Monkey Shines

Monkey was truely awesome: incredible acrobatics, sets, music, everything. Sun Wu-kung inspires and amazes. Xie xie! Namaste.

Monkey Business: The Last Remaining Ancestor of Salazar Slytherin

Hippity, hoppity, Spoleto is on it's way! For the first time since 1989, when I saw the awesome Laurie Anderson, I am actually going to one of the big events; Monkey's Journey to the West. This brings full circle a serendipitous series of personal literary/artistic/spiritual events that began with, what else, Harry Potter.

It all started when I was re-reading the Harry Potter series last spring in anticipation of the release of Book 7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I noticed two odd references (in Book 2 and in Book 6) to the Slytherin family members looking "monkeyish" and "simian". This really intrigued me and I started investigating for monkey myths and discovered the story of the Monkey King, Sun Wu Kong, who tried to conquer death.

Further investigations of the Monkey King led to the story of the 16th century Chinese novel, Monkey: Journey to the West. This book, written by Wu Ch'eng-En combines the story of the mythical Monkey King with the story of the real Buddhist monk, Xuan Zang (also known as Tripitaka). Xuan Zang is famous for making a secret, forbidden fifteen-year journey to India and back in the 7th century in search of more Buddhist sutras to answer his spiritual questions. He is also famous for his travel diary, which provided China with valuable real information about the world beyond its borders.

Xuan Zang hailed from from Chang An in Shaanxi province, which is home to the famous Qin dynasty army of terracotta warriors and the start of the Silk Road. The Wild Goose Pagoda, which still stands in what is now the modern city of Xian, is home to Xuan Zang's library; the Buddhist texts he brought back from his quest.

Xuan Zang passed through an area that has fascinated me since I read Dr. Elizabeth Wayland Barber's Mummies of Urumchi and became intrigued by the Beauty of Loulan and the other mysterious, European Silk Road travelers, who were buried by the salty wayside in what has become one of the fiercest desert regions in the world, the Taklamakan.

One of my personal literary goals is to read the entire four volume epic, Monkey: Journey to the West. I have done some research and selected the Anthony C. Yu version as my translation of choice. It is a complete and faithful translation according to the reviews.

But there is more...

My random ramblings prompted, Ms. K8 to recommend the wonderful YA graphic novel, American Born Chinese by Gene Yang, which also draws upon the Sun Wu Kong story.

As part of Tech Trek, I got back into messing about with MySpace and made friends with The Gorillaz and discovered a related MySpace page for the production of Journey to the West that members of their group were involved in creating in the UK. I wished so much too see it....

To the present...

I noticed the eye-catching, beautiful cover of Where, a new free entertainment info magazine, that Ms. Vickie had requistioned for our branch, and discovered that the Monkey is coming to Charleston. So now we are full circle and I get to see the monkey at last.... but.... I still want to see where he lives, so....the journey continues!

www.flickr.com More photos or video tagged with biggoosepagoda on Flickr

Big Goose Pagoda in Xian: Now That's a Book House!

Some More Choice Monkey King Resources

Monkey King Lesson Plan

Power Point Slide with Links

Picture from the opera, Journey to the West, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/image_galleries/280607_monkey_gallery.shtml?10. Accessed on 4/30/08.