An epitaph on the tomb of the Emperor Babur (d 1530) in Kabul lists the eight fundamental qualities for a ruler:
Lofty judgment, noble ambition, the art of victory, the art of government, the art of conferring prosperity upon his people, the talent of ruling mildly the people, the ability to win the hearts of his soldiers, love of justice.

Good criteria for any leader in any age.

昨天中午書房來了一隻虎頭蜂，開窗送出去。傍晚又來了一隻(同一隻嗎？跟牠還不熟，不認識)，引牠上手帕，輕輕地帶到外頭送行。附近或許有新巢，該巡查一下，也要小心，因為只要被五隻虎頭蜂叮就賽牙挪啦，不是開玩笑的。

生死在一呼一吸之間。偶爾提醒自己也不錯。

但話又說回來，虎頭蜂為甚麼會攻擊？從未聽說野狗山豬甚麼的被虎頭蜂叮死，難道不會進入虎頭蜂的地盤嗎？我曾觀察過虎頭蜂巢，旁邊就有蝴蝶、鳥、松鼠，虎頭蜂置之不理；我站的地方離蜂巢約四步而已，也不理我。那麼為甚麼「虎頭蜂會攻擊人」是常識？或許因為人與山對立，人以各不相讓的心態闖山，虎頭蜂感覺到不合、舛忤，不舒服，就攻擊。平地人多帶都市氣息入山，原住民上山往往為了漁獵；殺氣騰騰。身上肉味、煙味、內燃機味、都市污染、各種山裡沒有的氣、味，讓山跼蹐。
:
十幾年前捐軀的陳義興老師是佛弟子。他被虎頭蜂叮死的時候是帶學生郊遊，學生丟石頭打蜂巢；我相信，陳老師的本意絕不願冒犯蜂群，但為了學生安全，只好擔當起業障。這是菩薩行，非常例。
:
我與山 =：包括一切土石草木蟲獸：= 的相處是和平共存。我敬重天地，而不肯怕天地，因為怕是對立。與天地對立幹甚麼？我們也是天地的一份子。太多次，蛇可以把我咬死卻沒有；太多次，山可以把我跌死卻沒有；太多次，石可以把我壓死卻沒有。我感激山放過我。己所不欲，勿施于天地萬物。

The Jingpo, or Kachin, celebrate Shapawng Yawng Manau 豐年祭 every year. The dancing is lead by the jai wa, a shaman bard who recites prayers and mantras. Nobody may dance until he begins, but once he has begun, the dancing may continue for days without stop.

At some celebrations, thousands of Jingpo attend. "The manau can be large or small," says former Taiwan Jingpo Association President Zit Hkun Chang Sau 台灣景頗族同鄉會前任會長孔大發先生. Here he performs the manau dance, and this is as small as it gets: one Jingpo. He did not bring his own sword, so I lent him a Tayal headhunting knife. I have recorded the dance, songs, and speeches, which I am now uploading onto
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=yugandali

Some of the most savage fighting of World War II occurred when the Japanese advance towards India was blocked in Burma. "We Kachin, the British, and the Americans did all the fighting. As soon as the Japanese attacked, all the Burmese ran home and hid in their toilets." If the Japanese had broken through to the resources of India, the war would have ended differently, and life today would be much less comfortable for the rest of us.

The Kachin, or Jingpo, are justifiably proud of their record. "We are born to carry swords. The British were impressed when they ran into us in the 19th century, because even if we retreated, we put up a stiff fight as we retreated. It seems we are born knowing how to fight. That is why a Kachin was chosen as the chief of Queen Victoria's bodyguard during the 19th century. We are calm under fire, and we survive.

"Lazum wan Bau took a shot in the stomach once, and his intestines were spilling out. He just tied himself up with his shirt and kept fighting.

"Once when I was 20 years old, I was on point. We ran into a communist ambush. Just as I came to the top of a hill, I spotted two sentries who were waiting for us. I shot them both immediately, and without thinking fell flat on the ground. The other soldiers in my unit started to run when the communists opened fire, and four were killed. Bullets went through my pants leg, right above the knee, but I came out without a scratch. Nobody trained me to do that, I just knew that as soon as I killed the sentries, I had to fall flat. I don't know how I knew it, I knew it because I am Kachin.

"In our unit, there were three Kachin. We fought guerilla warfare for several years. The other soldiers were not Kachin, and as they got killed, new men replaced them. After several years of fighting, the only soldiers left from the original muster were us three Kachin. We were the only ones who survived, and all three of us survived. It seems we are born knowing how to fight. We are born to carry swords.”

