The Nine-Eyed Agate seeks to break stereotyped images of Tibet and Tibetans inside the PRC today, and in the diaspora, by presenting an outstanding personality who survived childhood during the Cultural Revolution, then going on to lead a rich and somewhat controversial career within the PRC. As a free-wheeling, restless traveller in samsara (the cycle of existence), Jangbu has explored every corner of the Tibetan plateau with a view to understanding the culture and history of his people, their plight, and the key issues that Tibet faces today. Widely read in world literature through Chinese translation he has traveled around the world, attending international poetry meetings and film festivals, taking part in university conferences and developing his passion for film. This rich diversity is reflected in his poems and prose, the subject matter ranging through eternal themes such as love and betrayal, fantasy and 'magical realism', mystical flight and biting social satire. His poetry is experimental, presenting a panorama of styles with examples in modern free-verse, classical Indo-Tibetan metrical poetics (though this is rare), and more characteristically, in the dense "obscure" poetry of the post-Cultural Revolution years in China (1980s onwards), for which Jangbu is particularly well known. His work is often semi-autobiographical, written in a "docu-fictional" mode, announcing Jangbu's growing fascination for the screen.
1 Preface 2 Acknowledgements 3 Introduction 4 "Destruction and Creation" 5 The Nine-Eyed Agate Part 6 Part One: Selections from The Nine-Eyed Agate 7 Searching 8 The Poet 9 Lotus 10 Three Verses on the Eight-Petalled Lotus 11 How I See Things Today 12 Our Tomorrows 13 The Waterwheel 14 Question 15 The Other Face 16 Above & Below 17 Harm 18 Conscience Clearing 19 One Afternoon Oppressed by Pain 20 Can this Great Boat Carry Us to the Other Side? 21 The Uninvited Guest 22 Two Things Hard to Find 23 You All 24 But 25 The Whittling 26 Formless Blade 27 The Act 28 Lhasa 29 The Present 30 Agate-1 31 Agate-2 32 Three Animal Stories: The Lamb, The Pheasant and the Chicken, He Who Died in a Trap 33 Motes 34 My Tibet 35 An Idea of a Wife 36 Dream 37 All There Is 38 The High Place 39 Leftovers 40 One Day 41 The Woman Prisoner 42 The Owl 43 Joke 44 The Three: Sun, Moon, and Stars 45 Playing My Own Tune 46 Missive Offered to the City Municipality on Behalf of the People 47 Many Hands 48 Wine 49 Mother, I Am Afraid 50 Norbu, Beloved Jewel 51 One Flower 52 Agate-3 53 Agate-4 54 Agate-5 55 Agate-6 56 Agate-8 57 Agate-9 58 The Secret 59 Goddess 60 An Unbearable Spring 61 Each Person 62 Semarkar 63 My Dream 64 Peeling the Skin 65 Living Together 66 Reflections-Tongue in Cheek-on Poetry 67 Translator's Notes Part 68 Part Two: Other Selected Poems 69 Jottings on the Prairie 70 A Day at the Races 71 Your Happiness Is Mine Too 72 The Leaves of a Maple Tree 73 Little Red Fox 74 The Thigh-Bone Trumpet Player 75 The City 76 When You Returned 77 Play on Body Grammar 78 Wife 79 Exhaustion 80 Practicing Sky Burial 81 Jangbu the (Silent) Smithy 82 Earring of the Night 83 One Kind of Worry 84 The Current: Meditation Cave, Sacrifice, The West 85 Appearance-Emptiness 86 10 x Me: Many True & Mocking Words about I Myself 87 Another Me 88 A Bunch of Images: White Foal, The River and the Bridge, Prince. Eagle. 89 Going Home 90 Listening to the Snow 91 "Ma la ya"-Praise to the Mother (Acrostic Poem) 92 Looking at Myself 93 Pigeon 94 The Path * Love 95 An Old Ruined Fort 96 The Reason Why the Wild Yak Died 97 The Third Eye 98 Thigh-Bone Trumpet 99 The World and Human Beings 100 You Can Set Me Alight 101 Melody: A Dirge To Doendrup Gyel (1952-1985) 102 Translator's Notes Part 103 Part Three: Selected Stories 104 Darkness: Dream, For Real 105 Soul Born of a Scapula 106 The Tale of the Golden Fish 107 Lhasa Moon, Lhasa Dawa 108 The Lamp 109 A Prose Poem: The Bride of Speech 110 Fantasy 111 The Thing 112 Odd Boots 113 The Qinghai Tibetan News and Me 114 Translator's Notes 115 Appendix 1: Publication Credits 116 Appendix 2: Tibetan Spellings 185
