One of those venerable traditions that have always fascinated me is that of the hailchasers. For centuries these weather charmers, who were often trained as rigorously as Tibet’s acclaimed medical doctors, roamed the land, consulting and placating the earth deities to protect farmers and herders. Elaborate festivals, with roots in pre-Buddhist Tibet, were often staged in monastic centers to honor those deities in the hope of avoiding the land’s violent, sometimes fatal, hailstorms and earthquakes. Some in Tibet suggest that the failure to keep harmony with such deities is why its landscape has been so ravaged in recent decades. Mountain ranges have been stripped of their fertile forests, huge mines have depleted their minerals, and the land’s unique wildlife decimated. Major new dams are being built at a frantic pace to power Chinese cities in the east, without meaningful environmental assessment. Some Tibetans in remote regions have been abruptly introduced to the twenty-first century by the arrival of clearcutting timber crews and bulldozers that scrape away the mountain that had always been home to their protective deity.

As I immersed myself in these modern Tibetan realities while writing the Inspector Shan series I came to see Tibet as a vital barometer of our own humanity. The rest of the world too often turns a blind eye to the oppression that occurs there and in neighboring Xinjiang Province, preferring to focus its moral outrage on issues that pale in comparison to the abject human rights abuses of this struggling region. Those abuses diminish all of us. We can’t fight for human rights in one place, in one political context, and not fight for them everywhere. The most profound lesson of all from Inspector Shan is that the Tibetan journey has become our journey too.

:Lha gyal lo, Eliot Pattison

Also by Eliot Pattison

ALSO BY ELIOT PATTISON

THE INSPECTOR SHAN NOVELS

Skeleton God

Soul of the Fire

Mandarin Gate

The Lord of Death

Prayer of the Dragon

Beautiful Ghosts

Bone Mountain

Water Touching Stone

The Skull Mantra

ALSO

Bone Rattler

Eye of the Raven

Original Death

Blood of the Oak

Savage Liberty

Ashes of the Earth

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ELIOT PATTISON is the Edgar Award–winning author of nine previous Shan novels. A frequent visitor to China, he has written books and articles on international policy issues that have been published around the world. He lives on a colonial-era farm in Pennsylvania. You can sign up for email updates here.

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