|
Broughton Coburn's unusual, illustrated lecture program, Aama's Journey, headlined Ame=
rica's
Knife and Fork Clubs (35 appearances) and has thrilled museums, associati=
ons,
social groups, universities, schools, libraries and professional societies
across the United States. Coburn, a best-selling author and Harvard gradu=
ate,
has spent two of the past three decades in Nepal
and the Himalayas. <=
/p>
In Aama's Journey, the audience is t=
aken
on more than an unusual travelogue. Beginning in Aam=
a's
subsistence farming village in the foothills of the Himalayas -- where she
took in Broughton Coburn as her adopted son -- we are immersed in the
cosmology, philosophy, hopes and humor of a woman with virtually no expos=
ure
to Western civilization.
In 19=
92, Aama turned 84, a watershed year sanctified by a
long-life ritual that relieves the elderly from further worldly duty - the
perfect time to go on a pilgrimage, to travel on a circuit of holy sites.=
That'=
s when
Aama came to =
America.<=
/p>
Along=
with
Coburn and his girlfriend Didi, Aama
sets off on an odyssey that evolves into a 12,000 mile search for the sou=
l of
America.
Aama visits cities, advises farmers, kisses a
killer whale, bathes ritually in the ocean, rejoices in Disneyland, gambl=
es
in Las Vegas, meets with Native American=
s,
finds kin among the Hutterites, and prays at =
Old Faithful. Aama's
reactions to our country are amusing, surprising, and sometimes
disconcerting, yet we find that her emotions and sensibilities are not un=
like
our own. Aama is a universal spirit, and she =
has
discovered the vitality and sacredness that surrounds us and breathes wit=
hin
us.
Aama's Journey: A
Pilgrimage Between Continents and Cultures is a touching
pictorial excursion into and beyond the two books that are based on this
program, Nepali Aama: Life Lessons of a Himal=
ayan
Woman and Aama in America: A Pilgrimage of the
Heart (Anchor/Doubleday). This is one rollicking, warm, thought-provoking,
poignant and powerful journey.
=
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