THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702010567
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY AUDREY KNOTH
LENGTH: 74 lines
YAK BUTTER AND BLACK TEA
A Journey into Forbidden China
WADE BRACKENBURY
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. 252 pp. $19.95.
Idaho native Wade Brackenbury recently experienced the kind of quest that has become very rare - a venture into a forbidden land, overcoming obstacles and relying on the kindnesses of strangers to pursue a dream. As in all good adventures, Brackenbury returned home having learned something about himself as well as about the world.
Yak Butter and Black Tea chronicles Branckenbury's efforts to reach the Drung valley in southern Tibet, an area that China has decreed off-limits to foreigners. Brackenbury embarked on the journey in the early 1990s after a chance encounter with a French photojournalist, Pascal Szapu, in a cafe in a tourist region of China. Brackenbury, a seasoned outdoorsman in his 20s, was in Asia to climb. Szapu was looking for an expert hiker to help him get to the Drung.
``The Drung valley, he said, nestled between two rugged mountain ranges, whose passes accumulated massive snowpacks in the winter, closing the roads until late summer. It effectively isolated the people there from the rest of China for six to eight months of the year.'' According to Szapu, the last time a Westerner visited the Drung people was in the 19th century. He wanted to be the first person to take photographs there, and he quickly convinced Brackenbury to become part of the quest.
But the venture failed when the two were arrested just a few weeks after setting out. So in 1993, Brackenbury took leave of his chiropractic studies to again attempt the journey with Szapu. This time, they were accompanied by a French woman of Chinese descent, Sophi Tcheng, who would serve as a translator.
Traveling in Chinese clothes, their hair cut in the style of the country and dyed black, Brackenbury, Szapu and Tcheng walked many miles, eluding police, sleeping in tents, appreciating the rugged beauty of the terrain and gratefully accepting meals from rural people intrigued by the trio. They drank countless cups of black tea injected with yak butter, an area staple. One night, when villagers began dancing to fiddle music, Brackenbury joined in and experienced the magic of losing oneself in a culture very different from one's own.
``At first, everyone laughed and jeered, but after a time, they settled down and seemed to forget I was there . . . I knew I could never be Tibetan, but for a few minutes, I just wanted to belong, to be part of a large group of people, not some strange alien whose every action and every possession contrasted so sharply with his surroundings that anyone who saw him stopped what he was doing to stare. . . . For a few moments, I felt as though I did.''
Ultimately, this quest to the Drung valley also failed. Brackenbury then chose to continue on by himself, now obsessed by the notion of being the first modern-day Westerner to meet the Drung people. The physical exertions he made on the way were staggering: climbing through snow at high altitudes, scaling slippery canyon walls, hacking through rigid growths of bamboo stalks - all on his own.
As he soldiered on, he began an internal dialogue with his father, himself a gifted outdoorsman and football coach. The author, whose football endeavors ended with a severe injury during a game led by his dad, came to see his journey as an effort to prove himself to his parent. ``From the time I was born he had instilled me with a burning drive . . . Well, I never made it to the Olympics, never even came close, but I got to the Drung valley.''
In fact, Brackenbury did reach the Drung on his own, but to tell what happened when he arrived would diminish the pleasure of reading Yak Butter and Black Tea. And the pleasure of this book is great: Brackenbury writes clearly, gracefully and thoughtfully of the people he meets and the places he sees. He is the very best kind of adventurer, one who appreciates the journey as he makes it and who comes home with a whopping good tale to share. MEMO: Audrey Knoth is a free-lance writer and executive director of
public relations at Goldman & Associates in Norfolk.