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Book Review
Worming its way into your mind
By Carl MullerSri Lanka Journal of the Humanities
Vol. XXIII Nos. 1 & 2
Ed. S. w. Perera
pp. 195 - Rs. 150/-
The Department of English,
University of PeradeniyaI recall those times past when my children were told by the family doctor that they needed to be wormed. The patent recommended then was "Antipar" and the box in which the bottle came was so reminiscent of a Harison Pord movie. Worms! They simply infested the label. They crawled this way and that. They tied themselves into love knots. Fat, juicy worms: thin thready ones. Some made murukku of themselves, others question marks. The label would scare the living daylights out of the children, and they were only too eager to be dosed. "All those worms in my stomach?" a daughter would quaver. No, there was no problem giving the brood their Antipar!
It’s not that I’m calling the latest Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities a can of worms. Perish the thought! What is more, editor Dr. Walter Perera will, like Queen Victoria, say: "We are not h’amused!" You see, I get these strange images that pop into my even stranger mind. I opened the Journal and checked the contents page. Good gravy, What a glorious mixing and intermingling and such pretzels of original thought and such long, gliding serpentine expositions. Nothing could oust that image of the Antipar label. Bronze Buddha inscriptions, resistance and reconciliation writing, women in the University, Greek myths and Indian Jataka, Buddhist education, the origins of the Mahavihara, ELT and literature, naturalism in Pali Buddhism, Pirandello, Subhas Chandra Bose, and reviews of the Arnold Anthology and Taprobanica. The writers? Masters and Doctors galore and here I am, delighting in this squirming mass of academic worms and wondering if, like my daughter (when she was six) I could also take my Antipar with great goodwill.
To tell truth, I’m quite bewildered. There’s this big difference between facility and faculty (is there?) and being long on one, short on the other, I have to ask myself if I’m truly up to this task. The Journal launches with a very deep and quite "over the head" study of an inscription on the pedestal of a bronze Buddha image in the collection of the John Rockefeller III family. The image, as an antiquity, is priceless. It came from Nakapattinam where, at the initiative of the kings of Sri Vijaya, the Culamanivarma Viharam was established in the 11th century. Significant indeed is the fact that the lettering on the pedestal of this particular bronze is in two lines of Grantha and Tamil and, as the writer, Professor S. Pathmanathan says, the text undoubtedly refers to the bronze as that of the Buddha and goes on to say that the statue was made to be taken in festive procession at the temple of the Buddha - the Alvarkoyil.
There is no denying where this particular work is heading. It seeks to show that the worship of the Buddha was a vibrant part of Cola India. The inscription decides on the "possibility that the Order of monks of which Kunakara IV was the head, had existed at Nakapattinam and its neighbourhood for four generations by the time the monument was set up." Again, there is evidence of the international character of the Nakapattinam merchants during the Cola period. These merchants absorbed the craftsmen and artisans into their guilds and carried their crafts wherever they ventured. It is in this way that we have the bronze seal of the Nanadesis from Hambantota.
As Professor Pathmanathan says: "The inscription on the pedestal of the bronze image from Nakapattinam is the only epigraphic record among those brought to light hitherto, which contains a reference to a Buddhist institution in the Tamil country which was named after artisan communities associated with a merchant community." It appears that these Cola merchants made many donative inscriptions at their commercial outposts. The writer reminds of the two miniature bronzes unearthed at Padaviya and the Jethavanarama complex which pertain to the activities of the Nanadesis. In fact, the Padaviya inscription, Vikkirakan ceytu kutattom tells all: ‘We made images and donated them.’
While all this is strong meat and drink to the historian, it does remind me that while religion or philosophy or whatever persists in drawing battle lines today, there were those times past when both great men and simple souls honoured great teachers and did not count their fingers in doing so. The Colas gave to the Buddha due honour. To this day, the Buddhists of Sri Lanka give to the Hindu pantheon due honour. Then why do we have to bring in that veteran Napoleonic soldier Chauvin? Ay, there’s the rub!
Doctor Walter Perera himself has given us his thoughts on Commonwealth Prize winner A. Sivanandan’s "When Memory Dies". The book tries to capture life in Jaffna baflict. As Walter says, "Sivanandan has (constructed) a novel that presents subaltern perspectives...and formulates subaltern solutions to the problems besetting, the island. Conditions in the country are such that these ‘solutions’ cannot be effected. But they do provide a basis for equitable harmonious living when (or if) the blood-lust is replaced by even a modicum of normality."
