By: Juan Guzman
When his parents exile from Paris to settle in a town near Brussels, Alexandra David Néel (1868 – 1969) He was barely six years old and in his walking record there were already two solitary sketches: first, leaves the family garden through the open gate; in second place, would go into a Parisian forest.
Children's clarions of the future expeditionary, orientalist and writer whose publications related to Tibetan Buddhism would dazzle Americans Allen Ginsberg, poet and observant Buddhist, and the spontaneous prose writer Jack Kerouac. Two pioneers of the Beat Generation.
When he turned fifteen, he fled to England for a few weeks.. Later, declaring herself a stoic and including the Manual of Epictetus in her light luggage, I would escape to Switzerland to explore the Italian lakes, lack of cash ruins those adventures. However, Quickly leave for Spain by bicycle.
His devout mother wanted to impose a religious education on him, although the teenage girl felt anarchist and captive: "Lloraba lágrimas amargas sintiendo que la vida se me escapaba de las manos, that my youth was disappearing, tedious and sad. Wasting opportunities that could have been beautiful. Mis padres no podían comprenderlo y me hicieron más daño que el peor de los enemigos".
Coming of age and saying goodbye to the family would go hand in hand: Adventure is my only reason for being and freedom is in leaving the house. Installed in Paris, studies eastern philosophies and writes a caustic pamphlet against state abuse, the army, the church and macroeconomics. Essay that he would end up printing on his own due to the cautious refusal of the publishers.
Despite succeeding as an operatic soprano, her harmonic and spiritual vocation guided her towards Tibetan songs.. In addition, convinced that being single she would never be respected as a writer, speaker or singer, Marries Philippe Néel, engineer of the Tunisian railways. Although that hymeneum did not have much panache, both would endure it while maintaining mutual respect..
And the call of the East is getting stronger: "sólo tengo dos opciones: marcharme o marchitarme". By the way, Alexandra would not be exhausted; so, The flexible spouses begin a profuse correspondence that continues until his death., always the great financier of his journeys.
A trip through India lasts almost three decades. "He emprendido el camino correcto, ya no hay lugar para la neurastenia". a new life, free and swallow, lejos de las ociosas "distracciones" y alienadas formas de "matar el tiempo", emancipated from the authority of adults or the system.
It's the dream come true, go where no one could find her.
In an Indian sanctuary she meets the young Aphur Yongden who wants to accompany her on her adventures.. Seduced by his ways, she hires him, thus winning a porter., chef, secretary and assistant in the upcoming translations of sacred books; I would soon officially adopt him.
in 1916, teacher and disciple enter Tibet to visit Chorten Nyima and Tashilhunpo, famous monasteries near the populous Shigatse. The Dalai Lama welcomes her, He blesses and invites her to stay but she refuses., and after accepting the honorary title of Buddhist teacher, she will leave the city, being the first European woman received by the spiritual and political leader..
Some years later, fulfill one of his great projects: get to Lhasa – the capital prohibited to foreigners – along unpublished routes. Disguised as a beggar, she traces an odyssey of almost three years facing wild beasts, bandits, chinese officials, hunger, storms and lofty narrowness.
In one of those Tibetan stays, The curious pilgrim persisted in a risky Buddhist pastime: create a tulpa. That is to say, one of those products of the mind and imagination of the lamas destined for servitude; ghostly entities of animal or human form capable of even emitting smells and sounds, reportedly.
The monks advise her about the pitfalls of the game because things could become uncontrollable.. Alexandra ignores the warning. She wanted a chubby assistant with a seraphic personality., and after months of laborious process a kind of smiling robot would emerge, solicitous and following like a pet, although it would quickly lose that charm by acquiring autonomy.
The affable smile became mischievous and the malevolent look, lustful.
In Magic and mystery in Tibet, oscillating between science fiction and magical realism, would recount the six months dedicated to freeing himself from the unbearable burden: “There is nothing strange about creating my own hallucination.”. The interesting thing is that other people see those thought forms materialized.”, declared upon receiving a gold medal from the Paris Geographical Society.
Contingencies for emulating divine power, similar to the trances that Mary Shelley illustrates in Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus narrating in a key of gothic horror the obsession of Doctor Frankenstein with the secrets of heaven and earth, forging the creature that would end up destroying him..
Or the avatars of the deranged Dr. Jekyll, articulating from his own intertwinings the misanthropic Mr.. Hyde in the famous fable by Robert Luis Stevenson.
Yes ok, Not even the severe Jehovah could prevent his offspring from running with their own colors., as proven by the chronicle of Adam and Eve plus the meddlesome serpent, also the repeated disobedience of the elected people, during his transit through the desert away from Egyptian captivity.
The moment of creative vanity is over, Alexandra would continue her legendary globetrotting saga until retirement in the French province; there he stoically savors the aged liquor of his 101 years convinced that the nearness of the end is unimportant. Just one season earlier he had renewed his passport, "por si acaso", He responded to those who asked him why he had done it.
in 1973 His ashes were thrown into the Ganges along with those of his son Yongden..
