Sunday, July 21, 2002		Books

Bringing to life a lost era
Jaswant Kaur

Red Poppies: An Epic Saga of Old Tibet
by Alai. Penguin Books, New Delhi. Pages 416. Rs 295.

A translation is generally considered inferior to the original work. But when it comes to understanding an alien language, it is a blessing. For, it throws open an unknown land to a different set of people. Translated from Chinese to English, the book under review is a step in this direction.

Set in 1930s’ Tibet, Red Poppies brings to life a lost era — an era when wisdom took a backseat and the so-called ‘smart’ chieftains, the officials appointed by the Chinese Emperor to govern various provinces, involved themselves in bloody feuds to grab power. The book focuses on one such powerful chieftain—the Chieftain of Maichi.

Surrounded by a number of fortresses, Chieftain Maichi and his family lived in a 100-feet-high, seven-storeyed fortress. His family consisted of a second wife (the first one had died), a son from the first wife, an idiot son from the second wife, a daughter living in England and an uncle, a businessman in China.

People, under the Maichi administration, were divided into various classes — the headman, the serfs, the kabas (the messengers) and the family slaves — with ultimate control in the hands of the chieftain.

Except for a few skirmishes with a neighbouring chieftain, the Maichis were a happy and contented lot. The foodgrains in their warehouses were sufficient to meet their demands.

This state of affairs, however, did not continue. The chieftains, who had ruled the land for generations, were unknowingly heading towards their end because of their own misdeeds.

It all started when a Han Chinese official, the Special Emissary Huang, visited Maichi with lavish gifts, including modern weapons and tiny gray seeds. Plant these, he said, and see your wealth multiply.

These were poppy seeds and that year, opium was planted on Maichi land. As promised, poppies brought wealth, making Maichi the richest and the most powerful land.

News reached other chieftains, who tried their best to get hold of the seeds, but to no avail. Meanwhile, the Special Emissary Huang was replaced by a new official, who distributed the seeds to other chieftains as well.

The entire area was brought under opium cultivation. Not even a single grain was planted. Disaster loomed large. The people who had lived a life of comfort were in for bad times. The well-stocked warehouses, which were a thing of pride for them, no longer sustained them.

The Maichis, who had plenty of money, bought Han grain but at a very high price. The ongoing war between the Red Chinese and the White Chinese had inflated the grain prices.

Spring came and the question that haunted Chieftain Maichi was: What should be planted? Grain or Poppy? Still unmindful of the previous year's consequences, the first son said, "Poppy". But the "idiot" announced, "Grain, nothing but grain", raising a question in the minds of the rest: How could an idiot give such advice? Was he really an idiot?

Anyway, grain was planted and the Maichis did good trade at the expense of other Chieftains who had planted poppies.

Wealth came but not without problems. An enemy of the Maichis, who was in search of the right opportunity, kills the first son while he was asleep. The Maichi Chieftain loses his heir and the idiot son, though wise, is not thought fit to be his successor.

While Maichi struggles to stabilise its government, the Red Chinese defeat the white Chinese, toppling the Chinese government. By the time Red Chinese arrive in the 1950s, the chieftains have lost their power to fight.

The land, which was once their own, slips out of their hands. Their insatiable greed for wealth had landed them in trouble. Even though some had surrendered, they would never get the same respect. As for those who had died, no one was left to commemorate them, not even the 100-feet-high-seven-storeyed fortress.

Written in an engaging style, the novel has won China's top literary prize, the Mao Dun Prize. A title well-deserved for a book well-appreciated.