-headed dragon that came to life to protect the Lao people when Siamese armies entered the city. [NOTE: I guess the dragon was unable to protect both the gold and the people].  

Retreat of the Elephants

Certainly not an easy read, but Mark Elvin's The Retreat of the Elephant is an amazing compendium. The book provides an overview of 4,000 years of environmental history in China, and clearly shows that the ruling powers in China have been interacting with nature - on a huge scale and with mixed results - for a long, long time. Four thousand years ago, there were elephants throughout most of the area that what would later become China. Today, wild elephants are found only in small part of Yunnan province in the extreme southwest of the country. According to Elvin, "this pattern is the result of a protracted war with human beings which the elephants lost".

Once you start reading this book it is hard to put down. Especially if you work in China. It talks about humans, and elephants, and deforestation, and mountains and rivers, and ethnic marginalization, and Chinese colonialism, and the rise of Buddhism, and, perhaps most importantly, how all of these things fit together. I highly recommend this book. Am posting on it now because I just finished reading it - for the second time (thx, Jeff). [NOTE: Image is Fan Yi, Zhong Kui Riding an Elephant, Yale University Art Gallery]. 

How To Bend Rattan

Pretty simple actually. Carefully heat the cane with a blow torch. And then bend it with a metal jig while it is still hot. Repeat until cane attains desired curvature. The cane will maintain this shape after it is cool. [NOTE: Video clip from rattan factory at Veal Rinh commune in Laos (see Rattan Splitter).

Got It

Got my visa for Myanmar yesterday and now all systems are truly GO. I leave next Wednesday evening for Yangon, spend one night, and then slowly make my way up to Sagaing Division with old friend, world-class ornithologist, and technical advisor of WCS-Myamar Program, Rob Tizzard. Was pleased to see that the Myanmar consulate is now issuing nice, neat, computer-generated visas. 

The last time I got a Myanmar visa, in May of 2009, everything was written by hand. There weren't a lot of people that needed visas in those days. I must say, the handwritten, multiply-stamped and signed, old Myanmar visa certainly makes a wonderful passport page. 

HHDLNYC2013

Just so you know. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tensin Gyatso, will be visiting New York on October 18, 19, and 20 and will offer teachings on the Heart Sutra, The Sutra of Truly Remembering the Sublime Three Jewels, and The Wisdom Chapter of the Guide to a Bodhisattva Way of Life. Go here for tickets.  [NOTE: The Dalai Lama's visit is sponsored by The Gere Foundation and The Tibet Center].

Smokey Bear

Have always been a fan of Smokey Bear, even before I went to forestry school. This U.S. Forest Service mascot did an amazing job of reducing the frequency of forest fires and making people aware of all the bad things that happen when the woods catch on fire. Smokey, unfortunately, didn't address the usefulness of control burns for fuel reduction or the indigenous use of fire, but, I guess, there is only so much that a bear can do.

And then there's the Smokey the Bear Sutra by Gary Snyder which depicts Smokey as a reincarnation of Vairocana Buddha.

And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution, television, or the police, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR'S WAR SPELL:

DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS

And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out with his vajra-shovel.

-Gary Snyder
1969 Sierra Club Wilderness Conference
(may be reproduced free forever)