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Bones
of the Master : A Journey to Secret Mongolia by George Crane
In the steady hands of poet George Crane, previously unknown Zen master
Tsung Tsai comes off as truly extraordinary. A "poet, philosopher, house
builder, scientist, doctor, and when necessary, kung fu ass-kicker," Tsung
Tsai would still be wandering about anonymously if it were not, Crane says,
for the need of financing provided by an advance on this book. The last
of the monks from his Chinese monastery, Tsung Tsai felt he had to return
one last time to find and honor his master's bones and rekindle his tradition.
Crane recounts their joint adventure, opening with Tsung Tsai's harrowing
decades-earlier escape from newly communist China, walking from Inner Mongolia
to Hong Kong through a war-torn, famine-struck, psychotic land, nearly
starving along the way. Crane, a self-styled hedonist ne'er-do-well, who
says that meditation makes him nauseous, sets the stage for an entrancing
buddy story back to China with this highly disciplined but carefree Zen
master. As their mutual affection grows, Crane absorbs Tsung Tsai's spare
but demanding philosophy, which sustains them through the base poverty
of northern China, a life-threatening 18-hour climb up and down a treacherous
mountain, and a confrontation with a master of black magic. A page-turner
and an eye-opener, Bones of the Master is worth every penny of that advance.
Amazon.com Paperback from Bantam
The Land of the Lamas: Notes of a Journey Through China, Mongolia and
Tibet by William Woodville Rockhill
Paperback from Pilgrims Publishing Out of Print - Try Used
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In Xanadu by William Hamilton-Dalrymple
Hardcover from HarperCollins Publishers 24 August, 1989 Out of Print - Try Used
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Mongolian
Adventure by Haslund Henning, Henning Haslund
Paperback from The Long Riders' Guild Press
