田野笔记 / Fieldnote
神山之下 / Beneath the Sacred Mountain
对于来自东部平原地区的人而言，丽江是迈上滇西北藏区的理想入口。其海拔高度为2400多米，对于驻地雾浓顶村3600多米的海拔高度而言，会是一个合理的高原反应缓冲地带。同时，丽江具备一种生了根的多民族性，可以让一个汉人在这里先开始文化心理上的“去中心化”。
当然，在丽江古城还有一项工作任务，就是购买东巴纸。东巴纸虽为纳西族的文化遗产，但其植物原材料（荛花树皮）和接近 欧洲造纸法的制作思维都与中原地区有很大不同。这种“少数派”“非主流”的调性，颇合这次驻地创作的心态，于是想把它用作绘画的纸本。
For someone from the eastern plains, Lijiang is an ideal gateway to the Tibetan region of northwestern Yunnan. At an altitude of over 2,400 meters, it serves as a reasonable buffer zone for acclimatization to the higher elevation of the village where I would stay—Wunongding, which sits above 3,600 meters. Moreover, Lijiang possesses a deeply rooted multi-ethnic character, offering a Han Chinese like me an opportunity to begin a cultural and psychological process of "decentralization."
Of course, there was also a practical task in Lijiang’s ancient town: purchasing Dongba paper. Although Dongba paper is part of the cultural heritage of the Naxi people, its plant-based raw material (the bark of the Wikstroemia tree) and its production method, which resembles European papermaking, differ greatly from traditional techniques in the Zhongyuan Area (where I come from). This "minority" and "non-mainstream" quality resonated with the attitude of my residency project, and I planned to use it as the paper for my paintings.
10-09-2023
6个半小时后，到达德钦，迈入既下山酒店受到礼遇。来到酒店四楼观景，不出所料梅里雪山的山脊隐匿在一片白色中，远远望去已分不清云雾和冰雪的界限。晚上酒店放映惊悚纪录片《卡瓦格博》，介绍的就是1991年的山难和后续的搜寻故事。现场有穿着登山服的观众，一边看一边依偎在爱人的身旁默默流泪。
窗外的格桑花静静盛放。
Six and a half hours later, I arrived in Déqên and was warmly received upon entering the Sunyata Hotel. Heading up to the fourth floor of the hotel for a view, as expected, the ridges of the Meri Snow Mountain were shrouded in a blanket of white clouds; from a distance, it was impossible to distinguish where the clouds ended and the ice and snow began. In the evening, the hotel screened the thrilling documentary Kawagarbo, which recounts the 1991 mountaineering tragedy and the subsequent search and recovery efforts. Among the audience were some dressed in climbing gear, who watched while nestled against their loved ones, silently shedding tears.
Outside the window, the gesang flowers were quietly in full bloom.
来到飞来寺，除了目睹诸位法师先贤，最难忘的还是纪念佛教大师的各种塔。说着看到不远处山上的白塔，彭措和我又驱车前往。听他说，白塔或佛塔又名曲丁，里面一般放家里旧物，内有香柏木矗立其中，要保持树木东南西北方向不变，所以是平移进来的。
经幡挂在树林间，在风中隐隐作响，而这种貌似凌乱的状态却不影响纪念的神圣感。可能这种缠绕和胶着本身即是常态，也许反映了藏地对于“圣洁”的理解与现代社会有很大不同。
Arriving at Feilai Temple, aside from witnessing the statues of revered masters and sages, the most unforgettable sights were the various stupas commemorating Buddhist masters. Noticing a white stupa on a distant hillside, Puncog and I drove over to see it. He explained that a white stupa, or Buddhist pagoda, is also called a “chodten.” Inside, families often place old belongings, and a fragrant cedarwood pillar stands at the center. To maintain the tree’s original orientation—aligned with the four cardinal directions—it is carefully moved in without rotation.
Prayer flags hung among the trees, rustling faintly in the wind. Their seemingly untidy arrangement did nothing to diminish the sacredness of the memorial. Perhaps this kind of entanglement and interweaving is itself a natural state, reflecting how Tibetans understand “holiness” in ways that may differ greatly from modern society.
雾浓顶下，风卷山岚，自己曾经作过的一幅山水画仿佛幻化为现实。
Below Wunongding, the wind swept through the morning mist, bringing into reality a Shanshui painting that I made in the United States.
*Wunongding, the transliterated Mandarin words stands for “the mountaintop of heavy mist” in Chinese, which means “Buddha’s head” in Tibetan ( དབུ་ནག་སྟེང ).
借助望远镜机器所成的影像无疑显化了观看行为的意图感。在光学技术的加持下，这是一种具有现代感的凝视：身体不用靠近风景，自而可以借助仪器把远方收入瞳孔。
比较之下，转山的信徒们会是什么眼光呢？没有镜头带来的方便也没有镜头带来的遮蔽，唯有勤勤恳恳地以裸眼视之。而那些殁于雪崩的登山队员呢？恐怕是登顶之后，环顾四周一览众山小的快意吧。
The images produced by the telescope undoubtedly highlight the deliberateness of the act of viewing. Enhanced by the optics technology, this is a modern form of gazing: the body need not approach the landscape, as the instrument brings the distant view into the pupil.
