I would love to cherish this as description is fascinating but have not the 💵at present and not sure will survive long enough to receive and read. That’s a bummer times 2!
Judith ... If you'd like to be one of our draft reviewers--and write us a 50- to 100-word review of the book--I can send you a digital copy of it right now. Please write me at MorgaanSinclairPhD@PleiadesBooks.com and I'll send it right away, free of charge.
Ah, so he's related to the Hopi, as well! I always think of the Hopi as somehow being the descendants of "nobody". Isn't that what they claim? Yes, the Aztecs were brutal -- beyond words. I didn't know that they, too, were thus genetically connected with Tibetans. Ah, yes! "Kon Tiki"! My 4th grade teacher read that aloud to us, along with "Aku-Aku"! Do you know about the Hopi "Rain Dance"? They do it once a year to call down rain. We were staying in Hopi Land for a couple of days. During our stay, the Rain Dance was done. There had been a terrible drought the previous year. After their Dance, I want to say that 12" (??) of rain fell all over the state of Arizona. Roads in Phoenix were flooded. And there was no way we could leave Hopi Land because the roads had washed out. It was a truly amazing experience! One other thing we learned: the Hopi used to let Westerners watch their sacred ceremonies and dances, including going down into the kivas. As we do, it was "exciting" and people took endless pictures. As a result, Westerners were blocked from all ceremonies. Only H.H. the Dalai Lama was invited to be part of these sacred events. Of note is how important the sacred songs and dances are to the Tibetan people. 30 years ago, we hosted 6 monks, 3 Rinpoches, and 3 Geshes in our homes -- plus a couple of other people's homes whom I recruited, and were able to watch the songs and dances. They were from a monastery in India and were spending a year traveling all over the world -- a total of 146 countries, I heard. They felt so welcomed, and so much money was raised on behalf of their monastery, that one of the Geshes and one of the Rinpoches actually came back to settle in Charleston! My husband and I founded a Dharma Center 25 years ago, and has been so successful that they are now purchasing several acres of land in an area 60 miles away and are building a Retreat Center there! I know that their happiness in Charleston was because my husband (who was a monk at Ka Nying Shedrup Ling monastery for 17 years) knew precisely how to honor them. They were so happy for the four days they were here. The number of events sponsored was incredible -- including giving the sermon at my church; singing with the Trappist monks at nearby Mepkin Abbey; speaking at an Amnesty International meeting here in Charleston; giving prophecies for people (mine, shockingly, came true); in addition to the songs and dances. I'm leaving out another half-dozen events, such as taking the two Tulkus to see a doctor + two excellent restaurants preparing meals for them (everything at no cost, as you can imagine). It was all so fun and so miraculous! At least when they were at our house! My husband was so happy, and so were they.
Paul Zolbrod was my professor of Mythologies of the Americas in the Ph.D. myth program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Before that he was the dean of the English department at Allegheny College. He's now 91 years old. In the early 1970s, he became interested in oral traditions and found the Navajo creation story scattered all over the place, pieces of it in various books. As the write-up says, he learned Navajo language and then re-translated the myth into English--his translation surpassing all the others. The result was Dine Bahane https://www.amazon.com/Din%C3%A9-Bahane-Navajo-Creation-Story/dp/0826310435/ref=sr_1_1?crid=76BUR73N0SRA&keywords=Dine+Bahane&qid=1705326632&sprefix=dine+bahane%2Caps%2C140&sr=8-1 ... In 2019, just in time for the pandemic (!), I incorporated Pleiades Books. By the time I even looked at publishing our first book, the pandemic hit, the bookstores closed, and the libraries stopped buying. Pleiades was shuttered until last summer. Paul's will be our first book out ... and now we have seven authors and twelve books in one stage of development or another. The bottom line is that I simply love Paul Zolbrod. And the book is perhaps the best, most honorable example of a comparative mythology work I've ever seen. He acknowledges what parts overlap and doesn't try to shoehorn what doesn't into the Hero's Journey. We all know that the biblical story of The Fall doesn't end well for humanity. The Navajo creation story, bawdy, ribald, INCREDIBLY ENTERTAINING to read with coyote wreaking havoc and women and men have BIG fights, and the magic of fighting monsters, and the quest through five worlds before coming to the Earth surface, is THE BEST READ EVER. In the end, everything is resolved, and the people's religion is about sustain HOZHOON, balance and harmony and at-oneness with Nature. For them spirit is emanant, not celestial, and love is now. While I finish this book, Dr. Zolbrod is working on his memoirs, which I will also publish. His 50 years living among and working with the Navajo people is a beautiful, beautiful story, one I'll be honored to bring home.