Somehow, Walter’s account, hard on the heels of Professor Pathmanathan’s, makes me wonder. Sivanandan wanted "the people themselves to take power...ordinary people..." But note how well it is today that the merchant community that can go about its business, dealing with traditional friend or foe alike. As Walter notes, "Marginalized groups, whether set up as Trade Unions, the JVP, or Tamil militants show much promise initially but they are eventually devitalized, corrupted and subverted for a multiplicity of reasons."
Not so the Cola merchants of the 11th Century and not so the merchants of today. They build themselves on "acceptance" and do not look on one customer as chaff and the other as grain. What is significant is that the climate of bigotry, of racism is first established (even in school text books) and then rendered into fist, knife, torch, bomb and gun. So who are the real culprits?
I am sure Professor Sirima Kiribamune will forgive me for passing ever so lightly over her piece on women at the University College. It’s not that I’m not interested in women (perish the thought!) but the tale told is quite exhaustive although it was cheering to learn that the Medical College recruited its first female students, Misses E. Davidson and H. Keyt in 1892. Of course, it is underscored that girls lacked opportunity for higher education. There were not many avenues and after all, as is said with heavy emphasis, "the education of sons had priority over the education of daughters." It took the establishment of University College in 1921 to bring a change. We are told that the first First Class by a woman was earned in 1935. "This distinction goes to Evelyn Hester La Brooy, an English Honours graduate..."
I simply must move on, but it would be churlish not to convey Professor Kiribamune’s fitting ending: "The female graduates of University College were the forerunners of an ever-widening circle of educated women whose dynamism has in no small measure influenced the improvement of the status of women in Sri Lanka." Amen to that!
Professor Merlin Peris looks on divine and human impersonation with his characteristic enthusiasm. Jove impersonates Amphitryon in Greek myth. This has its strong echoes in the impersonation of Subha as Yasalakatissa and a like incident in the Illisa Jataka where Sakkha becomes the crook-back Illisa to teach the real Illisa a lesson. Illisa’s bump and Amphitryon’s bowl play the convincers in each case. A most compelling piece which should whet the appetites of classicists, scholars and fabulists.
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of Southern Carolina, Anne M. Blackburn, dwells on the commentaries we know as Sutra Sannaya, writings on the Buddhist sutras and the discourses of the Buddha. The first of these, the Sararthadipani (Illuminator of Excellent Meaning) and al1 that followed seemed to mark the changes in Buddhist institutions and devotional practices. They seem to point to a re-organisation of monastic institutions and "the development of a new educational system where Pali instruction and trained preaching played an important role." It also led, the writer shows, to a renaissance of Sinhala commentaries and the new educational infrastructure which shaped the Buddhist environment in this country.
To those who have read Nandasena Mudiyanse’s "Mahayana Monuments in Ceylon" it will be well to read in this Journal Jonathan S. Walker’s contention that the Mahavihara of Anuradhapura had its origin in an explicit rejection of dominant Mahayana teaching. A radical theory? Yes, but as Walker puts it, "there were the Mahayanist rivals who maintained that the Abhayagiri and the Jethavana viharas existed first and that the Mahaviharas later broke off from them."
Walker argues that the term Theravada first appeared in the 3rd Century AD and that inscriptions in India "are explicit that the ‘Theriyas’ at (Nagarjunikonda) were not Indian at all; they were Sri Lankans (Tambapannidipaka)." Theravada is exclusively Sri Lankan, an innovation TAKEN to India. All this has been most compellingly laid down and I’m sure, will start a sort of Conga line that should become most interesting.
Dushyanthi Mendis makes a plea for literature as a resource in language teaching in the ELT classroom. Oh, texts are set — the novel, short story, the play, the poem, all tied to the skills of reading and writing and speech. It is nice of :Dushyanthi to give us a "Proposed Lesson Unit" too, and remind that "creativity is an important factor in second- language teaching."
Associate Professor of Philosophy, John R. Holder Jt. takes on the supernatural in religion and looks with satisfaction on the down-to-earth naturalism so characteristic of the Buddhist Middle Path. It is the right thinking who keep "religious meaning tethered to what is verifiable and avoid the speculative and mysterious nature of the supernatural". It is only in this way that one can "avoid the trap of wrong views and come to right understanding."