In contrast, what kind of gaze might pilgrims on the circumambulation journey hold? Without the convenience or obstruction of a lens, they rely diligently on the naked eye. And what of the climbers lost in the avalanche? Perhaps, upon reaching the summit, their eyes would be filled with the exhilarating sight of all peaks lying beneath their feet.
离开飞来寺，前往明永冰川。据说几年前旅游热度超高的明永冰川景区近来被雨崩村替代了。三人小分队沿栈道爬山，但栈道不时被坠石砸断，所幸古道在旁可以切换。爬得再高，也会陡然发现寺庙早已在上等候。太子拉康和莲华拉康的金顶在雪山前熠熠发光，在蓝天的映衬下显得格外有“人工感”。墨色的冰也许不符合游客对冰川纯净的期待，但仔细观察，墨色的冰层下有透出亮青的本色，以及从冰川底部潺潺流出的融水。于是就在寺院经幡的包围中，静静聆听远处不时传来的冰暴声。
冰川在逐年的后退中呈现季节性的前后移动，这种景观演变的反复性之前在研究桂林的岩溶地貌时也有出现。91年山难的队员尸体在明永冰川被发现，根据登山家小林尚礼的推算，明永冰川的流速为每年200-500米之间，而每月的水平流速为32米/月。
作为一名艺术家，“人”作为景观时空的衡量者，一直是我的创作兴趣之一。万万没想到在山难的故事里，人的身体会以如此令人惊骇的方式成为估测气候变化影响的标尺。
Leaving Feilai Temple, we headed toward the Mingyong Glacier. It is said that Mingyong Glacier, once an extremely popular tourist site, has recently been overshadowed by the fame of Yubeng Village. Our small fellowship of three hiked along the boardwalk trail, though sections of which were occasionally broken by fallen rocks. Fortunately, an old path ran parallel, allowing us to switch routes when needed. No matter how high we climbed, we would suddenly notice that temples had long been waiting above us. The golden roofs of Taizi Lhakhang and Lotus Lhakhang shone brilliantly against the snowy peaks, standing out with an almost “artificial” glow under the blue sky.
The dark-colored ice may not align with tourists’ expectations of pristine glaciers, but upon closer inspection, the underlying layers revealed a translucent bluish-green hue, while meltwater trickled steadily from the glacier’s base. Surrounded by prayer flags near the temple, I listened quietly to the occasional rumble of ice collapsing in the distance.
Glaciers, while gradually receding over the years, still exhibit seasonal shifts in their forward and backward movements. This kind of cyclical landscape transformation is something I had previously encountered while studying the karst topography of Guilin. The remains of the climbers from the 1991 disaster were discovered on the Mingyong Glacier. According to mountaineer Shōri Kobayashi’s estimation, the Mingyong Glacier flows at a rate of 200–500 meters per year, with a monthly horizontal movement of about 32 meters.
As an artist, I have long been interested in how “human” acts as the measurer of time and space within landscapes. Yet it never occurred to me that, in the story of this mountaineering tragedy, human bodies would become such a startling measure for estimating the impacts of climate change.
早上，绒毯一样的云层将山峰锁在视线之上，腰线以下的部分倒能清晰地看到，想想看不到我们的山峰也会寂寞的吧；
中午，乌云或飘走或稀释，白云朵朵挺立于山与天之间，山顶露出全貌；
傍晚，乌云漫开、雷电交加，飘向梅里雪山的西侧，据说在附近的白马雪山引起了几起火灾。当地消防部门相信阵雨可以扑灭，不用过分担心。
In the morning, a blanket-like layer of clouds concealed the mountaintops from view, though the slopes below remained clearly visible. It made me wonder if the hidden peaks might feel lonely, unseen by us.
By noon, the dark clouds had either drifted away or thinned out, replaced by white clouds standing distinctly between the mountains and the sky, fully revealing the summits.
In the evening, dark clouds spread across the sky, accompanied by thunder and lightning, drifting toward the western side of the Meri Snow Mountain. It is said that it has triggered several wildfires in the nearby Baima* Snow Mountain. Local fire departments believe passing showers will help extinguish them, so there is no need for excessive worry.
*Baima, stands for “white horse”.
徒步穿越的地带也是藏民的夏季牧场，沿途相伴左右的高山植物伫立在各自的位置上，棵棵分明，摇曳生姿，没有一般南方植物群落所常见的那种混融交错。这也许是高海拔所带来的分寸感吧。
之前阅读有关煨桑的研究文献，不得不感叹这实在是一个古老且神奇的仪式。云南优渥的地理条件让煨桑的材料和环节可以十分丰富，仪轨中所显露的观念也更加多样化。
The area I trekked through serves as a summer pasture for Tibetan herders. Along the way, alpine plants stood in their own distinct spaces, each clearly separate yet swaying gracefully, without the interweaving situation often seen in the plant communities of southern China. Perhaps this sense of propriety and distance is a gift of high altitude.