Absolutely FASCINATING! What a wonderful thing you are doing both for your former professor, and for everyone else -- otherwise his work might be lost to the general public. As an aside, my husband is Tibetan. Thirty years ago, we went out to see the Grand Canyon and travel in the area for 10 days. We stayed in Hopi Land (that was an amazing story in and of itself, given the Rain Dance and its sequella) and then to the Navajo area. As we drove through, my husband became very anxious: "do they have water?" "do they have schools?" among other concerns. He was also very interested because he recognized many things: "our house just like that!" and when we saw the traditional Navajo jewelry (silver and turquoise) he said, "this just like OUR jewelry!" When we spoke with an older Navajo man, Gyalzin realized that "some of our words the same!" E.g., "dawa" in Navajo means "sun"; in Tibetan, it means "moon". We went on a tour with a few other people including an area with a "ballfield". Gyalzin stayed behind while the rest of the group went on. He said, "I going to call on ancestors!" A short while later, he came running after us, so pale that I thought he would faint. I asked what was wrong. He wouldn't say, never said. Many years later, a patient and I were talking about Navajo land and Gyalzin's experience at the ballpark. Hal told me that the "balls" used were the HEADS of the losers in the "game", and they kicked them back and forth! I confronted Gyalzin that evening and asked, "Is this what you saw?" He absolutely refused to discuss it with me. I am certain that was it. [Sometime later, I did some digging and found out that the DNA of the Inuit, Navajo, and Apache Indians is very closely related to that of Tibetans. I also did a search of his mother's DNA, and it matched with DNA up through Mongolia, across the Bering Strait, and all the way down to the Tierra del Fuego. Truly amazing! Do you know if Professor Zolbrod knows about the Tibetan/Navajo connection?]
Yes, he knows about it. This is the ATHABASKAN connection. ... First, the Tibetan story is fascinating. Tibetans have a genetic mutation that allows them to tolerate extremely high terrains and profound cold. They are related to Polynesians as people researchers think they drifted down into Polynesia at a time that sea level was lower and island-hopping was much easier. They may be related to the Maori in New Zealand. Then they drifted back up into the Tibetan Plateau and then down over the Bering Straits. The language similarities your husband notices he'll also find in the Inuit language. From Alaska, the tribes moved into what is now the American Southwest--and from there into Mexico, becoming the Aztecs. The Aztecs (not the Navajo) were the ones who played ball games with the skulls of the vanquished, but this is a "memory" or "psychic intuition" that is correct because SOME of the Aztecs came up from Mexico and settled in what is now Arizona and New Mexico. These are the Hopi and the Navajo, and they are BY FAR more peaceful than the Aztecs, who created a BRUTAL culture, ever were. But the truth is, the ancestors of both Navajo and Hopi were Aztecs who played this game. And you're right that all SOME of the people who drifted down as far as Tierra del Fuego are of Athabaskan stock, though some came directly across the Pacific (see Thor Heyerdahl's "Kon Tiki") rather than across the Bering Straits. And there are what appear to be Chinese artifacts in Baja California, so travel during the ice ages, when sea level was 475 vertical feet lower than it is now, was probably so prevalent we can't even imagine it now. The Navajo and Hopi are your husband's kin. ... Now as to the concern about water--and therefore food--the United States gave the Navajo's a vast area (with the Hopi Reservation encompassed by it), but they gave them nothing. Water is incredibly scarce. Practically the whole place is desert. There is plenty of water under the ground, but it'll be incredibly expensive to get to. Giving Native Americans badlands to live on helps ensure they will be poverty-stricken and powerless nearly forever. And the other thing the US did is CLAIM OWNERSHIP OF ALL THE MINERAL WEALTH UNDER THE SURFACE. The Indians in Montana have been trying to get the rights to their minerals for decades, and the United States keeps breaking its promises. Anyhow, here's the hydrology of the Navajo Nation, complete with great maps. Thank you for telling me this wonderful story. https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/programs/crbstudy/tws/docs/Ch.%205.5%20Navajo%20Current-Future%20Water%20Use%2012-13-2018.pdf
P.S. I didn't mention that my husband -- AND our daughter -- have that Tibetan blood. Each red blood cell (RBC) carries two oxygen (O2) molecules, instead of the usual one O2 molecule. That saved our daughter's life! When she was born, we both almost died. She had NO oxygen for 5 minutes (anoxia) and not enough oxygen for 20 minutes (hypoxia). The doctors in the NICU told us to let her die because she would be so retarded and never walk or talk. We said, "No way!!!" As things ended up, she graduated from UNC-A with double majors in Philosophy and Environmental studies, and became an outstanding athlete in 5 different sports! Thank God for the Tibetan blood!!!
Thank you very much for the information about the hydrology of the Navajo Nation. This is certainly not anything a tourist is aware of. (Although that Hopi Rain Dance apparently made a HUGE difference for the entire state of Arizona!)