Associate Professor John Stella gets more complex in his discourse on Pirandello and the life of a couldn’t careless Mattia who is "jolted into maturity" and has to accept the responsibilities of his hitherto irresponsible life. The Buddhistic upadana that brings in its wake dukkha and that final "horrible desolation." He is suicidal...and what does a man who seeks the escape of death do when he reads of his own death in a newspaper? A turning point? Now, with death wiping away the old life cannot he start anew, a clean slate? What holds, actually rivets, is how the writer keeps in this "Self and Suicide" scenario, a mirror that reflects all that is found in the mental and mortal states of man. Mattia is now Adriano, but Adriano cannot escape the burden of Mattia. The Self returns to haunt and taunt for the Self cannot be re-cast.
I will not dwell on the reviews. (Who reviews a review?) but Professor Arsecularatne has, in his short, simply worded piece, attempted to give reasons why freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose did not use the words of Krishna to Arjuna as told in the Bhagavadgita, to legitimize his anti- British military campaign. The fact was, as the writer shows, that Bose did not want such muscular Hindu ideology to break up the Indians in the Indian unity he sought. Bose always stood for Hindu-Muslim unity and "He succeeded in binding together the Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Tamils, Punjabis or for that matter al1 communities in a melting pot, namely the Indian National Army." (Muller & Bhattacharjee: Chandra Bhose and Indian Freedom Struggle).
Well, what can I say? Somehow I have found a strong Buddhistic flavour in this Journal. It could well prompt me to title this review "Buddhism Portrayed". It is a splendid mix of culture, philosophy, history, literature, archaeology, the Classics, the mythic and the heroic. Congratulations are in order, naturally, and that goes for Managing Editor Leela Kobbekaduwa and her team too. A job very well done!
Under the sparse grass
Deep in the soil I have built a chamber
It is cemented two feet by two,
And is eternally in darknesYour ashes entobed in a terracotta urn,
Its mouth sealed fast against seepage of rain,
Rest here, and one shrivelled spring of bougainvillia
You cherished the young plant , a gift from your nsonThis land has been sold to me in perpetuity,
It is your home now, in perpeturity,
This lonely vault.I sealed it
And heaped the earthYet still my days are geared
Towards the evening’s sharing
But then I lie alone
And know your final absenceThe sun-glorious sun-
Gives song to the morning
I bring you flowers from our garden
Against eternity and darkness–Anne Ranasinghe
The Language Lobby
After all, what are friends for?
By Carl MullerYou may hear this many times in passing days. Nice people, going out of their way to help...and you know that a "thank you", be it ever so humble, ever so fervent, is simply not enough. And then comes that even nicer, so self-effacing, absolutely wonderful reply: "Nonsense" Think nothing of it. After all, what are friends for?"
Thomas Hardy had his "She" tel1 "Him" of the shining past of youth and fire. And does the bond hold as strong as it first did? The "toils of time" have carried away her "lauded beauties". Does she ask for love? No. But she can ask for that most glorious thing of all: Friendship. So she asks -
Will you not grant to old affection’s claim
The hand of friendship down Life’s sunless hill.
You will also remember Kipling’s classic description of a true friend. Everything belongs, one to the other. And there will be no murmur, not a whisper of regret, of criticism’ of complaint. Everything he has belongs equally to his friend...and he will remain friend, even to the gallows hill where he will sit, remain staunch, faithful, unswerving in his regard and respect for the one he calls friend.
Hardy also conveyed this in his beautiful poem, "I Need not Go", where the man knows how true is the woman who loves him so. Really there is no need that he go to her. Really, there is no need to offer excuses, explanations, even to admit that he has new cares, new loves to occupy his thoughts. He has this marvellous anchor, an anchor he has seemingly no use for when the fair winds carry his ship of life to pleasant places. And yet, he knows that should he go to her, her welcome will be warm, real, kind and loving:
What — not upbraid me
That I delayed me,
Nor ask what stayed me
So long? — Ah, no! -
New cares may claim me,
New loves inflame me,
She will not blame me,
But suffer it so.I have chosen this theme today for a very special reason. I want to tell you of two men who call me friend, and I they. I know they will be most embarrassed and even make protest. Ashley Halpe will say: "Nonsense! Why are you making such a big thing of this? I knew your book would stand a chance. After all, what are friends for?"
Tissa Devendra will laugh. "Don’t thank me. You stood a very good chance. After all, what are friends for?"
