Questions of Heaven: The Chinese Journeys of an American Buddhist

by Gretel Ehrlich

Overview

A Haunting pilgrimage to one of China's holy mountains
"Ehrlich . . . writes with tremendous grace and passion."
—Miles Harvey, Outside

"In spare, lyrical prose, Ehrlich inventively recounts her 1995 spiritual trip to China and Tibet. . . . Like one of the landscape paintings of which she writes, Ehrlich's book is at once delicate, deeply considered and moving." 
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Ehrlich's highly personal travelogue centers on her attempt to find what remains of [the] once-flourishing spiritual culture in the sacred mountains of western China. . . . [Ehrlich] intersperses her personal narrative with bits of the intellectual, political, historical and spiritual." 
—Alexandra Hall, The New York Times Book Review

"If Questions of Heaven has a message, it may reside in the author's belief in a bond across geography and generations, one transcending space and time." 
—David L. Ulin, The Village Voice

"This is travel writing at its best." —Glenn Masuchika, Library Journal

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807073117
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	03/31/1998
Series:	Concord Library
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.38(d)

Editorial Reviews

Ehrlich . . . writes with tremendous grace and passion.—Miles Harvey, Outside

"In spare, lyrical prose, Ehrlich inventively recounts her 1995 spiritual trip to China and Tibet. . . . Like one of the landscape paintings of which she writes, Ehrlich's book is at once delicate, deeply considered and moving." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Ehrlich's highly personal travelogue centers on her attempt to find what remains of [the] once-flourishing spiritual culture in the sacred mountains of western China. . . . [Ehrlich] intersperses her personal narrative with bits of the intellectual, political, historical and spiritual." —Alexandra Hall, The New York Times Book Review

"If Questions of Heaven has a message, it may reside in the author's belief in a bond across geography and generations, one transcending space and time." —David L. Ulin, The Village Voice

"This is travel writing at its best." —Glenn Masuchika, Library Journal

From the Publisher

In spare, lyrical prose, Ehrlich inventively recounts her 1995 spiritual trip to China and Tibet. "I had come to China to pick up the threads of a once flourishing Buddhist culture," she writes, "and thought I could find it in their sacred mountains." First on Ehrlich's itinerary was to climb Emei Shan, one of China's four sacred Buddhist mountains. She interweaves the tale of her climb-encounters with nasty monkeys, Frisbee-tossing monks and countless Buddhist temples being renovated by the Chinese government for tourist purposes-with concise meditations on the meaning of mountains to Chinese religious culture: "The Chinese phrase for `going on a pilgrimage' actually means `paying one's respects to the mountain.' " Ehrlich's gentle idealization of the beautiful arts of Chinese dynastic Buddhism is all but blasted away when she witnesses the religious shards left by the Cultural Revolution. Her book is an elegantly kaleidoscopic fusion of travelogue, musings on traditional Chinese Buddhism and appreciation of Chinese landscape paintings of mountains. Like one of the landscape paintings of which she writes, Ehrlich's book is at once delicate, deeply considered and moving. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

At some point in every American Buddhist's life, he or she decides to take a spiritual journey to the East. Ehrlich's journey takes her to the Sichuan Province in China to climb Emei Shan, a sacred Buddhist mountain. Instead of finding a modern Shangri-La, she encounters a land destroyed by crass commercialism, corrupt monks, poverty, lamas, and scholars who are still deeply injured physically and psychologically by the atrocities of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. Her descriptions are heartbreaking, especially of her visit to a wretched panda reserve in Chendu where the bears are only kept alive so foreigners will donate funds. Her pilgrimage seems a failure until she meets a musician who has dedicated his life to keeping alive the sacred music of his people, the Naxis. His philosophy, that music is medicine, leads the reader to understand that divinity does not necessarily reside only in holy places but also in the deep faith of good people. This is travel writing at its best. Recommended for all libraries.Glenn Masuchika, Chaminade Univ. Lib., Honolulu

Library Journal

A brief but valuable narrative of travel by essayist Ehrlich (A Match to the Heart, 1994, etc.), exploring the sacred and the profane in contemporary China.

Ehrlich's search for an authentic Chinese culture and spirituality at first leads only to frustration. She climbs Emeishan, a mountain sacred in both Buddhist and Taoist traditions, only to find it overrun by crass commercialism. The few monks who operate a guesthouse for pilgrims don't impress Ehrlich as being very devout; instead, they are obsessed with TV. When she reaches the peak, she finds partially constructed "Las Vegasstyle" hotels and aggressive, ravenous monkeys who steal food and jewelry from tourists. Ehrlich suggests that much of this shambles can be traced back to Mao's Cultural Revolution, which irrevocably destroyed many of the remaining elements of an ancient culture. The second half of the book offers a slightly more optimistic view. Ehrlich travels to Lijiang, a remote city in the mountains near Tibet, and discovers a stubborn, persistent strain of ancient Chinese culture. She meets an aged musician who was imprisoned for 20 years by Mao and kept his sanity while in isolation by singing Taoist melodies to himself. Now free, his commitment to preserving elements of Chinese culture has led to the formation of a small orchestra, which has revived ancient musical traditions. In the book's last pages, Ehrlich travels with the orchestra to London on their first international trip, bringing the music of a lost culture to the West.

The book is a fine travelogue but would have been more compelling if the author had provided a bit more on her own spiritual journey. In all, though, a worthy read.

Kirkus Reviews