The Snow Lion’s Turquoise Mane by Surya Das: book review

The Snow Lion’s Turqouise Mane: Wisdom Tales from Tibet (1992) is a collection of more than 150 short stories and legends.

The stories are traditionally passed down orally from spiritual teacher (lama) to student. Captured for the first time in English, they show the Land of Snow, mostly through the language of metaphor and imagination.

All of the tales have the same thing in common – they are designed to teach in an entertaining and memorable way. Some stories have poetry embedded within them.

For readers, each has an introduction to explain the context. There are tales of urban and rural life, royalty and farming, duty and discipline, youth and age, music and mantras, mountains and rivers, novices and sages.

For example, ‘Why Didn’t I See It Before?” tells of the village of Swayambu in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, ‘a power place’ where old Thondo dreams that he was riding ‘a magnificent white elephant and holding a colorful bouquet of flowers.’ ‘Make Your Own Offerings’ is about letting go of the illusion of ego.

Some tell of the origins of traditions, such as the single topknot worn by herders and flagpole sitting. There are comic tales and serious ones, and ones of harmony and hope.

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MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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