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" - J4 V — It !"“rv--V' jrt jf ££ £ ? hot-weath- 4V Wat Po a tempi ‘I” V" la Bangkok Slam visited by Mrs Merrick during her travel in the Orient Himalayan Mountains the Best Spot if You Want to Get 4f -- "' t Away From Turmoil Says Woman Globe-Trott- r a f"t er By Carol Bird Himalayan Interlude - A WORLD In conflict has no terror for Mrs Henrietta Sands Merrick since ver so often she leaves the maelstrom for a mysterious land of quiet and enchantment that lies beyond the great V! i Himalayan range Bom into society Mrs Merrick would rather travel and study world affairs than play bridge watch polo matches attend the opera ride to hounds or dress for a glamorous ball She has visited countries all over the world Her latest Journey which lasted -- for two years took her to Persia Java Bali Sumatra Siam Tibet India She has crossed the great Himalayan Range six “ times with her caravan After two years of observation In the Near and Par Hast Mrs Merrick recently returned to New York to write book called “Caucus-Race- " in which the leading nations are seen each one racing by Itself in “a sort of a circle" as in the Caucus race of the Dodo In In Wonderland x European education and years of residence in the Orient have given Mrs Merrick unusual opportunities to study world conditions The rapid Westernization of Persia the problem of Palestine the complexities of the Government in India the flowering of the Renais- sance of China and the marvelous peace of Tibet were all studied by this woman (Who makes a hobby of travel and the tudy of international affairs TALL slender fragile in appearance looking like a feminine hothouse plant “raised under glass" Mrs Merrick’s travel exploits belie her appearance 8he was the first woman to be taken in as a member of the Himalayan Club of India whose membership is made up of those who have traveled in the Himalayas She belongs to various explorer organizations and knows well the hardships of travel in remote places of the globe Telling about her most recent travel adventures Mrs Merrick said: “I started the trip from Persia where I atayed several months Then I went to Syria where the Palestine situation was acute and remained there quite a long while I met the leading Arab nationals and heard the whole story of the problem There was while I was there a final meeting between the Arab nationals when everything was threshed out and they decided to with the authorities it took place In the Lebanon hills and I and the Englishman who had brought them together were the only foreigners present "After leaving went to Java Bali and Sumatra Syria! and found the greatest advance in those three Islands Then on to Siam and the Angkor Wat At the entrance to the Bayon and to other buildings in the city there are similar gates each of them with four immense faces that look north south east and west The lobes of their ears are greatly y co-oper- ate r r § i- - f i “One gets a chance to readjust on&s sense of values We disturb ourselves about -- so many things and when you get off alone in the mountains you realize that these things are not really important It seemed to me up in the Himalayas exactly as though I were looking down at puppets 1 fighting and struggling— and what for? But up I was life was serene China and Japan were Mrs Merrick1 next stops on her two-yetrip studying world conditions “I was in China during the time of the Japanese encroachments" she said “I love China I would rather live in Peiping than in any other city I have ever seen Peiping seems to have a psychological a hypnotic effect on people “Always I go back to Tibet and the Himalayas when I get weary of civilization I like variety I dislike monotony But I also am fond of my own America and would never live anywhere else permanently Gong abroad and seeing how little other people of the world have in comparison with what we in America possess and realizing all the things they have to submit to makes me appreciate how rich in blessings are we in —Henrietta Sands Merrick elongated their crowns are finished off with lotus buds and in the center of their foreheads is a third eye “Fifty-tw- o towers rise at various heights and elevations each one holding on its apex four faces from six to ten feet in height looking in four directions 208 enormous faces Some of them with drooping lids smile mysteriously others have wide-ope- n eyes What god do they represent?” Here Mrs Merrick interrupted her narrative to say that she took issue with those who claim that the four mysterious faces represent Siva the al God She said: "The frontal eye depicted on the huge faces of the v Bayon is not the exclusive attribute of Siva but a common Buddhist symbol Might not the mysterious faces of the Bayon and Angkor