You see — that magic phrase: "What are friends for?" Well, I’ll tel1 you’ Ashley won for me the first Gratiaen Award in 1994 and Tissa won for me the State Literary Festival Award this year. Me? I collected my awards and had to say thanks and thanks again and these friends beamed, and their eyes shone and they were as happy as a couple of sandboys and they made much of me and I knew, as I had never known before, what true friends were for!
It was l994. Me? Writing. In my own dozey world. I do read the newspapers but skip the ads. Funny, the more ads in anything and the less I read. Perhaps I am not clever enough to see the wisdom of arraying myself in advertised clothes, or seek to reduce weight at some slimming centre or rush out to purchase 10 perches of a bulldozed, treeless land called Glory Hallelujah. Ashley breezes in. "And why haven’t you submitted your book for the Gratiaen?"
"Gratiaen? Who’s that?"
"Humph! Here, complete this form. Do you have four copies of your book? Give them to me. Right. Now sign. I’ll take this to Colombo and hand it in. Don’t you know what’s going on?"
I hadn’t the foggiest. Later, I left for Sharjah, and then there were the faxes. From Ashley. From Veena de Silva of KVG’s. Congratulations! My mind was a scrambled egg. And you know what? Ashley had submitted his own book of poems! Now you tell me. What sort of a man would help another win the award he was competing for himself? Ah, but that’s Ashley...and he’s staunch and true in every way I know of!
Dickens gave us that classic tale of the "supposed Evremonde" going to his death. Nowhere has there been such an astounding tale of sacrifice and of true friendship. You recall the cell, the little seamstress touching him with her cold hand:
"If I may ride with you, citizen Evremonde, will you let me hold your hand? I am not afraid, but I am little and weak and it will give me more courage." As the patient eyes were lifted to his face,. he saw a sudden doubt in them, and then astonishment. He pressed the work-worn, hunger-worn young fingers, and touched his lips.
"Are you dying for him?" she whispered.
"And his wife and child. Hush! Yes."
"O you will let me hold your brave hand, stranger?"
"Hush! Yes, my poor sister, to the last."
There is not the least doubt that true friendship needs courage, sacrifice and, most important of all, a sort of balancing-out between the worth of one’s own life and the worth of another’s. And all this needs love. The kind of love that can never be measured, scarcely defined. As I see it, we, each of us, are fated as we go through life, to fall among thieves. We run the gauntlets of bribery and corruption, of false friends, schemers, rogues and gossips. We weather the crooked smiles of sychophants and hear words of praise from those who wish us ill. We meet jealousy, the brigades of petition fiends, those who look on us with slitted, critical eyes. We allow ourselves to be hugged by cold arms and welcomed with black tongues and do not see the faces of resentment and distaste, the pointed fingers of ridicule and the supercilious disdain of those who wish to proclaim their own cockerel might.
Oh, much has been written about the true friend...and yet, so many may say, and quite thoughtlessly at that, "I have lots of friends." Fortunate beings indeed. Lots of friends must be what Nirvana is all about. I’m not so lucky. Maybe I’m most undeserving, but I can still count my true friends, and when I do I get that feeling I’m sitting on that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Tissa Devendra said: "Here, haven’t you entered your latest book for the Sahithya Sammana. I’m faxing you the entry form. It was in the newspapers. Don’t you read the newspapers? God knows you write to them al1 the time!"
"What— what-"
He chuckled. "Send in your "Children of the Lion." Now don’t delay, you heard?"
And there was his fax and I fieled out the form and
took my book to Skypak. He beamed when he met me at the
BMICH. "Congratulations. I’m sitting over there.
You’re in the winners’ enclosure."
"I’ll come and sit with you."
"Nonsense. You’re the winner. I’m the clapper!"
Well, what could I say? "If you hadn’t faxed me the form and if you hadn’t-"
He cut me short. "Nonsense! After all, what are friends for?"
Yeats wrote of a choice. Man’s intellect must choose perfection of life or perfection of work. I’m a far cry from both, so I will neither have a "heavenly mansion" nor will I go ‘`raging in the dark" but I do have two good friends and true and they are the two sides of me, the right and the left, my day and night my head and feet. Even Belloc saw the giddy riot of "lots of friends" and people cavorting around, all on a stage with loud orchestra music and no printed programme to tell of order or progression.
The cast is large. There isn’t any plot.
The acting of the piece is far below
The very worst of modernistic rot.
