The Journals Speak Almost Entirely in Metaphor

The Journals Speak Almost Entirely in Metaphor

Himalayas, March 1508The pass above Nako is at four thousand meters and the air is thin enough that thinking requires effort. I have been in these mountains for three years. The monasteries receive me without excessive questions. The monks here are accustomed to the...
What the Himalayas Knew

What the Himalayas Knew

Himalayas, circa 1507The monks in the high passes had been watching empires longer than I had been alive at the point when I reached them. This is not metaphor: the monastery I am thinking of had records going back centuries before my birth, records of dynasties that...