The Snow Leopard: Peter Matthiessen

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For Matthiessen, a serious student of Zen Buddhism, the expedition wasn’t strictly scientific. It was also a pilgrimage during which he would seek to break “the burdensome armor of the ego,” perceiving his “true nature.” After it was published, in 1978—first, in part, in The New Yorker, then as a book—“ The Snow Leopard,” his account of the trip, won two National Book Awards, becoming both a naturalist and a spiritual classic. It overflows with crystalline descriptions of animals and mountains: “The golden birds fall from the morning sun like blowing sparks that drop away and are extinguished in the dark,” Matthiessen writes. But it’s also an austere Buddhist memoir in which the snow leopard is as alluring and mysterious as enlightenment itself. Subchapter 24.1: Rescue, Rehabilitation, Translocation, Reintroduction, and Captive Rearing: Lessons From Handling the Other Big Cats Brings current knowledge of the species, not only to researchers and conservationists, but also to decision makers, academics, and students Today most scientists would agree with the ancient Hindus that nothing exists or is destroyed, things merely change shape or form. . . the cosmic radiation that is thought to come from the explosion of creation strikes the earth with equal intensity from all directions, which suggests either that the earth is at the center of the universe, as in our innocence we once supposed, or that the known universe has no center.” The Hook - Peter Matthiessen passed away April 5, 2014 at the age of 86. I had read some of his fiction, loving the way his adventuresome novel Far Tartuga (1975) made me feel. I decided it was time to give this memoir, The Snow Leopard (1978) recounting his climb of Mount Everest in search of Blue Sheep and a quest to spot the elusive snow leopard a try.

Christiansen, P., J. Harris. 2012. Variation in craniomandibular morphology and sexual dimorphism in Pantherines and the sabercat Smilodon fatalis. PLoS One, 7(10): e48352. Marma, B., V. Yunchis. 1968. Observations on the breeding, management and physiology of Snow leopards. International Zoo Yearbook. Zoology Society of London, 8: 66-73. It’s a book about coming to terms with one’s self, with loss, with life. Or what “Walt Whitman celebrated the most ancient secret, that no God could be found more divine than yourself” (63) Perhaps the argument is that, until you are at peace with yourself, you cannot really do much for others. But I don't buy that, and if there's the second half of the argument, then it wasn't made in this book. So I'm afraid that his experiences under the sacred Bodhi tree are somewhat wasted on me. Up-front confession: My own interactions with Buddhism have been tangential and shallow, and I may be missing a lot. The sense I get (and to which this book contributes mightily) is that the emphasis this religion places on one's own acceptance, one's own enlightenment, and one's own self-knowledge doesn't really do diddly-squat to help your less-fortunate neighbor down the road. Mathiessen writes, quite movingly, of a child in India, dragging her twisted, crippled legs through the mud, and smiling up with the most beautiful face he's ever seen. While it's nice to be appreciated and memorialized in this way, perhaps studying medicine or public health instead of The Way would provide more tangible benefits to children like this. Similarly, the author's own children, shortly after the death of their mother, were left with another family for months while Mathiessen did, I suppose, what he considered more important than being there for them.Chapter 20: Corporate Business and the Conservation of the Snow Leopard: Worlds That Need Not Collide Freeman, H. 1983. Behavior in adult pairs of captive snow leopards Panthera uncia. Zoo Biology, 2: 1-22. Chapter 46: Joining up the Spots: Aligning Approaches to Big Cat Conservation from Policy to the Field The third time he read his father’s words was nearly two years ago, when he was invited to retrace the journey to the crystal mountain in the company of his father’s original companion, George Schaller. This time, he says, “because [my father] had died and was gone I felt a greater imperative, if you will, to use the book as a way to more deeply understand him and his thinking, not only what that experience had been like for him, but also who he was in life”. Matthiessen, equally adept at fiction and non-fiction, in The Snow Leopard writes the book of his life. He’s on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas a year after his wife is dead, leaving his eight-year-old son behind with family as he seeks at least two things: A glimpse of the rare and the presumedly soon-to-be-extinct Snow Leopard, and a visit with the Lama of Shay at the Crystal Mountain, where few westerners have dared venture. As I said, he’s a Zen Buddhist (something I did in the seventies casually study as one life alternative, as I eased slowly but inexorably out of my Dutch Reformed Christian upbringing), and this is a time in his life he wants/needs to make this quest, this journey.

Published in 1978, this book is the author’s memoir of his journey to the Himalayas to search for the elusive snow leopard. Accompanied by biologist George Schaller, porters, and Sherpas, he crossed mountains to reach the remote region of Dolpo, Nepal on the Tibetan plateau. Along the way he describes his spiritual quest based on the principles of Zen Buddhism in the wake of his wife’s death from cancer. It contains atmospheric nature and travel writing. It is filled with philosophical musings. It is written in the form of a daily diary from September 28 to December 1, 1973. Matthiessen’s detailed descriptions provide the reader with a sense of the stark beauty of the region, the harsh weather conditions, and the manner in which the people live. I particularly enjoyed their visit to the monastery at Crystal Mountain. It is a book where the journey is more important than the destination. Ok, I admit after the first chapter I considered not carrying on reading. At this point around a third of the content was religious philosophy - which is not for me. However the third of the book that was the hiking expedition and the third that was about the flora and fauna was great, and I am glad I persisted. But to see one is the lifelong goal (much as enlightenment is to his on-again off-again friend Matthiessen) of the author's travelling companion. The whole saga, pervaded by the near tedious melancholy of the two comrades as the going gets tougher and tougher, is fabulous. Chapter 12: Building Community Governance Structures and Institutions for Snow Leopard Conservation People's Postcode Lottery Support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery is protecting wildlife in Scotland, and around the world.Despite a few more forays into the spiritual journey, the expedition and scientific research parts of the book are much more heavily featured in the following chapters. The snow leopard’s powerful build allows it to scale great steep slopes with ease. Its hind legs give the snow leopard the ability to leap six times the length of its body. A long tail enables agility, provides balance and wraps around the resting snow leopard as protection from the cold.