Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

SAVING FISH FROM DROWNING
“dragonflies skimming the waters.” Now they wouldn’t even touch
the surface.
The gnarled pine, I would have said, touch it. That is China. Hor­
ticulturalists from around the world have come to study it. Yet no one
has ever been able to explain why it grows like a corkscrew, just as no
one can adequately explain China. But like that tree, there it is, old,
resilient, and oddly magnificent. Within that tree are the elements in
nature that have inspired Chinese artists for centuries: gesture over
geometry, subtlety over symmetry, constant flow over static form.
And the temples, walk in and touch them. That is China. Don’t
merely stare at those murals and statues. Fly up to the crossbeams,
get down on your hands and knees, and press your head to the floor
tiles. Hide behind that pillar and come eye to eye with its flecks of
paint. Imagine that you are an interior decorator who is a thousand
years in age. Start with a bit of Tibetan Buddhism, add a smidgen of
Indian Buddhism, a dab of Han Buddhism, plus a dash each of ani­
mism and Taoism. A hodgepodge, you say? No, what is in those tem­
ples is an amalgam that is pure Chinese, a lovely shabby elegance, a
glorious messy motley that makes China infinitely intriguing. Noth­
ing is ever completely thrown away and replaced. If one period of in­
fluence falls out of favor, it is patched over. The old views still exist,
one chipped layer beneath, ready to pop through with the slightest
abrasion.
That is the Chinese aesthetic and also its spirit. Those are the
traces that have affected all who have traveled along China’s roads.
But if you leave too soon, those subtleties will be lost on you. You
will see only what the brochures promise you will see, the newly
painted palaces. You will enter Burma thinking that when you cross
the border, you leave China behind. And you could not be more
wrong. You will still see the traces of tribal tenacity, the contradic­
tory streaks of obedience and rebellion, not to mention the curses
and charms.
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