The Jingpo / Kachin of Burma and Southwestern China have three main types of songs: munau, or harvest celebration 豐年祭 songs, ceremonial songs, and love songs. 台灣景頗族同鄉會前任會長孔大發先生 former Taiwan Jingpo Association President Zit Hkun Chang Sau sang a love song (which is, I suspect, his favorite, and most well practiced style) at the annual meeting of the Jingpo in Taiwan; I have posted that at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk3wpjD6v2g. Today when he and Lazum Wan Bau/金國光先生visited Wulai, he sang the other two styles, and performed the munau dance. I filmed them and am posting them on youtube, but that takes time.

In this clip, he sings a ceremonial song in the A Zi Ni dialect of Jingpo景頗語小山話, his native language. He has an excellent voice; this recording does not do him justice. This is新店樂成 a song sung in celebration, such as for a new house. Yung wang zige 永往直歌 in Azini, n ta di shang ai in Jihpaw.

Because of size limits, I had to record the song in 3 parts. This is the first part. For the other two parts, please go to http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=yugandali

從前，陶朋舍的老闆老曾請了一個男助理，綽號阿寶。阿寶勤勞認真，可是有一個毛病：崇拜名人。老曾不屑。

有一次店裏來了一個客人，阿寶招待，異常用心。客人看了一回兒，沒買東西，阿寶畢恭畢敬地送到門口開門告別。門一關，阿寶很興奮，說，「老曾，你看到了沒有？你不知道那是誰嗎？他就是《哪一台》晚上《哪一個連續劇》的演員某某某！！」

老曾冷淡問，「又怎麼樣？」

阿寶說，「他是名人耶！」

老曾說，「名人有甚麼了不起？還不是要大便。」

Congratulate me on my superhuman restraint.
The other day I took my friends from California to see the sights in Wulai. As we neared Rahaw, the next village into the mountains, somebody pointed out a pleasant looking house and said, "Look what a nice job they've done with the tiles on that house.”

I managed to keep from saying, "Yes, but you have to remember, this is a Tayal village.”

I didn't want to get pushed out of the moving car.

Here's a pretty quandary. Compare these.

A, in his memoirs, Chef Justice Earl Warren wrote that Eisenhower told him, concerning integration, that Southerners "are not bad people. All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big overgrown Negroes.”

B, in Seeds of Change , Henry Hobhouse said, "The behavioral problem of slavery, serfdom, and free workers is one of the relationship between master and man. For the noble, an air of hereditary superiority was an essential from early childhood. For superiority to have validity, it is necessary that the dependents should be made to feel inferior at all times. It is to this factor, as necessary in feudalism as in slave societies, that we may ascribe white male attitudes to gender and race.”

West Africans were chosen as slaves because they inherited immunity to malaria, which wiped out all others who attempted to inhabit the fertile Gulf Coast and Caribbean islands. Once that was established, slave labor produced rich profits, so the slave owners needed some way to justify themselves, to "blunt men's minds to this monstrous aberration," as Hobhouse puts it.

I am not singling out Ike; he was moderate, and worked to desegregate, but his statement typifies a mindset. What I am interested in here is not particularly racialism per se, but that some people feel that their embedded viewpoints (on any topic) are the outcome of logical thought, while actually, those viewpoints are the result of dishonest rationalization (dishonest in the sense of not dealing honestly with one's own motives).

How careful we are to hide from ourselves!

………now, what did I write this for?

頑強
往大崎腳公車在七張站上下車的人很多，司機前後門都開，一直叫下車的客人從前門下，因為要刷悠遊卡，上車的從後門上。一個太太帶著買菜的推車，硬從前門擠上車，大家非常不方便。司機抱怨：「我叫你們上車的人從後門上，妳從前門上，大家都不方便。」太太理直氣壯頂他：「沒有關係，我只有到終點站而已。」

洪武明太祖，韃靼/Tatar叫Tonguz Khan豬可汗。猜是因為明朝姓朱。如同毛澤東與朱德征服中國大陸，口諺殺豬拔毛。

部落幾位媽媽、祖母帶一群小朋友到新店看電影，飛機上有蛇。我問，烏來蛇很多，還要看電影嗎？

上公車，三個小朋友開始唱歌，很好聽。可是靠近都市，人慢慢多，兩個小孩漸漸不出聲，只剩一個小男生繼續唱、一直唱。到青潭快到新店，他小五的表姐罵他，「嘴巴不停！你旁邊坐兩個老人，你這樣唱不會不好意思嗎？」小男生很自在回答，「不會。」繼續唱。

Obesity has become so prevalent in the United States that astronomical differences are now being measured in heavy years, light years having disappeared under a rising tide of American fat.

