Questions of Heaven: The Chinese Journeys of an American Buddhist

Although this book was originally recommended when I took a masters-level "Literature of Travel" course, this unique piece of literature has been calling out to me for quite some time. I'm glad I finally took time out to read it. On one level, this is a book about the spiritual journey of an American Buddhist as she climbs the metaphorically important mountains of China. On another level, this book painted an important sociological and historical portrait of China in the aftermath of Mao's tyrannical Cultural Revolution/Great Leap Forward. The stories relayed by Xuan Ke, about how the intellectuals were tricked into critiquing the government and subsequently tortured and/or killed is truly the stuff of nightmares. Yet, Xuan Ke understood the importance of honestly understanding the past and he uses his rotten teeth as a symbol for such remembrance. "My wife keeps asking me to get my teeth fixed. They are all bad since being in prison. But they are like the Great Wall; the history of my life and therefore the history of the Chinese people shows in them, so they will stay like this" The book ends with Xuan Ke wiggling his darkened teeth and saying "Remember these." (Ehrlich, 121) Despite the criticisms in some of the other reviews, I feel that Ms. Ehrlich is an American sincerely trying to understand a totally foreign culture while demonstrating a true empathy for the suffering, both in the past and in the present, experienced by the Chinese people. Her prose is both poetic and informative at the same time and I am looking forward to reading her other work.

If you are looking for a book about the current state of buddhism in China, this is not for you. The four stars are given to its enjoyable prose, not to the information it conveys. Well intentioned as she might be, Ms. Ehrlich apparently did not have a chance to understand the current revival of buddhism in China, being a tourist whose knowlege and DREAM about China was only from books and a few exemplary persons she knew. Recent accounts from oversea Chinese pilgrims painted a different picture. I suppose that with the brisk pace in which everything is carried out in China these days, many things can change in four years. Moreover, it would be surprising if the communists do not learn that in order to make these pilgrimage sites attractive to oversea devotees, at least a semblance of religious atmosphere has to be fostered. It wasn't surprising to read of the accounts of monks whose only practice in the evening was to watch TV. Those are the vestige of the turmoil and destruction of the Cultural Revolution. I only feel sorry that Ms. Ehrlich did not have a chance to read the corpus of works, in Chinese, that aptly and vividly delineate the deplorable state of buddhism in China in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. These deplorable sacrileges no doubt still exist but now there are many young and well-educated monastics who enter the order for authentic and admirable purposes. It is them that carry the standard of the revival of buddhim silently, unknown to the westerners--which is good, in the current political atmosphere. Ms. Ehrlich also did not (or does she) know that there is now a Buddhist college in Emei and that the abbot of one of its monasteries was a highly revered monk who had just passed away in his 90s (if I remember correctly) last year. To the contrary of the first reviewer, I do not find Ms. Ehrlich's accounts condescending, I only find some of the accounts inaccurate. There are major and serious problems in China and Ms. Ehrlich's insight of the materialistic obsession of the Chinese and the huge toll it levies on the environment is quite correct, although I am much more optimistic then she was. As I told my friends who complained about the filth and disorder of the Chinatown in Manhattan, what touches me more is the dynamic undercurrent of lives there. As a student, I have toiled for a few months in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant (although not in Manhattan) and have learnt that an outsider who carries too much delusion and expectation lacks the capacity to appreciate life as it is without being too judgemental. Afterall, what is the meaning of pilgrimage? Isn't it simply an amplification of the point of contact between our own minds and the great minds of the bodhisattvas embodied in these mountains? The mountains are in the mind and in essense has nothing to do with how the itinerary is run. A pilgrim with such a "mindset" will always possess the capacity to be touched even

Questions of Heaven offers some insight and education to what China is " like." I found the book very interesting and thoughtful as to what some of the culture is like in China. It offered me a much greater understanding of what it is like to be a Buddhist an a spiritual journey in search of some sort of enlightenment AND it also offered a grat deal of hope - that you may find what you are "looking for" (i.e. answers from heaven as in Ehrlich's case) but the journey may be difficult, thoght-provoking, and quite lonley on the way. I am embarrased to admit that I knew nothing about China before I read this book. So I must call this book THOUGHT PROVOKING AND EDUCATIONAL!!