Bones of the Master - by George Crane (Paperback)

About the Book

Hailed as "magical", this "Los Angeles Times" bestseller is a fascinating book tracing a mystical journey with an unlikely pair, a young monk and his American poet friend, into the soul of an ancient religion and inside the mind of a Buddhist master.

Book Synopsis

In 1959 a young monk named Tsung Tsai (Ancestor Wisdom) escapes the Red Army troops that destroy his monastery, and flees alone three thousand miles across a China swept by chaos and famine. Knowing his fellow monks are dead, himself starving and hunted, he is sustained by his mission: to carry on the teachings of his Buddhist meditation master, who was too old to leave with his disciple.

Nearly forty years later Tsung Tsai -- now an old master himself -- persuades his American neighbor, maverick poet George Crane, to travel with him back to his birthplace at the edge of the Gobi Desert.

They are unlikely companions. Crane seeks freedom, adventure, sensation. Tsung Tsai is determined to find his master's grave and plant the seeds of a spiritual renewal in China. As their search culminates in a torturous climb to a remote mountain cave, it becomes clear that this seemingly quixotic quest may cost both men's lives.

Review Quotes

"A jewel ... firmly in the company of Matthiessen, Chatwin, and O'Hanlon."
-- Parabola

"A fascinating, beautifully written account of a great (and delightful) Ch'an master's return pilgrimage to remote Inner Mongolia after forty years of exile."
-- Peter Matthiessen, author of The Snow Leopard

"Crane chronicles their perilous and miraculous adventures, the beauty of Mongolia's wilderness of wind and sand, and Tsung Tsai's transcendent determination with uncommon clarity, wit, vitality, and love."
-- Booklist (starred review)

"A search for lost time, which the author recounts with haunting brilliance."
-- Richmond Times-Dispatch

"As if a Ch'an master stepped out of the ancient tales and took you on a journey both moving and inspiring."
-- Jack Kornfield, author of After the Ecstasy, the Laundry

Named "Best Spiritual Book of the Year" by Beliefnet.com

About the Author

George Crane is a poet as well as a translator of poems from the Chinese (A Thousand Pieces of Snow, co-authored with Tsung Tsai). He lives in upstate New York. Bones of the Master is his first nonfiction work.