我大學時曾在大禹嶺遇識武藝高人林程財，與論武，我說由于課業重，時間全花在上面，怕武退步。他說，沒關係，養氣：讀書也是在養氣。

信。同樣招式一直練，容易滯于同一程度。正拳會了，基本上還是正拳，用之得宜為要。但該如何進步？我多年後困于斯，讀了一本和尚的武書，說武的次第：形、氣、意、神。諦論。

練太極者多自豪，以內架比我們外架高尚，大概是一種瞧不起勞動的延伸(抑或經不起操練)。外架若止于形，窒。但內架倘不練形，氣由何而生？且武不僅要擺出飄逸姿態自賞。要打！

練武如同修內聖外王：練武若傷身，偏；但練拳若不能出手禦敵，哪叫作「武」？練內架，多失于此。武者養生，也護生。

台灣景頗族同鄉會前任會長金國光先生 Mr Lazum Wan Bau, former President of the Taiwan Jingpo Association has asked me to publish this open letter on my blog.
+=+=+=+
2006.10.18 wun pawng JingHPaw ma ni A myit Hkrum Zut Hpwang, anhte Gaw, (Ka Chn Re), anhte gaw, Jing Hpaw mung Gaw Li ya n na Yuwai re jiwoi ni re, ai. 1961 Lining e anhte Jinghpaw ma ni, Tai Wan desa wasai, daishi Jing Hpaw mani, Lining myi Kaw ki LangLang Jing Hpaw ma myit hkrumzput hpawng hpawng gaai, Bai n na mantan Lingai myigaw, mu nau mu nau gaai, nam BatLi Gaw mu nau, mu nau gaai, nam Bat mu Sum gaw BuGa na Jing Hpaw ma a htwang Bau n en hku n na, n dakana Hpai saw a ai Hawng Raw dum n na Htawng ka ka gaai. Anhte muwa mung nna waai numroi mu ngashi mu sum re ai, yagaw ma ni Hte yawng raiyang (100 E 3) Re.
(ngai a ede re si) Mr Kinku Kon (Lazum Wan Bau), 481 Chung Shin Road, Chung Li Lung Tan, Tao Yuan, Taiwan 325 ROC
(fon nam bat) 886 3 4705407
+=+=+=+

Since I do not know the language, I am hoping I have not made too many typos. I believe I have deciphered that last line: fon nam bat.

I received a great honor today. At the annual gathering of the Jingpo (Kachin), the台灣景頗族同鄉會Taiwan Jingpo Association presented me with a 匾額/wooden plaque which says:
宏揚景頗族
本族誠摯之友陶老師維極留念
台灣景頗族同鄉會代表
孔大發
金國光
閻光明 同贈
Spreading Jingpo Culture
Presented by the Taiwan Jingpo Assocation
to Mr G B Talovich
A TRUE FRIEND OF THE JINGPO

There is a small number of Jingpo, or Kachin, in Taiwan; first, second, and third generations, only about a hundred all told, what ex-Association President孔大發 Kung Dafa calls a mini-minority. Here前任會長金國光先生 former Association President Lazum Wan Bau addresses the gathering in the Jingpo tongue, of which there are three main dialects.

前任會長孔大發先生 former Association President Kung Dafa sings a Jingpo love song.

Jingpo Association President 會長張珊先生 dances to the beat of his own drum.

For further articles about the Taiwan Jingpo Association, please read entries on this blog for April 15, 2006, November 27, 2005, and November 29, 2004.

A jolly time was had by all.
I have posted photos of the event on http://www.flickr.com/photos/94448433@N00/ . For more videos, please visit http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=yugandali

up and up
I haven't updated my blog for several days because I have been uploading clips onto youtube. That took a long time. The quality is not great, because I took these with my digital camera, but they give you a good idea. I have a sampling on my post for November 7. If you'd like to see all of them, please go to
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=yugandali

Hope you enjoy them!

This evening there was a dance performance hosted by Wulai dance troupes with guest performers from 中國西南民族大學 The Southwestern University of Ethnic Nationalities of China.

