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Chapter Six. Death in the Rain |
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discussion about land of the dead |
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Late that evening we sat on the veranda of my bungalow and looked over where the valley should have been. It was still raining! Would it ever stop? I thought. We had just assisted at the placing of the skull in its sandstone urn in the forest, and we were sitting, four of us, discussing the events of the funeral. I asked Yongang, about the world of the dead -- and for once his reply was rather incoherent. But patching my notes together, and later adding things I heard from other people, I gathered that the road of the dead runs from Wakching over the village of Chintang, across the Dikhu River, touching Chinglong, Chongwe, and Choha, and leads at last under the ground to Yimbu, the land of the dead. There the Departed lead a life similar to that of this world. They grow rice, work and celebrate feasts, and even marry and have children. |