And that’s what we are sliced and slivered into. A massive global sandwich where we, the relish, must palpitate with a lot of salted silly-billies who want to trample each other in that mad scramble to be eaten by destiny, sucked into some cosmic gut where they imagine they will reign in state ever after. We are surrounded by false faces and the masks hide venom and anger and corrosive jealousy. We walk, and our feet hurt and our ankles turn on the cobblestones of Hodgson’s Stupidity Street.
It was D. H. Lawrence who said that we are all transmitters -
As we live, we are transmitters of life.
And when we fail to transmit life, life fails to flow through us.
Is this the real secret of a better world. True friends are true, pure transmitters. They want, most of all, to give, and in their giving they show concern, love. They keep the Channels open with the amazing quality of their beings.
It would be fitting to end with Lawrence:
Give, and it shall be given unto you is still the truth about life.
But giving life is not so easy,
It doesn’t mean handing it out to some mean fool or letting the living dead eat you up.
It means kindling the life quality where it was not...
Thank you? Ashley and Tissa’ for kindling me!
China Cracks Down On Relics Smuggling
Theft and smuggling of cultural relics are rampant in China, and the crimes increasingly have international connections.
In 1993, a Tibetan Buddhist sculpture, named Qamba Acarab, housed in the Nyitang Zholma Lhakang Monastery in Lhasa, was stolen. Two years later, this over 1,000-year-old cultural relic under first-class state protection emerged in the United States, with a marked price of US$8 million.
The case helped launch an international war for cultural relics protection. In the ensuing years, the Chinese authorities worked painstakingly in cooperation with their counterparts abroad through many twists and turns to obtain the treasure’s return last year.
In January this year, the Lhasa Customs House, with the active coordination of the public security department in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, exposed a smuggling group mainly composed of Nepalese merchants, and seized 137 Tibetan cultural relics.
According to a customs official, Tibet is rich in cultural relics and historical sites, including 600,000 dating back to the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods and the Bronze Age. Of these, more than l0,000 have been put under first-class state protection. The Potala Palace, a world cultural heritage, alone has a collection of over l0000,000 cultural relics.
These invaluable relics have long been coveted by domestic and foreign criminals, and the region has reported frequent cases of relic thefts in recent years. Although the Lhasa Customs House has recaptured more than 1,000 items over the past four years, they represent only part of the large number of relics that have been stolen and smuggled abroad. The region still faces an arduous task to crack down on relics smuggling, said the official.
Running Rampant
According to Zhang Bai, deputy director of the State Cultural Relics Administration, after the founding of New China in 1949, the Chinese government promulgated a series of laws, regulations and policies governing relics protection. Various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have also formulated relevant decrees and policies in line with local conditions.Since the introduction of reform and opening policies in 1979, the Chinese government has attached even greater importance to the protection of cultural relics. It put into effect the Cultural Relics Protection Law in 1982, and issued the rules for its implementation a decade later. All local governments also established specialized cultural relics protection departments.
These measures severely attacked such activities as robbing ancient tombs and historical ruins and stealing relics collected by museums. In addition, the government appropriated huge amounts of funds for cultural relics protection and management.
Since the early l990s, however, relics-related illegal activities have soared. According to available statistics, in recent years, Chinese public security departments have dealt with nearly 5,000 cases related to the theft, smuggling and speculation of relics, recapturing more than 5O,OOO items. In 1997 alone, Chinese customs uncovered more than 600 relic smuggling cases, seizing over 11,200 items, including more than 4,000 on the banned list not to be taken out of the country. In the first four months of this year, another 200 or so items were intercepted.
Tightening Up Attacks
Pan Fengxiang, a Public Security Ministry official in charge of attacking relics-related crimes, attributed the rampant criminal activities to the exorbitant profits involved. Given that China has not developed a collected relics consumption market of considerable scale, and that there is a big gap between domestic and international prices, huge profits can be made by smuggling the articles abroad.Relics-related crimes handled by Chinese police reveal that most articles stolen from ancient tombs, temples, museums and elsewhere have been smuggled abroad. Hence, said Pan, to curb smuggling, China should tighten up efforts to crack down at the initial robbery stage.
Chinese public security departments have gained valuable experience and good results in this respect over the past few years.
