‘In the dark times, will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.’ These famous lines by Bertolt Brecht aptly fit Scott Ezell’s epic Journey to the End of the Empire: On the Road in Eastern Tibet.
In the late years of the Ming Dynasty, a painter, calligrapher and politician Dong Qichang said, ‘to read ten thousand books means to travel ten thousand miles’.Later, this proverb was twisted by the Chinese to make it, ‘to travel ten thousand miles beats reading ten thousand books’.Either way, American guitarist, musician and poet Scott Ezell’s book justifies both versions of the proverbs. His experience of travels and interactions with the people on the boundary lines between Tibet and the rest of China has brought out the best of literary work with deep dives into the philosophy of life.On the other hand, reading the accounts of his journey on the edge of Tibet will make one travel ten thousand miles in the wisdom of wilderness. Yet, it would be gross injustice to classify Ezell’s Journey to the End of the Empire as merely a great travelogue.