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http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/198205745

Kingdom of ten thousand things an impossible journey from Kabul to Chiapas

For thirty years, Gary Geddes has lived with his shadow self, an obscure 5th-century Buddhist monk named Huishen, whose legend shanghaied his vivid imagination. Huishen, originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, reportedly sailed from China to Vancouver Island, continuing southward to Mexico. In a journey to recreate the travels of Huishen, Geddes finds himself not only struggling to cross the ancient barriers of the Himalayas, the Taklamakan Desert, the Pacific Ocean and the jungles of Central America, but also gingerly picking his way through Taliban landmines and Chinese and Zapatista politics. From Afghan refugees to Tibetan monks and the ghost of Quetzalcoatl in Mexico, Geddes encounters a host of quirky characters and fast friends'none so compelling and insistent as the voice of Huishen, who speaks to him mysteriously across the centuries. But not even Huishen could imagine the events of 9/11, which transform Geddes' journey beyond a quest for an elusive monk, into an exploration of the ways in which we learn to interpret history. Sacred, profane and richly comic, Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things (a Chinese term for life itself) is a remarkable personal odyssey, a cornucopia of adventure, philosophy and hearsay, a book that will disarm and delight while provoking debate: just who got here first, anyway'

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  • "Kingdom of 10,000 things"@en

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  • ""Gary Geddes follows the trail of the legendary Huishen, an Afghan monk who fled from Kabul to China and crossed the Pacific to North America a thousand years before Columbus."--Jacket."
  • "For thirty years, Gary Geddes has lived with his shadow self, an obscure 5th-century Buddhist monk named Huishen, whose legend shanghaied his vivid imagination. Huishen, originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, reportedly sailed from China to Vancouver Island, continuing southward to Mexico. In a journey to recreate the travels of Huishen, Geddes finds himself not only struggling to cross the ancient barriers of the Himalayas, the Taklamakan Desert, the Pacific Ocean and the jungles of Central America, but also gingerly picking his way through Taliban landmines and Chinese and Zapatista politics. From Afghan refugees to Tibetan monks and the ghost of Quetzalcoatl in Mexico, Geddes encounters a host of quirky characters and fast friends'none so compelling and insistent as the voice of Huishen, who speaks to him mysteriously across the centuries. But not even Huishen could imagine the events of 9/11, which transform Geddes' journey beyond a quest for an elusive monk, into an exploration of the ways in which we learn to interpret history. Sacred, profane and richly comic, Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things (a Chinese term for life itself) is a remarkable personal odyssey, a cornucopia of adventure, philosophy and hearsay, a book that will disarm and delight while provoking debate: just who got here first, anyway'"@en
  • "From war-torn Afghanistan, through the snow-capped Himalayas and across the burning sands of the Taklamakan desert, to a rapidly modernizing China and on to the Central American jungles: it seems an impossible journey, but one that Gary Geddes eagerly undertook in order to retrace the voyage of the legendary 5th-century Buddhist monk Huishen. Geddes was long fascinated with stories of Huishen's life and travels: this Afghan holy man fled Kabul for China and may have crossed the Pacific to North America 1,000 years before Columbus. The length and breadth of this expedition, and its difficulty, would have been amazing enough on its own, but Geddes's trip takes on an added dimension and poignancy due to its timing: he reaches Afghanistan one month before September 11, 2001 and arrives in China as the tragic events unfold. Along the way, Geddes encounters Afghan refugees, Pakistani dissidents, Tibetan monks, Buddhist scholars, a KFC outlet in Luoyang, mysterious cairns in Haida..."@en
  • "For thirty years, Gary Geddes has lived with his shadow self, an obscure 5th-century Buddhist monk named Huishen, whose legend shanghaied his vivid imagination. Huishen, originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, reportedly sailed from China to Vancouver Island, continuing southward to Mexico. In a journey to recreate the travels of Huishen, Geddes finds himself not only struggling to cross the ancient barriers of the Himalayas, the Taklamakan Desert, the Pacific Ocean and the jungles of Central America, but also gingerly picking his way through Taliban landmines and Chinese and Zapatista politics. From Afghan refugees to Tibetan monks and the ghost of Quetzalcoatl in Mexico, Geddes encounters a host of quirky characters and fast friends-- none so compelling and insistent as the voice of Huishen, who speaks to him mysteriously across the centuries. But not even Huishen could imagine the events of 9/11, which transform Geddes'journey beyond a quest for an elusive monk, into an exploration of the ways in which we learn to interpret history. Sacred, profane and richly comic, Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things (a Chinese term for life itself) is a remarkable personal odyssey, a cornucopia of adventure, philosophy and hearsay, a book that will disarm and delight while provoking debate: just who got here first, anyway?"@en
  • ""Gary Geddes follows the trail of the legendary Huishen, an Afghan monk who fled from Kabul to China and crossed the Pacific to North America a thousand years before Columbus."--Book jacket."@en

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  • "Kingdom of ten thousand things an impossible journey from Kabul to Chiapas"@en
  • "Kingdom of ten thousand things an impossible journey from kabul to chiapas"@en
  • "Kingdom of ten thousand things : an impossible journey from Kabul to Chiapas"
  • "Kingdom of ten thousand things : an impossible journey from Kabul to Chiapas"@en
  • "Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things : an impossible journey from Kabul to Chiapas"

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