Since the latter half of 1996, some criminals have targeted their hunt to large stone carvings scattered in temples and the open countryside. According to available statistics by the State Cultural Relics Administration, 25 cases relating to relics stealing were uncovered in the first five months of 1997, with 24 involving the theft of 105 large stone carvings in grottoes, temples or in the open.
In 1997, the Ministry of Public Security joined efforts with local public security departments and the State Cultural Relics Administration to launch a special campaign to attack such criminal activities. The campaign solved a batch of serious cases, effectively helping curb relics related crimes that had run rampant for years.
The ministry also initiated the organization of the relics-related crime-control cooperation zone encompassing Henan, Shanxi and Shaanxi (provinces with an abundance of relics), and Guangdong Province, the main smuggling outlet, with the participation of the railway public security department. The zone convenes a regular meeting each year to exchange information and analyze the situation and features of relics related crimes, and work out countermeasures in joint actions.
In Shaanxi Province, special police stations have been set up to handle ancient tomb robberies and other relics- related crimes. The Public Security Bureau of Xian, the provincial capital, has established a special department to handle such cases.
Hong Kong has always been a destination and transfer area for cultural relics smuggled out from the hinterland, owing to its location next to Guangdong and availability of a free-trade market. Since 1990, the Hong Kong Customs House alone has captured nearly l0,000 items smuggled from the mainland. This has spurred the mainland police to tighten up cooperation with its Hong Kong counterpart, which has paid off in terms of investigation and recovery of smuggled relics.
All-Round Interception
According to Jiang Yuliang, a General Customs Administration official, the majority of Chinese customs houses have established management mechanisms, and introduced computer management and closed circuit television supervision systems to intensify passenger, post and freight examinations.Carrying the goods personally or putting them into unaccompanied luggage are the most common methods to smuggle relics out of the country, but tightened up examination and management by custom houses nationwide have increased the risks of this channel.
Since 1995, the number of smuggled relics captured by various customs through on-the-spot passenger examination has declined on an annual basis, Jiang revealed. This indicates that on the one hand, the various measures adopted by customs have effectively curbed relics smuggling via this channel, while, on the other, the emphasis has shifted to cargo and mail transportation. Especially, large-scale smuggling through container transport has been a new trend since 1996.
Container transport undoubtedly will increase the difficulty in relics protection once it is used by smugglers, said Jiang. Owing to its low rate of open examination, large shipment and perfect shield, container transportation can easily be used by smugglers through sham declaration or hiding the relics in other goods. Bulky relics difficult to be carried by individuals, such as grotto sculptures and open country stone carvings, are usually smuggled abroad in this way.Since early 1996, custom houses nationwide have intensified efforts to detect relics smuggled through freight transport, and made some breakthroughs, said Jiang.
Smuggling through the mail has also drawn attention. In 1997 custom houses in the cities of Shenzhen, Changsha, Shanghai and Guangzhou seized more than 700 cultural relics, including some national treasures and prehistoric animal fossils, being sent through postal and express mail service channels. In March this year, among four boxes of "stone samples" declared by a company for export to Japan, Guangzhou Custom House’s EMS center uncovered 31 cultural relics dating back to four ancient dynasties which are not permitted to leave the country.
According to Jiang, many relic smugglers are foreigners working in China with diversified backgrounds, including business people, relic experts and historians.
To help customs officials enhance their awareness of relics smuggling and increase their appraisal skills, customs authorities and the State Cultural Relics Administration have opened training courses for customs officials on the appraisal of cultural relics, including ceramics, paintings, calligraphy, jade carvings and bronze ware. Thus far, 28 Chinese customs officials have received a certificate as special relics appraisers issued by the State Cultural Relics Administration.
Regularizing the Market
Smuggled cultural relics mainly come from four sources: stolen goods from ancient tombs, temples and museums, and purchases from the antique market, local residents, and relics auctions. Smuggled relics obtained from the latter three channels often have legal certificates, increasing the complexity of customs work.The auction of cultural relics in China began only a few years ago, and the immature operation still needs to be regularized. At present. the country has more than 20 cultural relics auction companies, mostly located in Beijing. Except for a few, such as the Beijing Hanhai Auction Co., which possess both capital and technical strength to do the business, the remaining 10-odd businesses have not yet acquired the necessary conditions. The lax management in the relics auction market in recent years only resulted in chaos in the trade of relics.