I would love to cherish this as description is fascinating but have not the 💵at present and not sure will survive long enough to receive and read. That’s a bummer times 2!
Judith ... If you'd like to be one of our draft reviewers--and write us a 50- to 100-word review of the book--I can send you a digital copy of it right now. Please write me at MorgaanSinclairPhD@PleiadesBooks.com and I'll send it right away, free of charge.
Would you please ping me at MorgaanSinclairPhD@PleiadesBooks.com ... ?
Done!
Ah, so he's related to the Hopi, as well! I always think of the Hopi as somehow being the descendants of "nobody". Isn't that what they claim? Yes, the Aztecs were brutal -- beyond words. I didn't know that they, too, were thus genetically connected with Tibetans. Ah, yes! "Kon Tiki"! My 4th grade teacher read that aloud to us, along with "Aku-Aku"! Do you know about the Hopi "Rain Dance"? They do it once a year to call down rain. We were staying in Hopi Land for a couple of days. During our stay, the Rain Dance was done. There had been a terrible drought the previous year. After their Dance, I want to say that 12" (??) of rain fell all over the state of Arizona. Roads in Phoenix were flooded. And there was no way we could leave Hopi Land because the roads had washed out. It was a truly amazing experience! One other thing we learned: the Hopi used to let Westerners watch their sacred ceremonies and dances, including going down into the kivas. As we do, it was "exciting" and people took endless pictures. As a result, Westerners were blocked from all ceremonies. Only H.H. the Dalai Lama was invited to be part of these sacred events. Of note is how important the sacred songs and dances are to the Tibetan people. 30 years ago, we hosted 6 monks, 3 Rinpoches, and 3 Geshes in our homes -- plus a couple of other people's homes whom I recruited, and were able to watch the songs and dances. They were from a monastery in India and were spending a year traveling all over the world -- a total of 146 countries, I heard. They felt so welcomed, and so much money was raised on behalf of their monastery, that one of the Geshes and one of the Rinpoches actually came back to settle in Charleston! My husband and I founded a Dharma Center 25 years ago, and has been so successful that they are now purchasing several acres of land in an area 60 miles away and are building a Retreat Center there! I know that their happiness in Charleston was because my husband (who was a monk at Ka Nying Shedrup Ling monastery for 17 years) knew precisely how to honor them. They were so happy for the four days they were here. The number of events sponsored was incredible -- including giving the sermon at my church; singing with the Trappist monks at nearby Mepkin Abbey; speaking at an Amnesty International meeting here in Charleston; giving prophecies for people (mine, shockingly, came true); in addition to the songs and dances. I'm leaving out another half-dozen events, such as taking the two Tulkus to see a doctor + two excellent restaurants preparing meals for them (everything at no cost, as you can imagine). It was all so fun and so miraculous! At least when they were at our house! My husband was so happy, and so were they.
How do you know the author?
Paul Zolbrod was my professor of Mythologies of the Americas in the Ph.D. myth program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Before that he was the dean of the English department at Allegheny College. He's now 91 years old. In the early 1970s, he became interested in oral traditions and found the Navajo creation story scattered all over the place, pieces of it in various books. As the write-up says, he learned Navajo language and then re-translated the myth into English--his translation surpassing all the others. The result was Dine Bahane https://www.amazon.com/Din%C3%A9-Bahane-Navajo-Creation-Story/dp/0826310435/ref=sr_1_1?crid=76BUR73N0SRA&keywords=Dine+Bahane&qid=1705326632&sprefix=dine+bahane%2Caps%2C140&sr=8-1 ... In 2019, just in time for the pandemic (!), I incorporated Pleiades Books. By the time I even looked at publishing our first book, the pandemic hit, the bookstores closed, and the libraries stopped buying. Pleiades was shuttered until last summer. Paul's will be our first book out ... and now we have seven authors and twelve books in one stage of development or another. The bottom line is that I simply love Paul Zolbrod. And the book is perhaps the best, most honorable example of a comparative mythology work I've ever seen. He acknowledges what parts overlap and doesn't try to shoehorn what doesn't into the Hero's Journey. We all know that the biblical story of The Fall doesn't end well for humanity. The Navajo creation story, bawdy, ribald, INCREDIBLY ENTERTAINING to read with coyote wreaking havoc and women and men have BIG fights, and the magic of fighting monsters, and the quest through five worlds before coming to the Earth surface, is THE BEST READ EVER. In the end, everything is resolved, and the people's religion is about sustain HOZHOON, balance and harmony and at-oneness with Nature. For them spirit is emanant, not celestial, and love is now. While I finish this book, Dr. Zolbrod is working on his memoirs, which I will also publish. His 50 years living among and working with the Navajo people is a beautiful, beautiful story, one I'll be honored to bring home.
