The Skull Mantra (Inspector Shan Tao Yun) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Eliot Pattison (Author) "They called it taking four..." (more)
Key Phrases: skull shrine, lao gai, skull mantra, Sergeant Feng, Prosecutor Jao, Colonel Tan (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Not many political thrillers are set in Tibet, and few can match the power and poetry of this debut novel by journalist Eliot Pattison. At the heart of the story is a forced labor camp where the Chinese imprison Buddhist monks and other local dissidents they've swept up since taking over Tibet. The prison also holds a few special Chinese prisoners--including Shan Tao Yun. This middle-aged man was once the inspector general of the Ministry of Economy in Beijing, specializing in fraud cases. For reasons even he doesn't understand, he has been imprisoned and brutalized, and now he spends his days breaking rocks high in the Himalayas on a road crew called the People's 404th Construction Brigade. Shan manages to survive under these harsh conditions thanks to the spiritual guidance of his fellow prisoners, but this precarious balance is threatened by the discovery of the headless body of a local Chinese official near a road construction site.

The dead man's head soon turns up in a famous shrine--a cave that contains the skulls of heroic monks. The shrewd Red Army colonel in charge of the district asks Shan to conduct an investigation: offers of better food and conditions combined with threats against his monk friends convinces him to take on the task. Colonel Tan wants a fast resolution that imcriminates a mute, passive monk found near the cave, but Shan is certain that the man isn't guilty. More likely killers include other high-ranking Chinese officials, as well as some American mining capitalists who had personal as well as financial dealings with the dead man.

By engaging his readers in a mass of details, Pattison makes us believe completely in Shan and his perilous situation--and creates a rare combination of excitement and enlightenment. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
A venerable plot deviceAthe discredited detective given one last chanceAis invested with stunning new life in this debut thriller from a veteran journalist who clearly knows his exotic territory. The gulags of Tibet, where the Chinese keep the Buddhist monks and other locals they've swept up since occupying the country, also house a few special Chinese prisoners. Shan Tao Yun, working as a laborer on a road crew called the People's 404th Construction Brigade high in the Himalayas, was once the inspector general of the Ministry of Economy in Beijing before he was imprisoned for refusing Party membership. Now he struggles to survive his harsh new life, gaining spiritual sustenance from the monks in his brigade. The discovery of the headless body of a local official, wearing American clothes and carrying American cash, changes all that, as Shan is threatened and cajoled by the shrewd colonel in charge of the district into conducting an investigation. Col. Tan wants a quick and dirty job that implicates a monk found near the site, but Shan knows the man isn't guilty: more-likely culprits include other high-ranking Chinese and a pair of American mining entrepreneurs. To encourage Shan to come to a rapid resolution, Tan dangles the fate of the monks of the 404th before him, surrounding their barracks with brutal Public Security troops. Like Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko, Shan becomes our Don Quixote, an apolitical guide through a murky world of failed socialism. As his Sancho, Pattison has created another memorable character, an ambitious and conflicted young Tibetan called Yeshe, who can "sound like a monk one moment and a party functionary the next." Set against a background that is alternately bleak and blazingly beautiful, this is at once a top-notch thriller and a substantive look at Tibet under siege.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (April 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312978340
• ISBN-13: 978-0312978341
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #489,657 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Imperfect, but with a perfect center, like all of life., January 16, 2000

By	Lisa Brandt (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Skull Mantra (Inspector Shan Tao Yun) (Hardcover)

When I started to read The Skull Mantra, I was not happy with the author's apparent lack of understanding of Tibetan Buddhism, which I practice. Just having Buddhists refer to their "soul" and having them kneel to pray made me cringe, and I hated to see Tibetan Buddhist practice reduced to reciting mantras. But after finishing the book in record time (the plot left me no other choice), I wonder whether the technical errors reflect ignorance so much as an attempt to allow uninitiated readers to relate to the feelings of the characters. Where it really counts, the book faithfully represents the deeper currents of Tibetan Buddhist thought. This is especially true in the conclusion, which starkly presents the way in which different cultural backgrounds find resolutions for the same problem (I'm trying not to give too much away here!). Yes, the foreign words and concepts make the book hard to read for those who are completely unfamiliar with the background. But if you want to read a great mystery that also introduces you to a culture worth knowing and an international conflict worth knowing about, this is it.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing but confusing, December 26, 1999

By	"wingdalereader" (wingdale, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Skull Mantra (Inspector Shan Tao Yun) (Hardcover)

"Skull Mantra" offers an interesting look at the shamanic origins of Tibetan Buddhism. If one is open to a departure from what we believe Buddhism is, to how it may actually operate in the Tibetan society, this book shows how otherwise learned men in the spiritual sense, can operate in worlds that allow for a physical manifestation of spirit demons in the modern world. While the book kept my interest, it was not an easy read. Many Chinese and Tibetan terms had to be integrated with a very elaborate plot. The author does not make things easy for the reader. When the protagonist has an insight into what might be happening, the author only informs the reader after a number of pages and other plot manipulations. I did love, however, the ease with which the Tibetan characters could view events on many planes and levels without any of the contradictions that a Westerner may have had. The two American characters seemed superficial and simplistic compared to the workmanlike attitude of the various Asian characters. People accepted their positions matter-of-factly, concentrating their energies on a more spiritual practice that most Americans would find incomprehensible. The cultural attitudes dealing with death in a country where it is difficult to simply bury the dead (the earth is, after all, often frozen and rocky ) are particularly foreign to the Westerner., much like Joel's reaction to the process in Northern Exposure! Interesting setting, fascinating culture, and unfortunately one that may be doomed to death by the destruction of not only the spirit but the land as well! If you like Tony Hillerman or stan Jones, you'll like this if you keep with it!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Heavy going, but generally rewarding, January 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Skull Mantra (Inspector Shan Tao Yun) (Hardcover)

This is an engrossing story, and the author does a splendid job of bringing the setting alive. His picture of Tibet under the Chinese administration is painful to read but unfortunately accurate, and, to his great credit, he avoids the temptation to depict all Chinese officials as Bad Guys; the occupation of Tibet is shown to be painful for the more conscientious Chinese too. I found that the characters were a mixed bag: Shan and his Chinese and Tibetan partners-in-investigation were fully rounded and believable, but some of the other characters (especially the two Americans) were one-dimensional. The novel was rough going at times, too: there are long stretches where what you're reading is fascinating, but it's hard to see the relevance of it to the investigation; and although the author offers a neat resolution of the mystery at the end, some of the other possible explanations he raised were never satisfactorily resolved. As for the criticism that the novel's depiction of Tibetan Buddhism is full of errors, I'm not an expert on the subject, although I do volunteer work for a Tibetan refugee relief organization and hang around with a lot of Tibetans. But I know that it's erroneous to view Tibetan Buddhism as a monolithic whole: there are various schools of thought and monastic traditions, and the indigenous Bon religion, which preceded Buddhism, is shamanistic and magical. Westerners are usually initiated into the monastic side of Tibetan Buddhism, but the magic often looms larger in ordinary people's lives, and I think the author did a good job of showing that. All in all, the novel is rewarding, but it's not the light escapist reading that one often expects from mysteries.