Amah Jiejie pushed a thick file into the colonel’s hand. Tan hefted it. “Everything the government knows about you is right here. To the bureaucrats this file is more real than the flesh and blood Ko.” He held it in front of him and looked at it, shaking his head. “A chronic offender. Hooligan gang leader. You were arrested once for knocking down streetlights. A very difficult prisoner in those early years. Mess hall fights, escape attempts, assaults on guards. It’s all there. One of the old files, not yet entered into the new computer systems. This file makes you more real to the government than your own flesh and blood, son. Now that Amah Jiejie has adjusted certain other records, it is the only evidence of your existence as an inmate. Everything about you, up to this night.” Tan corrected himself, “Or rather, up to the day you nearly died saving my life.” The colonel gave an exaggerated sigh. “This is Tibet. To live again you have to die,” he said, and dropped the file into the brazier.

Shan and his son stared in stunned disbelief as the papers began to curl and burst into flame.

“As of this afternoon there is no longer a record of you at the 404th. You are dead to them. If ever asked, the doctor and I will confirm that you died of injuries received on that mountain. We shredded your hospital file before we left Lhadrung.”

Ko leaned on Yara as if he might fall. “You’re not taking me back to the 404th, Colonel?” he asked.

“Never again,” Tan replied. “But you will have to persuade your constable to issue you a residency permit,” he added. The colonel began to follow the pilot up the darkened hill, then paused and turned. “Lha gyal lo,” he said, and disappeared into the shadows.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

If anywhere on our planet could be described as the landscape of the soul, it must be Tibet. This remote, rugged land, closer to the heavens than any place on earth, became the home to scores of thousands of temples, shrines, monasteries, and convents, with a culture and social structure uniquely focused on spiritual pursuits. It has long been a treasure unappreciated by the world that still offers lessons for us today.