Having read research literature on the incense offering ritual before, I couldn’t help but marvel at how ancient and mystical this practice truly is. Yunnan’s favorable geographical conditions allow for rich variety in both materials and steps of the ritual, and the underlying concepts revealed in its procedures are notably diverse.
作为驻地之旅的尾声，独克宗古城是当晚的参观点。天色已晚，走进一家唐卡画院，和里面的画师聊一聊艺术。画作不可拍照，似乎维持了一种神圣性。
在数码复制时代，实体绘画的物质性让图像保有“原作”的地位，使亲身观看的经验弥足珍贵。禁止摄影的规定，也让图像牢牢地属于它的画布和它所在的地点。可惜当年香格里拉的一场大火，湮灭了画院里原来存有的诸多画作。未被储存的很多图像，就在原地化为灰烬，碳化物上依稀可见原画的金箔残留。离开画院已将近11点，地平线早已消失在夜幕中。
不远处，大佛寺的巨形转经筒在射灯的照耀下愈发吃力地转动着，不知还有哪几个游客在推。
As the final stop of the residency journey, the ancient town of Dorkhar City was the destination for the evening. As dusk fell, I stepped into a Thangka painting studio and chatted with the artists inside about art. Photography was not allowed, a rule that seemed to maintain a sense of sacredness.
In this age of digital reproduction, the materiality of physical painting preserves the status of the image as an “original,” making the experience of seeing it in person truly precious. The prohibition on photography also ensures that the image remains firmly tied to its canvas and its location. Sadly, a great fire in Shangri-La years ago destroyed many of the paintings once housed in this studio. Countless images, never digitally preserved, turned to ashes on the spot, with traces of gold leaf from the original works faintly visible on the charred remains. By the time I left the studio, it was almost 11 p.m., and the horizon had long vanished into the night.
Not far away, the giant prayer wheel at the Great Buddha Temple rotated with increasing effort under the glow of spotlights—I wondered how many visitors were still pushing it at this hour.
这挤凑的屋顶，形成绝非一朝一夕，而是人类在此聚居繁衍、内部微调的结果。它们好像四周山脉在的平原的延伸，人流攒动，形成了自己独特的地貌。
当太阳一点点沉下去，城里的灯火就会一点点亮起来。
These densely packed rooftops were not shaped overnight. They are the outcome of long-term human settlement, growth, and subtle, internal adaptations over time. Like an extension of the surrounding mountains onto the plain, the constant flow of people has shaped this place into its own distinctive topography.
As the sun dipped bit by bit below the horizon, the lights of the town would gradually be glowing up.
在地文化发现 Local Discoveries
在进入丽江古城时即可见到，随后贯穿了在藏地的一路旅程，在各个煨桑台或者寺院门口都有。洗手台的存在既是政策鼓励的结果，也会促发当地文化中关于“清洁”的观念，在云南形成一种跨民族、跨地区的文化现象。
These can be seen upon entering Lijiang’s ancient town and continue to appear throughout journeys across Tibetan regions, often found near incense offering platforms or at the entrances of monasteries. The presence of handwashing stations is both a result of policy encouragement and an element that resonates with local concepts of “cleanliness,” forming a cross-ethnic, cross-regional cultural phenomenon in Yunnan.
寄魂柱
曲登阁旁一丛丛的“寄魂柱”，据说寄托的是家中长辈对孩辈的祝福。这种累积生长的石灰体也可能依附于宗教建筑上，在与人的互动中不断生长。这不仅反映了一种与汉地颇为不同的建筑表皮观，也和现代审美理念中对于“简约”的追求相去甚远。
Soul-Hosting Pillars
Clustered beside Qudeng Pavilion are rows of "soul-hosting pillars," said to carry the blessings of elders for their children. These accumulated, growing lime structures can also attach themselves to religious buildings, expanding through human interaction. This not only reflects a view of architectural surfaces quite different from that of Han Chinese regions but also stands far removed from the modern aesthetic pursuit of "simplicity."
藏地对宗教场所的转行方向有明确的规定，而转行的对象可谓丰富，小到转经筒，大到神山，以及处于其间的玛尼堆、煨桑炉、白塔、寺院等，都须遵守顺时针的行走方向。在学者郭净看来，藏民转山就代表一种水平运动，与当年雄心勃勃的登山队所追求的向上运动观念迥异。这种在空间上回到原点，在时间上迈向轮回的运动观，已逐渐沉淀为一种集体心理上的在地文化。
In Tibetan regions, there is a clear rule regarding the direction of circumambulation at religious sites, and the objects of such practice are diverse—ranging from small prayer wheels to sacred mountains, as well as intermediate structures like mani stone piles, incense offering burners, white stupas, and monasteries. All must be walked around in clockwise direction. In the view of scholar Guo Jing, Tibetans' practice of circumambulating mountains represents a form of horizontal movement, which stands in stark contrast to the upward-striving mindset of ambitious mountaineering teams in the past. This perspective of movement—spatially returning to the starting point while progressing toward samsara in time—has gradually solidified into a form of local culture rooted in collective psychology.