I’m back from Hidden in Plain Sight, the Rosicrucian Museum’s lovely four-day conference on esotericism. Not only did I have a wonderfully mentally stimulating time, but I was thanked repeatedly for all my volunteer work during the con, which I’ll freely confess was really nice to hear. Further, after the conference was over we were…
Some random notes I found of interest about Yingpan Man: the “boots” were almost just little sacks for the feet, and clearly not designed for walking. My guess were that they were ceremonial, intended just for the burial. Also those little curving items visible on the tops of the boots and up on the chest…
The Bowers Museum clearly has someone working for them who is both extremely persuasive, and very well-connected in China, in order to negotiate such an amazing collection for their exhibition. I consider their exhibition title, Secrets of the Silk Road, quite accurate. Keep in mind the Chinese allowed only a tiny handful of Western scientists…
I was going to write in a rather scholarly mode about my visit to the Tarim mummies, but I think all my “scholarly” has been temporarily burned out of me by my intensive month or so of thesis writing. I’ll have to write about that too at some point — what a trip that was!…
Planning a trip down to the LA area this weekend for a potentially once-in-a-lifetime experience. Some of the astonishingly well-preserved Tarim mummies from China will be in a little Santa Ana museum, and considering I mentioned them in my thesis, I am definitely going to see them! To explain my comment about once-in-a-lifetime, I quote…
Interestingly, I recently stumbled across some old high school friends on-line. It was gratifying how pleased they were to find me again (see previous posting re how unlovable I was convinced I was in high school), and I was thrilled to link up with them also. However, I was puzzled at their reactions after my…
This morning the radio alarm woke me to the bouncy, upbeat-sounding strains of Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days.” I like the music, although I confess to some dislike/confusion with the lyrics. Are these people actually believing the best days of their lives were in high school, and everything is downhill from there? What a truly tragic…
The other really nice display on a 3-dimensional model was of a 19th-20th century shaman in full regalia. I was inordinately delighted by this (much to the continued amusement of my companions), excitedly pointing out the large, flat, bodhran-like drum (unfortunately unpainted with helpful symbols, which made me wonder if it had actually been used…
We have the same situation of frustratingly half-told stories occurring repeatedly in the Tech’s exhibit. For example, exactly one sentence was dedicated to Genghis’ daughters, stating that one of them led a successful conquest of a particular city. Why wasn’t there more said about her in the signs? We weren’t even given her name! If…
Try any of these books for more on this fascinating and amazing era. The Secret History of the Mongols was written a scant 20 years or so after Genghis’ death, and is startlingly realistic instead of sycophantically complimentary. The author of the other two books is eminently readable and well researched. I especially recommend the…