Thom be those of India or may not the giant faces be those of Avalokltecvara known as the ‘Looking-Dow- n Lord'? Certainly the faces of the Bayon are elevated on high towers and look down on the populace “No one has solved the mystery of the Bayon But many contend the faces are those of Siva After all I am entitled to my opinion too as well as others who conjecture on the subject The x faces looked kindly and tolerant to me patient and sad Surely they could not represent Siva the terrible one!” s Brah-manic- j THE brilliance of the palaces and temples in Slam particularly interested Mrs Merrick because she discovered why the colors are so violent “Those exare marvelous!'" in Siam she temples claimed "The colors blaze and scintillate The King of Siam has always been accounted divine For generations he has been hemmed in with taboos He is too sacred to be touched It was likewise taboo to look upon the face of the King the idea being that no purely mortal creature could endure the glory of the divine countenance” When Mrs Merrick discussed India her eyes sparkled for travel in the Himalayas is her real hobby “When I went to India I went solely for the purpose of traveling in the Himalayas” she said “I have crossed the great Himalayan Range six times with - my caravan took a trip ar On this recent Journey I that was very difficult and' into isolated country There was no communication by telegraph or mail runner and no huts to sleep in no bridges We had to ford rivers I saw no life nor any white people for about two weeks During that time I never 6aw a living creature I had six pack ponies with me and six men native servants of the hills" REFLECTING on that sojourn into the wilderness high up in the Tibetan morn-tai- ns Mrs Merrick made this significant comment “People wonder why & woman likes to go into such isolated and difficult places I can only say that there is something you get there that you can get nowhere else in the world Beauty and— silence The silence is not like the silence of the grave but it is like the silence before creation “One gets a chance to readjust one sense of values We disturb ourselves about so many things and when you get off alone in the mountains you realize that these things are not really important It seemed to me up in the Himalayas exactly as though I were looking down at puppets fighting and struggling — and what for and what about? It was all exactly like watching a Dodo race the Dodo race from Alice In Wonderland But up where I was life though serene was hard and poverty In some places nobody living great can exist there that is not for long “It is so restful to get away from civilization at times The mechanical age has outstripped our ethical sense We have gone too fast One must get away to gain a perspective I like to travel in the Orient more than I do in Europe because European civilization is like that in America In the Orient you get an entirely different point of view and even words do not have the same meaning yet unfortunately these people are throwing away age-ol- d traditions for a way of life that really is not their own “They are having to adjust themselves to the Western form of civilization without having a chance gradually to adapt si) and sheep" where i 9) -- f 6 r t country" Copyright Grotesque faces leer at the traveler from the Batak Spirit Shrine in ' Brastagi Sumatra- - by Ledger Syndicate Cf) 4 s v i themselves to it They are projected into it with too much speed The conflict that this has brought about is more tragic and more difficult for them than what we are going through in our social and economic adjustments over here" V J x f v 5 4 f i TRACING a Journey which started from Kashmir Mrs Merrick described a strange valley in which she found social conditions and religious customs just as they had prevailed In the middle ages Blood sacrifices superstitions all were the same "I went over a route that I had covered twice before" she explained “This took us along the wastes of Western Tibet We came down into it from the north my six native servants and L Our route after leaving Leh was in a generally southerly direction and as far as possible along the trails used by the Tibetan traders across the Himalayas Our objective was the Kulu Valley in India which runs down into the Punjab approximately north of Simla “I always broke camp and started on the trek about 2 o’clock in the morning which got me started with the first rays of light in a country like that you never know when you can halt and make camp for you must find water and grass to keep the ponies alive "Dawn in those high places was beau- - 4 V if t'CX'V T y I4' i'4 z iA' d A w 4 x i Natives of many tribes flock to a fair in the Kangra Valley India' on of the niany picturesque spots visited by Mrs Merrick I |