"Telling the Spatial and Temporal Relationship of Life", Everest: A Unique Perspective on Understanding Tibetan Culture

Source: Global Times

Editor's Note: In the 70 years since the peaceful liberation, international exchanges related to Tibet have been increasing day by day, and the image of Tibet in Western literature has gradually developed from a single "Western Tibet" to a pluralistic Tibet. Chinese Tibetan literature has also undergone a transition from magic realism to realism. "How to tell about Tibet is indeed a very difficult thing." Chen Xiaoming, former director of the Department of Chinese at Peking University, told the Global Times that both Chinese and foreign writers are exploring the magic and mystery of Tibet, "but how to express it more accurately and profoundly through literature, and more closely integrate it with people's destiny, rather than making things up, this is what Tibetan literature is doing." ”

Cover of Everest Conch

In the literature about Tibet, Mount Everest is undoubtedly a unique subject with symbolic significance. In recent years, domestic and foreign Everest-themed film works have emerged in an endless stream, such as "Desperate Altitude", "Wildest Dream: Conquering Mount Everest", "Everest Mountain Difficulty", "Sherpas on the Mountain", "Himalayan Ladder", "Climber" and so on. There are also many documentary literary works on the theme of Mount Everest, such as "An Undisclosed Expedition to Mount Everest" published in 2017, which records the beginning and end of the reconnaissance team of the Sino-Soviet Joint Mountaineering Team in 1958. The author, Weng Qingzhang, is one of the first members of the Chinese mountaineering team and team doctor, and is also a witness to the incident. American journalist Jon Krakauer's "Into the Thin Air Zone" is a complete record of the May 1996 Everest disaster. In that tragic mountain disaster, a total of 12 people from four climbing teams were killed. Krakauer, who participated in that climb and successfully reached the summit of Mount Everest, became a witness and survivor of the disaster.

Compared with documentary literature and movies, there are not many everest-themed novels in the world. After all, the process and details of climbing Mount Everest need to be described in detail in literary works, and there are very few authors who have both climbed Mount Everest and can write novels. Recently, Huang Nubo, a Chinese entrepreneur who has summited Mount Everest three times, published a novel called "Everest Conch", which recreates the ups and downs of entrepreneurs in the commercial sea and the difficulties and obstacles of climbing Mount Everest. In Huang Nubo's view, the challenges faced by entrepreneurs are similar to climbing Everest: the spirit of daring to challenge when encountering uncertainty is consistent. The novel also focuses on the story of a new generation of Tibetans, which describes Gabu's economic conditions as the first Tibetan to set foot in the mountaineering tourism industry. He helped his two sons build a two-story two-story building with two pillars and three beams at each end of the village, in order to facilitate the reception of guests. In recent years, there have been more and more mountain friends and tourists who have to live in Quzong Village by name. In the mountaineering season, it becomes a bed that is hard to find. Writing about the changes in Tibetan life comes from Huang Nubo's real feelings over the years. "More than a decade ago, when I first climbed Mount Everest, Tibetans had just set up mountaineering companies, and many of the guides were yak children in the local countryside. Now, they have grown into an important player in the emerging mountaineering industry in line with international standards. Huang Nubo said in an interview with the Global Times reporter that more than half of the world's mountains above 8,000 meters above sea level are in China. Before there was no mountaineering industry in China, now the international mountaineering strength of the Tibetans is very strong, and a Tibetan guide has even climbed Mount Everest 12 times. Some of the guides later became national ski instructors. "This nation now has a new professional identity and industrial development, and many guides have bought houses and cars at home, which shows that a new period of development in Tibet has arrived, and the mountaineering industry is the industry of the 21st century." Moreover, the Tibetan guide is very simple and generous, and will never give up on you and leave you. In this sense, I am also singing the praises of this nation and era. ”

Talking about the meaning of "conch" in the title of the book, Huang Nubo explained: Everest is the spatial relationship between heaven and earth, and the conch is the relationship of time. Everest was originally the bottom of the sea, and the geological plates collided to form a high mountain. The conch in the sea as a living body has been precipitated and solidified over hundreds of millions of years. Therefore, the Everest conch is actually about the relationship between space and time of life. "The conch is also an auspicious sacred object in Tibetan culture, symbolizing purity and kindness, which is the background of Tibetan culture and an expectation of this work for the current society."