At a recent symposium sponsored jointly by the State Cultural Relics Administration and UNESCO, Zhang Bai disclosed that his bureau would adopt measures to bring order to the domestic cultural relics market, and ban illegal trading activities according to law. The state will establish a cultural relics market management department, regularize the relics auction market in accordance with law, strengthen the examination of the qualification for relics auction, and tight up the management over the transaction price of auctioned goods.
These measures will prevent relics whose trade is banned by relevant state laws from entering the market, and ensure the state enjoys priority in purchasing valuable relics scattered in society.
Moreover, a supplementary stipulation to Management Methods on the Appraisal of Relics Allowed to Leave China’s Territory is being drafted. Its promulgation is expected to tighten up management of relics auctions.
Relics experts also call on enhancing the sense of law among relics collectors. Owing to ignorance, some people believe it is quite logical to take the relics purchased at auctions out of the country. In fact, according to relevant laws and regulations, some relics are only allowed to circulate within the country. Moreover, unearthed relics are not allowed to be auctioned. Relics can be taken out of the country only with an exit license and other valid certificates following the appraisal by authorized state departments.
International Cooperation
Over the last decade, the Chinese government has strengthened international cooperation in relics protection. In 1989, it signed the UNESCO convention on prohibiting and preventing illegal import and export of cultural relics and the illegal transfer of their property rights. In 1997, China joined the international convention on stolen or illegally exported relics.Following the return of the Qamba Acarab sculpture, in May this year, the US customs, in line with the UNESCO convention, returned gratis 47 ancient Chinese cultural relics. These relics, seized in Florida, have been defined by American experts as burial articles in ancient China, with the market price for each exceeding US$1O,000. Both Chinese and US customs have pledged to maintain close mutual cooperation.
Arjuna’s Jokes
by Arjuna SomasekaramElementary, Mr. Watson
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip. As they lay down for the night, Holmes asked: "Watson, look up into the sky and tell me what you see".Watson said: "I see millions and millions of stars".
Holmes: "And what does that tell you?"
Watson: "Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Theologically, it tells me that God is great and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it tells me that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you?"
Holmes: "No, no...elementary, my dear Watson. It means somebody stole our tent, you dumbass".
How to stop your room-mate snoring
By the time the sailor pu11ed into a little town, every hotel room was taken."You’ve got to have a room somewhere," he pleaded. "Or just a bed, I don’t care where."
"Well, I do have a double room with one occupant - an Air Force guy," admitted the manager, "and he might be glad to split the cost. But to tell you the truth, he snores so loudly that people in adjoining rooms have complained in the past. Im not sure it’d be worth it to you."
"No problem," the tired Navy man assured him. "I’ll take it."
The next morning the sailor came down to breakfast bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. "How’d you sleep?" asked the manager.
"Never better."
The manager was impressed. "No problem with the other guy snoring?"
"Nope, I shut him up in no time" said the Navy guy.
"How’d you manage that?" asked the manager.
"He was already in bed, snoring away, when I came into the room," the sailor explained. "I went over, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and said, ‘Goodnight, beautiful,’ and he sat up all night watching me."
Comprehending Engineers (I)
In the high school gym, all the girls in the class were lined up against one wall, and all the boys against the opposite wall. Then, every ten seconds, they walked toward each other until they were half the previous distance apart.A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer were
asked, "When will the girls and boys meet?"
The mathematician said, "Never."
The physicist said, "In an infinite amount of time."
The engineer said, "Well in about two minutes, they’ll
be close enough for all practical purposes."
Comprehending Engineers (II)
There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all things mechanical. After serving his company loyally for over 30 years, he happily retired. Several years later the company contacted him regarding a seemingly impossible problem they were having with one of their multi- million dollar machines.They had tried everything and everyone else to get the machine fixed, but to no avail. In desperation, they called on the retired engineer who had solved so many of their problems in the past. The engineer reluctantly took ths challenge. He spent a day studying the huge machine. At the end of the day, he marked a small "x" in chalk on a particular component of the machine and proudly stated, "This is where your problem is".
The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again. The company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his service. They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges. The engineer responded briefly:
One chalk mark $1
Knowing where to put it $49,999
It was paid in full and the engineer retired again in peace.
Comprehending Engineers (III)
An architect, an artist and an engineer were discussing whether it was better to spend time with the wife or a mistress.The architect said he enjoyed time with his wife, building a solid foundation for an enduring relationship.
The artist said he enjoyed time with his mistress, because of the passion and mystery he found there.