Absolutely FASCINATING! What a wonderful thing you are doing both for your former professor, and for everyone else -- otherwise his work might be lost to the general public. As an aside, my husband is Tibetan. Thirty years ago, we went out to see the Grand Canyon and travel in the area for 10 days. We stayed in Hopi Land (that was an amazing story in and of itself, given the Rain Dance and its sequella) and then to the Navajo area. As we drove through, my husband became very anxious: "do they have water?" "do they have schools?" among other concerns. He was also very interested because he recognized many things: "our house just like that!" and when we saw the traditional Navajo jewelry (silver and turquoise) he said, "this just like OUR jewelry!" When we spoke with an older Navajo man, Gyalzin realized that "some of our words the same!" E.g., "dawa" in Navajo means "sun"; in Tibetan, it means "moon". We went on a tour with a few other people including an area with a "ballfield". Gyalzin stayed behind while the rest of the group went on. He said, "I going to call on ancestors!" A short while later, he came running after us, so pale that I thought he would faint. I asked what was wrong. He wouldn't say, never said. Many years later, a patient and I were talking about Navajo land and Gyalzin's experience at the ballpark. Hal told me that the "balls" used were the HEADS of the losers in the "game", and they kicked them back and forth! I confronted Gyalzin that evening and asked, "Is this what you saw?" He absolutely refused to discuss it with me. I am certain that was it. [Sometime later, I did some digging and found out that the DNA of the Inuit, Navajo, and Apache Indians is very closely related to that of Tibetans. I also did a search of his mother's DNA, and it matched with DNA up through Mongolia, across the Bering Strait, and all the way down to the Tierra del Fuego. Truly amazing! Do you know if Professor Zolbrod knows about the Tibetan/Navajo connection?]
Yes, he knows about it. This is the ATHABASKAN connection. ... First, the Tibetan story is fascinating. Tibetans have a genetic mutation that allows them to tolerate extremely high terrains and profound cold. They are related to Polynesians as people researchers think they drifted down into Polynesia at a time that sea level was lower and island-hopping was much easier. They may be related to the Maori in New Zealand. Then they drifted back up into the Tibetan Plateau and then down over the Bering Straits. The language similarities your husband notices he'll also find in the Inuit language. From Alaska, the tribes moved into what is now the American Southwest--and from there into Mexico, becoming the Aztecs. The Aztecs (not the Navajo) were the ones who played ball games with the skulls of the vanquished, but this is a "memory" or "psychic intuition" that is correct because SOME of the Aztecs came up from Mexico and settled in what is now Arizona and New Mexico. These are the Hopi and the Navajo, and they are BY FAR more peaceful than the Aztecs, who created a BRUTAL culture, ever were. But the truth is, the ancestors of both Navajo and Hopi were Aztecs who played this game. And you're right that all SOME of the people who drifted down as far as Tierra del Fuego are of Athabaskan stock, though some came directly across the Pacific (see Thor Heyerdahl's "Kon Tiki") rather than across the Bering Straits. And there are what appear to be Chinese artifacts in Baja California, so travel during the ice ages, when sea level was 475 vertical feet lower than it is now, was probably so prevalent we can't even imagine it now. The Navajo and Hopi are your husband's kin. ... Now as to the concern about water--and therefore food--the United States gave the Navajo's a vast area (with the Hopi Reservation encompassed by it), but they gave them nothing. Water is incredibly scarce. Practically the whole place is desert. There is plenty of water under the ground, but it'll be incredibly expensive to get to. Giving Native Americans badlands to live on helps ensure they will be poverty-stricken and powerless nearly forever. And the other thing the US did is CLAIM OWNERSHIP OF ALL THE MINERAL WEALTH UNDER THE SURFACE. The Indians in Montana have been trying to get the rights to their minerals for decades, and the United States keeps breaking its promises. Anyhow, here's the hydrology of the Navajo Nation, complete with great maps. Thank you for telling me this wonderful story. https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/programs/crbstudy/tws/docs/Ch.%205.5%20Navajo%20Current-Future%20Water%20Use%2012-13-2018.pdf
P.S. I didn't mention that my husband -- AND our daughter -- have that Tibetan blood. Each red blood cell (RBC) carries two oxygen (O2) molecules, instead of the usual one O2 molecule. That saved our daughter's life! When she was born, we both almost died. She had NO oxygen for 5 minutes (anoxia) and not enough oxygen for 20 minutes (hypoxia). The doctors in the NICU told us to let her die because she would be so retarded and never walk or talk. We said, "No way!!!" As things ended up, she graduated from UNC-A with double majors in Philosophy and Environmental studies, and became an outstanding athlete in 5 different sports! Thank God for the Tibetan blood!!!
Thank you very much for the information about the hydrology of the Navajo Nation. This is certainly not anything a tourist is aware of. (Although that Hopi Rain Dance apparently made a HUGE difference for the entire state of Arizona!)