Essay Questions

What two classic English-language films do the characters use to criticize western portrayals of Tibet. What is revealed about Professor Horowitz in this discussion?

The two films which are referenced are Lost Horizon, released in 1937, and Black Narcissus, which was produced a decade later. Both films take place somewhere in the Himalayan Mountains, though there is no specific identification. Lost Horizon portrays this area at the top of the world as being home to a legendary utopian society known as Shangri-La where the aging process is slowed, where and residents live to an advanced age while still retaining their youthful appearance—as long as they never leave. Black Narcissus focuses on a group of British nuns trying to establish a convent and school in a palace that formerly housed the harem of a prince. After much internal conflict stimulated by repressed sexuality rising to the surface, the nuns are forced to give up plans and leave. Dolma situates Black Narcissus as a story about the failure of colonialism because the nuns eventually surrender the palace and head back to England and wonders what changed from the utopian idealism of the earlier film. Horowitz explains this as being the result of “two world wars and the decline of the British empire.” Except that Lost Horizon was produced more than 20 years after the end of World War I and is set in the same time period in which it was made. This makes Horowitz either unfamiliar with the development of cinema, or not quite the history expert his reputation would have it seem. From her initial meeting, Dolma expresses reservations about him.

What is the Nameless Saint?

The Nameless Saint is an ancient statue made from earth called a ku. It comes with a legend attached that insists upon its capacity to disappear and reappear on its own. When the protection of the saint is needed, it will appear. When that necessity is over, it will disappear. On a more literal level, the statue is a possession stolen by a member of the family at the heart of the story who then sells it. Year later, one of the narrators accidentally discovers the statue in a private residence in Toronto. On a storytelling level, the quest to get this statue back into rightful hands becomes the unifying plot tying the multiple narrative perspectives together. On a narrative level, the Nameless Saint is what Alfred Hitchcock called “the MacGuffin” in his movies.

What is the meaning of the title?

Measuring the earth with bodies refers a literal ritual involving lying prostate on the earth. It involves lying down flat with arms and legs stretched as much as possible and then digging into the soil to mark the point reached by the fingers. Then the person stands up and lies down again with their toes against those finger marks as the process is repeated again and again. This process becomes ritualized at the holy site of Mount Kailash until finally the pilgrim who has journeyed there has made a circle around the mountain back to where they began. It is a process that can takes weeks to complete and is seen as an act of symbolic resurrection. For Dolma, however, who has never even seen her homeland, the ritual carries another significant element that is not symbolic but literal. This ritual requires tactile connection to the homeland. Human skin traversing across the soil of a land she may never actually live to see becomes, in his exiled refugee state, nothing less than an impossible dream requiring the destruction of an occupational force.