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Story Description:
The University of
Alberta Press|June 4, 2008|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 0-88864-492-2
Inaccessible for
most of its history, the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has long fascinated
the West. Today, wealthy travelers are
admitted in small groups, but in 1987, when Ken Haigh arrived as a volunteer to
teach in a small high school, foreign travelers were as hard to find in the
kingdom as telephones or toilet paper. Under the Holy Lake describes a two-year
sojourn in the valley of Khaling in eastern Bhutan. Ken learns to cope with leeches, rabid dogs,
and culture shock, and in return finds his life transformed. He rents a small cottage next to a Buddhist
monastery and quickly settles into a pattern of existence that is hundreds of
years removed from the world he’d known in Canada. He finds his students are polite and eager to
learn, his neighbours warm and welcoming.
Under the Holy Lake is a love
song to a mountain valley and its people, a story of youth, and discovery, and,
ultimately, of loss.
My Review:
A most compelling
read! Ken Haigh’s memoir had me from the
first page until the very last. Each
page brought new scenery, new people, new things to learn and see. The descriptions were so clearly laid out
that I felt as though I was truly trudging along with Ken as he climbed the
steep embankments through the thick jungle.
I could feel and see the giant leeches as they clung to my clothing
searching for spaces in my clothing to gain access to skin where they could
attach themselves for a few hours of blood sucking. The rabid dogs with their foaming mouths
seemed especially frightening as did the giant rats that Ken was forced to live
with.
The students were
so well-mannered and polite for a culture so far removed from where we are here
in the west. I don’t honestly know how
Mr. Haigh managed to stay for two years living in this dilapidated place that
seemed like something out of a horror movie.
The students he and others taught there were fortunate to have volunteers
such as Ken and the others to come and impart their knowledge.
I took my time
reading this as I didn’t want to miss a single word of this memoir. This would make for a great book club
read. There are so many aspects to this
memoir and so many things to discuss. I
wish I knew someone else who had already read this so I could discuss it with
them.
Thank you, Mr.
Haigh for sharing your adventure, it was the most entertaining, informative,
and educational piece of reading I’ve done in a long while.
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