Kiran Over Mongolia

Yesterday was a day of deluge in NYC so I knew there would not be a crowd at the Rubin Musuem of Himalayan Art. I was definitely right. I wasn't in danger of feeling drowned a a fairy tale scene.

"KIRAN" means golden we are told and describes the attributes of a perfect hunting eagle. The movie follows the young man's education from catching his own eagle through training it. He becomes a part of the family although there is really no other story than that of the young man being taught how to train the eagle. This is not a Saturday night in the mall movie. The movie shows great respect for the eagle without any preaching, and respect for traditional life, although the young man assets he will marry a Mongolia girl, not a Kazhak. That's really all the movie is -- beautiful and respectful of a culture about which we know nothing. There are a few short scenes in hip Ulan Bator youth hangouts and a couple of traditional singers just pasted in, and simple life in the teacher's ger with his family. It was a wonderful afternoon break from the gray skys and pouring rain.

It's still April, still poetry month and here is a short piece from a fairly long poem by Tess Gallagher's poem "Behave"

...once we feel deeply we begin to behave.
The notion of right action proceeding
naturally out of right feeling --
poetry the witching stick,not only
to what was felt, but now the abiltiy to feel a thing
is already something some to the good.

Ice skating and global warming

Why a picture by Pieter Breugel II? Because it reminds me of that probably forgotten children's classic HANS BRINKER AND THE SILVER SKATES. And why that? Because in favorite discovery from surfing the Artful Quilters Web Ring is a blog not by a quilter at all but by Konchog who is an American Buddhist monk living in UlanBaator, Mongolia. It was a link I found and those who read my blog know I loved visiting Mongolia several months ago. Anyway, Konchog wrote recently that a major ice skating event was held on Lake Khovsol which is on the border with Siberia -- it's where I saw the reindear herders. and hte handsome woman shaman. He observed than many of the skaters in the competition were Dutch ... See? That'sthe connection with the picture.

It seems the European skating events are now very iffy, due to global warming the usual outdooor venues, rivers, lakes, no long freeze solidly enough for the competitions. So the Dutch skaters - and many others from Europe -- went to Mongolia to compete. This may be good for world friendship even if it is telling more people that the world climate is in trouble. Konchog says the older Mongolians say the winters aren't as cold there as they used to be. As an American, he thoughtahat's happening this summer [now!] in Australia and New Zealand, and the variety of climates and events across the US. And for people's opinions about many, many matters.

Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art

It is so easy to get into a rut, to think, oh, I want to get home to do this, finish that. Not doing the wonderful things that are on an amorphous "to do" list that just keeps getting set aside. Fortunately occasionally a visitor from out of town appears and we actually do those things. [I had lived in San Antonio for six months but did not visit the Alamo until my parents visited six months later! So typical People joke about not taking the Staten Island ferry until a visitor arrives.]

Today Arthur and Gloria McDonald from Charleston, S.C. met me at the Rubin Museum for lunch and to see the exhibits there. I met Arthur on my trip to Mongolia. I had not met Gloria. I am SO glad they came to town. We had a lovely visit, I enjoyed their almost-British accents. Plus, I got to the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art which is only four blocks from where I work and I am a member, so I have free entry any time. Fortunately the Mongolian exh ibit was still on display on the 2nd and 3rd floors. The wonderful show on the 4th and 5th floor I will write about in a few days when I go back and take even more time to enjoy it. I ABSOLUTELY promise myself I will do that, it's a great show.

The Mongolian exhibit had modern photographs as well as artifacts, all interesting and the exhibit was, as their exhibits always are, highly inforamative. The Rubin is one of the most people friendly museums in the city.l Arthur and I assured Gloria that the inside of the gers we stayed in in the tourist camps were much like the ones in the photos -- only with better beds. What a wonderful, fascinating and, yes, exotic place Mongolia is. I am enormously happy I was able to take that trip. My roommate, Kay, was a wonderful companion. Kay and Arthur and I often played Hearts with a changing variety of other players -- one long midsummer night in the Gobi when the temperature had been in the 100s all day, we sat at a picnic table under the enormous sky, with the desert changing from beige to orange to gray while a jillion stars came out overhead, playing cards in the relative cool of evening. Traveling is among the most wonderful experiences! As Arthur, Gloria and I talked we discovered that, on separate trips to Morocco, we had had the same wondeful, personable guide.

The pictures, of course, are from Mongolia -- thet top one is a ger camp ["yert" is the word the Russians used for gers, which is the word the Mongolians prefer]. The second is a scene from the archery competition at the Nadam festival. Sometimes I am almost overwhelmed at the richness of memories stored up there in my gray matter!