lake?
So, instead of asking him about his dead relatives, I asked Lop Nor to tell me more about life-prolonging herbs.
“ Yin foods grow in shaded places, so they are cool and moisturizing. Yang foods are warm because they grow exposed to the sun. Your body belongs to the cool type so you should eat more spicy, energy-giving yang food like meat and stews to generate heat in your body and stimulate your qi to circulate. However, since you’re now living in the hot, dry desert, your body needs to protect its yin energy.”
Talking, he lifted the lid and studied the boiling contents while stirring the mixture in a gentle, rhythmic motion.
He went on. “Herbs are consumed to balance, cooling the body in summer and warming it during winter, so we won’t get heatstroke or chilled. Chinese medicine aims for the balance of qi in our body. We prepare herbs to prevent diseases, not to cure after we’ve caught them.”
Now the pleasant smell of the soup filled the room. After more stirring, my friend carefully ladled the contents of the pot into a big ceramic bowl.
Both the soup and meat tasted unbelievably good. After only a few sips and bites, I already felt my whole body warming up in a very comforting way.
Lop Nor asked, “Feel the heat inside you now?”
I nodded, sending another spoon of soup into my mouth. “Yes, excellent soup, thank you so much, Lop Nor.”
“You should feel the qi emanating from the soup, since I sent my qi into it,” he said.
I gave him a curious look.
He returned my look with a “how-come-you-never-heard-about-this” expression. “You have to be able to practice for a long time to do this.”
I quickly drank another spoon of the dark liquid. How could a Uyghur man in this remote village talk so eloquently like a traditional Chinese scholar?
“Lop Nor, may I ask how you know all this?”
“From my grandfather, who was a Chinese herbalist and qigong master.” He paused, then said, “Because of him, although my father was Uyghur, the cultivation of qi for longevity was very much emphasized in my family.”
“So your parents are still enjoying their longevity?”
To my surprise, Lop Nor’s expression suddenly turned unfathomable, and even bitter.
All he said was, “They should have.”
“What do you mean—something happened?”
Just then a fortyish Uyghur woman wearing a colorful headscarf and matching outfit stepped inside the store with a young boy. A gap-toothed smile bloomed on her long, brown face.
Lop Nor immediately went up to the duo and led them to sit down by the counter next to me.
She spoke in a language totally lost on me. However, her expression told me she was very upset about something concerning the boy, probably her son, for they looked almost identical.
My friend started to examine the boy’s eyes, face, tongue, and pulse. After that, he spoke to the mother in the same strange language.
To my puzzlement, the woman raised her voice and gesticulated wildly as if arguing, but my herbalist friend remained calm and continued to explain patiently, what I had no idea. He turned to speak to the boy in a very gentle voice, but the kid responded by shaking his head and starting to cry. Then to my surprise, the woman suddenly pinched her son’s ear. This time the boy responded by yelling and crying hysterically, spitting something imaginary from his mouth.
Lop Nor tried to explain more, but the woman, her expression furious and her face turning purple, pulled her son out of the store.
After they’d left, I asked, “What happened?”
My friend smiled wryly. “She’s not very happy with my diagnosis.”
“The boy sick?”
He laughed. “No, he’s perfectly OK, just refuses to eat meat. I told the woman she has to let him be. He’s a born vegetarian. But she was furious with me and said, ‘There’s no such thing as born vegetarian, otherwise we’d all starve to death!’ She told me her husband works very hard to save money to buy meat, but the son
So, instead of asking him about his dead relatives, I asked Lop Nor to tell me more about life-prolonging herbs.
“ Yin foods grow in shaded places, so they are cool and moisturizing. Yang foods are warm because they grow exposed to the sun. Your body belongs to the cool type so you should eat more spicy, energy-giving yang food like meat and stews to generate heat in your body and stimulate your qi to circulate. However, since you’re now living in the hot, dry desert, your body needs to protect its yin energy.”
Talking, he lifted the lid and studied the boiling contents while stirring the mixture in a gentle, rhythmic motion.
He went on. “Herbs are consumed to balance, cooling the body in summer and warming it during winter, so we won’t get heatstroke or chilled. Chinese medicine aims for the balance of qi in our body. We prepare herbs to prevent diseases, not to cure after we’ve caught them.”
Now the pleasant smell of the soup filled the room. After more stirring, my friend carefully ladled the contents of the pot into a big ceramic bowl.
Both the soup and meat tasted unbelievably good. After only a few sips and bites, I already felt my whole body warming up in a very comforting way.
Lop Nor asked, “Feel the heat inside you now?”
I nodded, sending another spoon of soup into my mouth. “Yes, excellent soup, thank you so much, Lop Nor.”
“You should feel the qi emanating from the soup, since I sent my qi into it,” he said.
I gave him a curious look.
He returned my look with a “how-come-you-never-heard-about-this” expression. “You have to be able to practice for a long time to do this.”
I quickly drank another spoon of the dark liquid. How could a Uyghur man in this remote village talk so eloquently like a traditional Chinese scholar?
“Lop Nor, may I ask how you know all this?”
“From my grandfather, who was a Chinese herbalist and qigong master.” He paused, then said, “Because of him, although my father was Uyghur, the cultivation of qi for longevity was very much emphasized in my family.”
“So your parents are still enjoying their longevity?”
To my surprise, Lop Nor’s expression suddenly turned unfathomable, and even bitter.
All he said was, “They should have.”
“What do you mean—something happened?”
Just then a fortyish Uyghur woman wearing a colorful headscarf and matching outfit stepped inside the store with a young boy. A gap-toothed smile bloomed on her long, brown face.
Lop Nor immediately went up to the duo and led them to sit down by the counter next to me.
She spoke in a language totally lost on me. However, her expression told me she was very upset about something concerning the boy, probably her son, for they looked almost identical.
My friend started to examine the boy’s eyes, face, tongue, and pulse. After that, he spoke to the mother in the same strange language.
To my puzzlement, the woman raised her voice and gesticulated wildly as if arguing, but my herbalist friend remained calm and continued to explain patiently, what I had no idea. He turned to speak to the boy in a very gentle voice, but the kid responded by shaking his head and starting to cry. Then to my surprise, the woman suddenly pinched her son’s ear. This time the boy responded by yelling and crying hysterically, spitting something imaginary from his mouth.
Lop Nor tried to explain more, but the woman, her expression furious and her face turning purple, pulled her son out of the store.
After they’d left, I asked, “What happened?”
My friend smiled wryly. “She’s not very happy with my diagnosis.”
“The boy sick?”
He laughed. “No, he’s perfectly OK, just refuses to eat meat. I told the woman she has to let him be. He’s a born vegetarian. But she was furious with me and said, ‘There’s no such thing as born vegetarian, otherwise we’d all starve to death!’ She told me her husband works very hard to save money to buy meat, but the son
Similar Books
