| PRESERVING CULTURE & HISTORY CERS has been involved with culture conservation for over two decades. It started as documentation of many indigenous cultures unique to China's minority nationalities, many of which were in the process of disintegration, assimilation, or simply eclipsing in modern times. We gradually moved into the design and implementation of culture projects, at times involving entire local communities. We preserve both material and intellectual culture. In the former we sometimes conserve and restore entire ensembles of architecture, up to twenty houses or more in some projects. In the latter we document and support collections of ethnic music and legends. CERS is also an important repository of many old records, select pictures and films. |
THE MAP OF QING CHINA
By K.L. Tam, Hong Kong
This is a political map, made in 1879 and published in 1880, in Japan, 70cm x 90cm. Let’s start by looking at the political landscape of the 1880s. This was one of the most turbulent times in modern history. Two continents were in big trouble. In Africa, European powers were scrambling to slice up countries as their own territory. In about ten years, there was no place south of the Sahara Desert that could claim to be independent from European powers.
Milam: Ghost Town of the Pundits
By Kai Friese, New Delhi, India
Everyone said Milam was a ghost town and it is. Once a thriving summer settlement on the old trade route from Eastern Kumaon to Gyanema and Gartok in Western Tibet, it was abandoned in the wake of the 1962 border war with China. But by the time I got there, after a four-day walk, sweating and cursing on the climbs, creaking and wobbling on the steep descents, I just felt very happy to be alive. It was beautiful: the sunshine poured through the thin mountain air, the Milam glacier glistened on the slopes of Hardeol at the head of the valley. We walked to the glacier snout plucking rosehips and Tibetan seabuckthorn berries and returned to a breakfast of parathas and potatoes garnished with fresh local jimbu or chives. The day before, I had seen the twin peaks of Nanda Devi cresting like frozen waves over another ghost town called Martoli. “This used to be the biggest village in old Almora district,” said Kishen Singh, the chatty old chowkidar at Deepu Guest House, a snug whitewashed cottage at the edge of town. “There were five hundred families here, and back in those days, they say, young brides, who were new to this place, would lose their way in the gallis. They’d go to fetch water from the river, and wind up in the wrong house when they returned.” Kishen Singh’s face lit up at the ancient innuendos of the story. An old wives tale of young wives.
Dumtseg Monastery: A Project, A Memory
By Kesang Choden T., Thimphu, Bhutan
Dumtseg Monastery - this unusual stupa monastery stands stoically against the soft landscape of Paro valley’s golden rice fields that ripple gently in the autumn breeze. This is how I shall always remember this 15th century structure.
It is a place I associate with my great grandmother and my grandmother, because this is one of their favourite monasteries in Bhutan. From across the river, every time my eyes meet its cream white dome-like shape silhouetted against the red hillock, I am reminded of all that I love about them- their grace, magnanimity, and courage in the face of change.
Saving Culture from Extinction
By An Xiao Ming (Anmo), Alishan, Taiwan
On October 25, 2011 the Zhou Tribe held its most important Mayasvi ceremony. That night I received a phone call from Miss Dai Suyun. She said someone wanted to see me the next day. That was the first time I met Ah Fang, a native of central Taiwan and a longtime friend of CERS.
Celebrating the “R” in CERS
By Dr William V Bleisch, Luang Namtha, Lao PDR
CERS has been dedicated to promoting front-line scholarly research in remote areas right from its inception in 1986 as the China Exploration & Research Society. CERS has always had a core group of dedicated research scholars on our staff, and has hosted the best and brightest researchers from the network of scholars interested in the people and environments of the borderlands of China. Over the years, an impressive body of work has been contributed to the world heritage of academic knowledge. The benefits of this work do not just go to the careers of a few scholars. CERS sponsored research has been part of the foundation of the CERS experiential education program and village development projects, as well as being a guide and rationale for CERS’s program of exploration.
Lenggu Monastery
A tiny CERS project hidden inside a sacred mountain
By Wong How Man, Hong Kong
From the satellite image on my iPad, our route is penetrating into the heart of the high snow range surrounding what is Ge Nyen sacred mountain (6204 meters). The circular cluster of snowfields somewhat resembles petals of a lotus. A trail with peaks on both sides was what we used as access into the mountain. Beside it was a clear and pristine river cascading down from glaciers and alpine lakes. Between 2017 and 2019, twice, my team and I entered this remote mountain fastness.
