Bones of the Master: A Journey to Secret Mongolia [Paperback]

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.
"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 ofThe 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 ofAfter the Ecstasy, the Laundry

Named "Best Spiritual Book of the Year" by Beliefnet.comGeorge Crane is alSk