The show began at 7. I arrived at the theater right at 7, only to be turned back: "People have been coming in since 5:30, there's not even standing room." A moment after I had been turned back, three young Tayal from Tampya, the next village, met the same fate. "We've come a long way to see this, how can you turn us away?”

We put our heads together. This theater, a private company that puts on shows for tourists, just opened a few weeks ago. Hey, you know, there's that other stairway around in back, yeah, but it's all blocked up with boulders, well, what are we waiting for? We climbed up over the boulders, across a little plank that led across the gap to the construction (don't look down), and found ourselves just around the corner from the theater door. But that door was being watched too, so we went in through the fire exit.

The theater was packed, but space was made for us in the corner up in the very back of the theater, just as the show began. The first act was the local Mhaway Su Dance Troupe 麻懷素舞蹈團. They performed traditional Tayal dance steps in a modern manner; a very good combination of the old and the new. The dancing burst with energy. By the middle of the dance, the men’s upper bodies were glistening with sweat.

The next performer was from SWU, a famous 哈薩克Hasak singer accompanied by four male dancers. The singer sang operatic style, and the dancers danced like modern dancers anywhere. This set the tone for the evening. The Tayal dances were powerful to the point of savagery, the SWU dancers polished and sophisticated. When the Tayal dancers finished, the men looked like they were ready to go out headhunting; when the SWU male dancers finished, especially the set of four, they looked like they were ready to jump into a hot tub together.

Back further in the mountains at the far southern end of Wulai Township is the village of Mangan福山. If you count Principal, Teachers, and all of the students, Mangan Elementary School boasts a grand total of 32 souls. The entire 2nd through 6th grade clambered onto the stage for their performance. They took their places and prepared to dance a modern representation of Tayal weaving, which was vital to the culture. They took their places and waited for the music to start. They took their places and waited for the music to start… their teacher came on stage and said, "I'm sorry, but has anybody seen our music? We can't find out CD…" The kids waited for the music to start.

The teacher said, "Sayux balay, we haven't found our CD yet, so in the meantime, I will sing a song for you." She sang 泰雅搗米歌a Tayal rice-pounding song, "But you have to accompany me!" she told the audience, so everybody started clapping, with many singing along, shouting, and cheering. The kids from Mangan waited patiently.

Finally the music was found and the kids performed a charming weaving dance. Then they portrayed hunters, but we couldn't figure out if they speared a monkey or a boar.

Southwestern took the stage next. They performed a 維吾爾Uighur dance, although I never knew Uighur traditional dress for women included gold lame high heels. Chao assures me that Uighurs dance in heels, but gold lame? No wonder one of the dancers fell over. The audience was respectfully quiet. When the Tayal dancers goofed, the audience erupted in shouts and cheers. Overall, the audience was cheerful and boisterous, calling out to the performers, making loud comments, cheering, and clapping with gusto. The audience appeared to be almost solely Tayal.

This was followed by a bizarre Tibetan dance that began with five young men leaping out onstage and singing a few lines of rap. The Tayal laughed at this act, laughed at, as in derision. The singer pulled off a series of good stomps that brought some admiration, but for the most part, the audience’s reaction was, What is this all about? Weird!

Overall, the Southwestern troupe's dances were so polished and sophisticated that they had no ethnic flavor at all. The vestiges of Soviet instruction were obvious. The pantomime in which the passel of youths ogle the saucy damsel, I saw that years ago in a Yugoslav production, again years later in a Cossack production, and again onstage in Wulai by the Southwestern troupe; identical, except for the costumes. In the way circus audiences want to see seals balance balls on their noses, the PRC ideal seems to be that the ethnic minorities are reduced to colorful costumes and a few traditional movements; circus audiences don't want to see seals acting like seals, and the Powers That Be don't want these minorities to act like minorities. Behave according to our expectations and standards.

The Tayal were getting bored and leaving. I got a seat. "Aw, Yugan, you've come." Silan climbed in over the railing, and took a seat in front of me, in the front row. We patiently watched musical performances, including another operatic singer. It didn't sound much different from any other operatic singing you have heard, except for the language.

Next was a skit of gaga na Tayal/ traditional Tayal life. Stage right, two boys pounded rice. Stage center, a woman made thread for cloth. (Technical foul: that was Baize, and she's 鄒Tsou tribe. But we'll let it pass. Her kids are half Tayal.) Stage left, a girl practiced her weaving sitting on the ground pressing the qungu/loom with her feet. The mhoni/wise old lady, or witch, inspected her weaving and declared it satisfactory. She then began matas/the tattooing ceremony. The girl was wrapped in the cloth she wove and the mhoni began tattooing her face. Only when a youth's face had been tattooed was a young man or woman eligible for marriage.