Launch of the New CERS Research & Education Base in Lao PDR
By Dr William V Bleisch, Luang Namtha, Lao PDR
As the small twin-engine prop plane touches down at Luang Namtha Airport, I wonder what to expect. After all, the China border is just one hour away, and there were several hundred Chinese overseas workers there just two weeks ago before Spring Festival, most of them from central China. They come to work building the high speed rail line that will someday link Kunming and Vientiane, or to erect the new modern apartment towers in Moding Special Economic Zone on the China-Laos border. Although inside Lao PDR, the currency of Moding is RMB, the phone signal is China Mobile, and the most common language is Putonghua. The last time I passed through Moding, on my way back to China in December, construction was going on at a feverish pitch.
Island Pursuit – Anxiety unfulfilled
By Wong How Man, Kee Lung, Taiwan
I stand close to the boat’s chimney on the aft deck. It is warming to both body and heart, evoking a nostalgic feeling buried deep inside, which I have totally forgotten for over half a century. I am on a large ferry boat, the Taima Star (Tai for Taiwan and Ma for Matsu), with vehicles underdeck, out of Keelung, the northernmost port in Taiwan. It is late in the evening near midnight when we sail out toward the open sea. The four-year-old boat is 5000 tons with a length of over 100 meters. But my heart goes back to another Star, the Star Ferry in Hong Kong, barely 160 tons and one-third the length. Suddenly my teenage years come back to mind.
For six years, from 1961 to 1967 when I was twelve to eighteen years of age, I sat many times close to a chimney on the under deck of the ferry boat in Hong Kong during the winter months, riding across the harbor to Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon where I attended high school. Occasionally I would bring my ten-speed BSA bicycle along, an eye-catching luxury in Hong Kong during the 60s. In that case however, I would have to take the rival and less posh Yaumati Ferry from Wan Chai to Jordan Road, as the Star Ferry catered to a classier set and did not allow cargo, let alone a bicycle.
CERS Mandalay House
By Wong How Man Mandalay
Along a tributary of the Irrawaddy
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Almost seven years ago, CERS launched the HM Explorer, a 106- foot explorer vessel with seven air-conditioned guest cabins. This purpose-built boat allowed CERS to explore waterways of Myanmar, in particular the upper Irrawaddy and its main tributary the Chindwin River. To date, many river trips have been conducted each year, including several cruises involving students and guests.
CERS ARTIST RESIDENCY AND AGENCY
By Wong How ManHong Kong
A new model in supporting and representing artists
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“I appreciate art, but I do not appreciate artists,” I said bluntly to the impassive face of Zwe. He looked back at me blandly as if I was talking to a wall. I double-majored in Journalism and Art in college, and know well how artists are, or pretend to be. For me and most of us, we have the left brain to supplement the right. The better the artist, the more right-brain leaning he or she is, and the harder to manage her or him, if even at all possible. I elaborated on decades of knowing artists with right brain in surplus, and left brain in deficit. In the early 1980s, through the University of Southern California where I worked, I even brought two Chinese artists to the US, resulting in their success and ultimate immigration into the country. Zwe and a woman artist Phyu have been taking up my former residence on the hill here in Zhongdian. The wooden building is a three-story villa looking down on pine forest and fish ponds, the scene descending beyond to an ensemble of buildings, pavilions and kiosks, including a writer/composer residence, a multi-function main premises and a museum. Altogether eleven buildings make up the CERS Zhongdian Center on the outskirt of what today is known as Shangri-la. I have moved down to a small one-room abode which still provides enough sanctuary, but spares me from the ups and downs on the hill several times a day just for meals or meeting visitors.
The black pearl of Bhutan – first contact with the Monpa people
By Astor Wong Hong Kong
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The first thing that came into view after the plane soared
through layers of thick cloud was the snowcapped
mountains. Traces of snow sprawled from the top of the
hills to the foothills, eventually melting into rivers - the
arteries and veins of the country running through and
nourishing the land. Welcomed by a gust of cold wind after a few hours’
flight, I wrapped myself in a thick scarf to keep warm. It was early
December, the prologue to a few months of bleak cold winter in Bhutan.