The engineer said, "I like both" "Both?" Engineer: "Yeah. If you have a wife and a mistress, they will each assume you are spending time with the other woman, and you can go to the lab and get some work done."
Comprehending Engineers (IV)
A priest, a lawyer and an engineer are about to be guillotined. The priest puts his head on the block, they pull the rope and nothing happens. He declares that he’s been saved by divine intervention, so he’s let go.The lawyer is put on the block and again the rope doesn’t release the blade. He claims he can’t be executed twice for the same crime and he is set free too.
They grab the engineer and shove his head into the guillotine, he looks up at the release mechanism and says.
"Wait a minute, I see your problem..."
Cricket editor sacked over boundaries of taste
The Cricketer magazine— the establishment voice of the game— is in disarray after a tasteless attack on a Labour Minister resulted in the sacking of the editor and a split in one of cricket’s most famous families.
The editor, Richard Hutton, 55, son of the celebrated batsman Si Leonard Hutton and himself an ex-English international, has been sacked for publishing an article that mocked the blindness of David Blunkett.
Mr. Hutton was declared redundant by Ben Brocklehurst, 76, the magazine’s chairman and former Somerset captain — who is also the father of Mr. Hutton’s wife, Charmaine.
The rift occurred because Mr. Hutton wrote a column in this month’s edition about a perceived threat to college cricket in which the phrase "Blind Man’s Blunkett" was coined.
With circulation under attack, the editorial board of the Cricketer will meet this week to consider the next move. It is expected to offer Mr. Hutton "a reduced writing role".
The rift between the two is at odds with the cosy image of the magazine, which is run from tiny offices in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
Mr. Hutton, who had been editor for seven years, was told that he could not maintain his position after he used his column in this month’s issue to attack Mr. Blunkett.
In the article, he called on the Labour Government to halt changes in the collegiate system at Britain’s leading universities, which he believes helps to nurture top class cricket players. "The Secretary of State for Education has devised a new game or more recently a new form of financial blackmail," he wrote. "Blind Man’s Blunkett is a quest to lower standards of entry by destroying Oxbridge’s and Durham’s collegiate system."
Under Mr. Blunkett’s plans, Oxbridge and Durham will risk financial penalty unless they admit an increasing number of students from state schools until the proportion in college reflects the proportion in the education system as a whole, some 90 per cent.
For Mr. Hutton, the effect of this on cricket was clear. "Since the state secondary system virtually abandoned the game, the independent sector has had to carry it single-handedly," he wrote. "The implications for cricket are more serious if the Oxbridge intake from the private sector is restricted to under 10 per cent of the total. "
The article went on to attack Baroness Blackstone, the Labour peer, accusing her of supporting Mr. Blunkett’s changes in the higher education system because she harbours a long-standing grudge against Oxbridge, "presumably as a result of its rejection of her at the time of her studenthood".
After the article was published, complaints by letter and telephone arrived at the magazine about the language used by Mr. Hutton. Others also complained about his views of women cricketers whom he has previously labelled as "unfortunate".
Mr. Brocklehurst, who captained Somerset in the 1950s, reacted swiftly to the complaints and consulted most of the 11 members of the magazine’s controlling board which includes former Test cricketers such as Lord Cowdrey and Peter Allott, as well as Christopher Martin-Jenkins, cricket correspondent of The Daily Telegraph.
They concluded that Mr. Hutton should no longer have editorial control and Mr. Brocklehurst told him that his services were no longer required
Mr. Hutton, a former Yorkshire all-rounder who played in five Tests for England in 1971 and who later turned his hand to journalism, is expected to be offered a "writing role" on the magazine although he may well turn it down. His friends say that this particular column was written with such venom because he passionately wants his two sons, one of whom is studying at Durham, to succeed as cricket players.
The split has come after months of tension within the magazine. While Mr. Brocklehurst wanted to maintain friendship with the cricketing establishment, Mr. Hutton wanted to pursue a combative editorial line.
The Cricketer claims to be the best-selling cricket magazine in the world, with a circulation of 38,000. Another magazine, however, Wisden Cricket Monthly, is said to be emerging as a strong rival.
Last week, Mr. Hutton remained at home. He said: "I will not be able to comment until next week because we are still in negotiations. "
Yesterday, Mrs. Hutton celebrated the publication of Cream Cakes and Boundaries a book containing the culinary invention of the ladies who prepare the teas for competitors in the National Village Championship.
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