Another Castandean omen about Paris, if one were inclined to interpret it as such, was the discovery a few weeks back that the book I most wanted to read (long out of print and now available only for $500 or more) was available in its original in a museum in Paris.
The book is an autobiography of sorts, written as a graphic novel, in the form of Tibetan tsakli. Tsakli are miniature paintings made on stiffened canvas, a little larger than modern playing cards. They depict many traditional Tibetan Buddhist subjects -- deities, teachers, mandalas, and esoteric symbols associated with certain teachings or initiations. In fact, tsakli are also often referred to as initiation cards, because they were often commissioned to commemorate someone's initiation into one of the higher teachings. I am rather a fan of this unique artform, and own several originals from the 1800s, which you can see here if you are interested: http://www.ramalila.net/RoadTripMind/gallery.html <http://www.ramalila.net/RoadTripMind/gallery.html> Anyway, what got me so jazzed about seeing this particular set of tsakli, this card-sized comic book from the 17th century, is who painted it, and who it was the secret (hidden even from Tibetans) autobiography *of*. The book is called "Secret Visions of the Fifth Dalai Lama: The Gold Manuscript in the Fournier Collection Musee Guimet, Paris," (http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Visions-Fifth-Dalai-Lama/dp/0906026474 <http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Visions-Fifth-Dalai-Lama/dp/0906026474> ) and it's just what the title says. For those who don't know, he was the most famous DL in Tibet's history (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Dalai_Lama <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Dalai_Lama> ), although not the most infamous; that honor falls to his successor, the Sixth Dalai Lama, my netnamesake, the Turquoise Bee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6th_Dalai_Lama <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6th_Dalai_Lama> ). The book consists of reproductions of this spiritual graphic novel, and as I suggested above, is prohibitively expensive. But the originals are available -- and for free, at least twice a week -- in a museum in Paris. I may be able to see it after all, and in the form of the original paintings, not reproductions. Cool. Sacré bleu.