The Japanese stamped out facial tattoos during their Occupation of Taiwan, but even today the Tayal baq gaga are very careful about observing traditions. Before the dancing started, the announcer very cautiously announced that the adult dancers had tattoos drawn on their faces, but not to worry, ini ptasan liquy, the children are underage, so tattoos have not been drawn on their faces. That would offend the ancestors.

The very dramatic, very solemn beginning of Southwestern's production of Alilang was interrupted by a loud shriek. Silan spotted Pasang heading through the darkness for the exit, right in front of us, and the temptation was too strong for a bored Tayal to resist. Silan's hand snaked out of the darkness and took Pasang by the throat. eeeeYYYaaaaaaAAA! Fortunately, the dancers probably took it for some sort of cheer.

The last Tayal act was Wulai Jr High, and their performance was the most traditional. It began with a cutout of a boulder. A boy crouching behind the boulder shot off a party popper. Then he and a girl came out, peered around, and walked off hand in hand. This enacted the Tayal creation myth, the boulder being Pinsbkan.

The show ended with a faux-Tibetan number, a la Soviet ballet, by Southwestern. It was a rousing number, their best of the whole evening, although definitely not what you think of when you picture Tibet. My memory card was full by then, so I captured that only in my memory, not my camera.

What was left of the audience dispersed. Very quickly a consensus was reached: the Tayal performance was far superior to Southwestern's, and this conclusion was reached after objective contemplation and soul-searching lasting anywhere up to four or five seconds. Everybody agreed: the Southwestern troupe was fancy, but they can't dance as well as Tayal.

I spotted Abus and he told me to get in his car, he'd drop me off on the way home. His daughter World was sleepy, so she didn't jump up and down on my head. Abus sang along to Naluwan on the CD player. He turned it off when the song finished and said, "Yugan, what do you think? Didn't the Tayal dance better?”

"Definitely.”

"And their costumes. The Tayal outfits were better, too. Theirs didn't look authentic.”

"That's for sure.”

Abus gave a very satisfied nod. "Yugan, Tayal are still the best performers. Nobody can sing or dance like we can." Now that is what I call a good, disinterested, objective judgment.

phpah na agyaq
芒草的花，若要插，只有剛開的一兩天可以收，錯過那一兩天，或下雨，再割芒花，籽會掉的滿地。

坐公車過臺大，司機問，臺大有下人嗎？
忍住，忍住，很想回，不怕！不怕！

Rest assured that the Bush administration is doing all it can to protect you from terrorism: your tax money at work!

A US$200,000 Homeland Security anti-terrorism grant has paid for 60 surveillance cameras to guarantee the security of Dillingham, Alaska. Dillingham is 300 miles from Anchorage and has a population of 2,400 persons, but no roads linking it to anywhere else.

Take that, Taliban! Be afraid! Be very afraid! Know that if you ever try to take over Dillingham, Alaska, your every movement will be watched by surveillance cameras! Osama and his buddy Saddam must be quaking at the very thought.

What would be even more daunting than taking over Dillingham, Alaska, would be the prospect of even finding it.

On the spur of the moment I decided to loop around back on my way into the house. Up near the ditch, a boar's jaw was lying on the ground, in perfect condition. It hadn't been chewed on. There was no sign of the rest of the boar or any indication of how it got there. Just a flawless jawbone.

I happened to see a newspaper ad:
Mr T's Rule #17
Don't procrastinate, fool!
You'll get in a rut always sittin' on your butt.

All very well and good, although who the REAL Mr T is may be open to debate. The only reason I bring this up is, this marvelous gem of poetry appears in an advertisement for a television series. Watching television means always sittin' on your butt.

Of course, watching television blurs your mind so much you don't even notice these contradictions.

上回，施明德給白跪的學生獻野薑花，說野薑花是臺灣原生種植物。不好意思雞蛋裡挑骨頭，可是對不起，野薑原產印度。

野薑是俗名；學名「穗花山奈」，亦名山奈、蝴蝶薑、薑花；英文名為ginger lily、white butterfly ginger lily、white ginger。巴西山奈成患；原是黑奴從非洲帶來種，以葉為牀。

當然，施明德講錯，沒那麼重要。山奈郁香依然。