The honey hunters of Palawan By Astor Wong Hong Kong
The Batak’s traditional practice of honey collection dates back in history. Though it is uncertain when did they learn and started practicing honey-harvesting, honey certainly plays a vital role in their livelihood, contributing to both subsistence - as a nutritious food source - and cash income. Successful honey collection requires in-depth knowledge about bees and their behavior. The Batak people have a diverse range of bee knowledge,
My Journey of Auspicious Coincidences
By Ashi Kesang Choden Wangchuk Thimphu, Bhutan
CERS and my own office, the Buddhist Art & Cultural Conservation Centre, have one thing in common - a commitment to ensuring the preservation and continuity of cultures and the arts of the Himalayan region.
First Decades of Exploration Highlights
By Wong How Man
I have just turned 70, and my exploration has reached five decades. It seems proper to say I began my real exploration in 1969, when I left home for America and college.
Curiosity notwithstanding, throughout my upbringing for the first two decades of my life, I could only explore around my immediate vicinity of Hong Kong. It was when I left home that I could physically explore beyond the place of my childhood. And that, I did.
Looking back on fifty years, I reminisce some of the highlights, both in years, months and days. The rainbow of colors and memories are too rich to recount in detail. Through pictures however, I felt such recall could be captured to a degree of time past, and be shared with a few friends.
A token of my friendship and gratitude for your 70th birthday
By Katia Buffetrill Zhongdian, Yunnan
I first heard the name of Wong How Man through a common friend, Stéphane Gros, himself a researcher, colleague and friend at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris. Knowing that my research on pilgrimages around sacred mountains was going to lead me to make the pilgrimage around Kawakarpo Mountain in 2003, he put me in contact with How Man. In fact, that year was a water-sheep year, considered to be the most auspicious one for the Kawakarpo pilgrimage, since it is said to be the mountain god’s birth year and the sixtieth year in the Tibetan sexagenary calendrical system. I thus met How Man, a man of immense generosity and faithful in friendship at a very auspicious time. Not only did he open to me the doors of the CERS Center beside Napa Lake, close to the city of Gyalthang, but he also invited me to participate in the program he had conceived for the pilgrims journeying to Kawakarpo mountain in that very special year. CERS first took care in repairing the wooden bridge across the Mekong, and built a tea house and a clinic next to the bridge, a compulsory passage for all pilgrims. With the help of a team of young Tibetans and Chinese, we were in a perfect situation not only to offer tea and first aid to the pilgrims but also to count the pilgrims (daily from 6AM to 8PM) and to ask a series of questions that had been chosen by How Man and the team.
CENTENARIAN PILOT WHO FLEW IN FIVE WARS
From Missionary pilot to Mercenary pilot By Wong How Man, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
His fingers are long, slender and frail. Felix Smith held the pen firmly and with slow but determined movement he autographed his book for me. “For How Man, withanks for all of the good things you have contributed to the history of CNAC and CAT. Felix.” So it reads now on the inside cover page of the book, China Pilot, flying for Chiang and Chennault. That’s the first time I saw someone short-cut the words “with thanks”. For Felix however, his life had no short-cuts, but instead was long and distinguished.
INTO THE BOONDOCKS: EXPLORING PALAWAN’S LONGEST RIVER (Part I)
By William V. Bleisch, Palawan
On 2018 Nov 26 a Monday, we travel from Shek O to the CERS Maoyon base in Palawan. Late that evening, at 23:00, several of us travel to Barangay Tagabinet to attend the wake for Ardes F. Cayaon (Dec 15, 1976 to Nov 21, 2018), caver, river guide, explorer, and friend. He will be missed. When it was my turn to stand in front of the coffin, its glass top fogged up with condensation from the refrigeration, a large cricket hops down onto the top of the casket directly over Ardes’s mouth, then hops on to the back of my neck as I turn to leave.
OUR FISHERMAN MYTH
By Astor Wong, Hong Kong
The waters of the Sulu Sea during winter, under constant attack by typhoons, are notorious for being perilous. Even skilled and experienced fishermen avoid setting sail during this time of the year and seek other ways of livelihood. There was but one exception. At dusk on a November day; on the vast and boundless ocean, one could only see two boats, fearlessly cleaving through rough waves and tough winds, determined to get to an off-the-grid island named Cawili regardless of the potential hazards. In the name of exploration, a diverse group of passengers, from the United States, the United Kingdom, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Kunming, and the foothills of Tibet, with a local Filipino boat crew, daringly sailed against the strong currents while being assaulted by aggressive gusts of wind.
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