The Rise of West Lake

The Rise of West Lake
Author: Xiaolin Duan
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2020-04-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0295747110

Lovely West Lake, near scenic Hangzhou on China’s east coast, has been celebrated as a major tourist site since the twelfth century. Now as then, visitors boat to its islands, stroll through its gardens, worship in its temples, and immortalize it in poetry and painting. Hangzhou and West Lake have long served as icons of Chinese landscape appreciation, literary and artistic expression, and tourism. In the first in-depth English-language study of this picturesque locale, Xiaolin Duan examines the interplay between human enterprise and the natural environment during the Song dynasty (960–1279). After the Song lost north China to the Jurchens and the imperial court fled south, a new capital was established at Hangzhou, making the area the national political and cultural center. West Lake became a model for idealized nature, fashioned by the diverse activities of its visitors. Duan shows how engagements in, on, and around West Lake influenced visitors’ conceptualization of nature and sparked the emergence of the lake as a tourist destination, highlighting how the natural landscape played a role in shaping social and cultural constructs. Incorporating evidence from miscellanies, local and temple gazetteers, paintings, maps, poems, and anecdotes, The Rise of West Lake explores the complexity of the lake as an interactive site where ecological and economic concerns contended and where spiritual pursuits overlapped with aesthetic ones.

How the Swans Came to the Lake

How the Swans Came to the Lake
Author: Rick Fields
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 587
Release: 2022-02-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1611804736

A modern classic unparalleled in scope, this sweeping history unfolds the story of Buddhism’s spread to the West. How the Swans Came to the Lake opens with the story of Asian Buddhism, including the life of the Buddha and the spread of his teachings from India to Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, and elsewhere. Coming to the modern era, the book tracks how Western colonialism in Asia served as the catalyst for the first large-scale interactions between Buddhists and Westerners. Author Rick Fields discusses the development of Buddhism in the West through key moments such as Transcendentalist fascination with Eastern religions; immigration of Chinese and Japanese people to the United States; the writings of D. T. Suzuki, Alan Watts, and members of the Beat movement; the publication of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki; the arrival of Tibetan lamas in America and Europe; and the influence of Western feminist and social justice movements on Buddhist practice. This fortieth anniversary edition features both new and enhanced photographs as well as a new introduction by Fields’s nephew, Buddhist Studies scholar Benjamin Bogin, who reflects on the impact of this book since its initial publication and addresses the significant changes in Western Buddhist practice in recent decades.

Between Urban and Wild

Between Urban and Wild
Author: Andrea M. Jones
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2013-11-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1609382129

In her calm, carefully reasoned perspective on place, Andrea Jones focuses on the familiar details of country life balanced by the larger responsibilities that come with living outside an urban boundary. Neither an environmental manifesto nor a prodevelopment defense, Between Urban and Wild operates partly on a practical level, partly on a naturalist’s level. Jones reflects on life in two homes in the Colorado Rockies, first in Fourmile Canyon in the foothills west of Boulder, then near Cap Rock Ridge in central Colorado. Whether negotiating territory with a mountain lion, balancing her observations of the predatory nature of pygmy owls against her desire to protect a nest of nuthatches, working to reduce her property’s vulnerability to wildfire while staying alert to its inherent risks during fire season, or decoding the distinct personalities of her horses, she advances the tradition of nature writing by acknowledging the effects of sprawl on a beloved landscape. Although not intended as a manual for landowners, Between Urban and Wild nonetheless offers useful and engaging perspectives on the realities of settling and living in a partially wild environment. Throughout her ongoing journey of being home, Jones’s close observations of the land and its native inhabitants are paired with the suggestion that even small landholders can act to protect the health of their properties. Her brief meditations capture and honor the subtleties of the natural world while illuminating the importance of working to safeguard it. Probing the contradictions of a lifestyle that burdens the health of the land that she loves, Jones’s writing is permeated by her gentle, earnest conviction that living at the urban-wild interface requires us to set aside self-interest, consider compromise, and adjust our expectations and habits—to accommodate our surroundings rather than force them to accommodate us.

The Old West in Fact and Film

The Old West in Fact and Film
Author: Jeremy Agnew
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2012-11-15
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0786468882

For many years, movie audiences have carried on a love affair with the American West, believing Westerns are escapist entertainment of the best kind, harkening back to the days of the frontier. This work compares the reality of the Old West to its portrayal in movies, taking an historical approach to its consideration of the cowboys, Indians, gunmen, lawmen and others who populated the Old West in real life and on the silver screen. Starting with the Westerns of the early 1900s, it follows the evolution in look, style, and content as the films matured from short vignettes of good-versus-bad into modern plots.

Reflections on a Mountain Lake

Reflections on a Mountain Lake
Author: Tenzin Palmo
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2002-07-01
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1741151287

Tenzin Palmo draws on her years of solitary meditation in a Himalayan cave to bring us this down-to-earth and inspiring approach to the spiritual path. Her advice is characteristically direct: 'the essential thing is to learn how to develop a practice which you can live with moment to moment in your everyday life.' Tenzin Palmo explains how to develop a regular meditation practice and shows how meditation can help us deal with painful emotions like anger, fear and jealousy. With great clarity and insight, she introduces core principles of Buddhist philosophy and explains karma, reincarnation and the tantric tradition. She also explores the traditions of great female practitioners and how they are being maintained today. 'Tenzin Palmo is one of the most genuine and accomplished of Western practitioners.' Jack Kornfield, author of Path with a Heart 'Her example empowers each of us to wake up, calling forth a modern practical approach to a precious ancient tradition. Tenzin Palmo's is a voice we need to hear, a woman who has fully experienced what she speaks about with an absolute honesty, delightful humor, and real insight.' Tsultrim Allione, author of Women of Wisdom 'A marvellous read. Out of the depth of Tenzin Palmo's own lengthy meditation experience comes a clear explanation and heartfelt advice about the Buddhist path.' Vicki Mackenzie, author of Cave in the Snow

Middle Proterozoic to Cambrian rifting, central North America

Middle Proterozoic to Cambrian rifting, central North America
Author: Richard W. Ojakangas
Publisher: Geological Society of America
Total Pages: 331
Release: 1997-01-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0813723124

Based on the Tenth International Basement Tectonics Conference held at the University of Minnesota-Duluth in August 1992, this volume contains 19 papers, 13 of which focus on the Middle Proterozoic Midcontinent Rift. An introductory essay discussing the Middle Proterozoic to Cambrian rifting in central North America is followed by contributions addressing topics including the Midcontinent Rift in Michigan and Minnesota, the Port Coldwell veins of northern Ontario, and petrography and sedimentation in the western Lake Superior region. The last five papers deal with the pre-Mount Simon basins of Ohio, the English Graben and the newly proposed East Continent Rift Complex, the Reelfoot Rift/Rough Creek Graben in the evolution of the Illinois Basin, and the A-type sheet granites in the Oklahoma Aulacogen of Cambrian age. Bandw illustrations. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR