Visit a place not on any map. Discover a new species. Stay with the last surviving family of a near extinct race of pygmy people. Establish the boundaries for a new national park. These were the goals of Professor Alan Rabinowitz when he set out on his expedition into the northernmost tip of Myanmar (officially called Burma until 1990), near the borders with China, Tibet, and India. It is a place where alchemy has not yet evolved into modern chemistry. Forest spirits are worshipped. Every ten miles hosts a different tribal group. The microclimates of the eastern Himalayas produce micro cultures of tribal people and species of animals little known to science.
The book chronicles of the five separate journeys Rabinowitz made to northern Myanmar over the course of the 1990s. Most of the story deals with his experiences during the two-month expedition that he conducted with over 40 officials from the Myanmar Forest Department and military.
Having visited Myanmar myself, just the fact that the author was able to get all the permits from the government required for such an expedition made me want to read the book simply to see how he did it. Myanmar government bureaucracy makes a morning at the DMV seem like a quick trip to a fast food drive-through.
The two month expedition takes Rabinowitz to Tahundan, the northernmost village in Myanmar at the edge of the Himalayas. With the cooperation of local villagers, Rabinowitz is able to journey and share the bond that they feel with the mountains. His descriptions of the stories that they told him about hunting in the mountains are hilarious. “They described feelings of ‘love’ that tormented them when they were away from the area,” Rabinowitz writes. “One hunter said he asked his wife not to wash his clothes for at least a week after he returned, so that he would still be able to smell the mountains. She was convinced that he had fallen in love with another woman. Another hunter told me of seeing ‘snow people’ covered in white hair. The snow women were beautiful, he said, but their legs were ugly. He too quarreled with his wife, who was convinced that he had made love to these women.”
While the story takes 280 pages to tell, the writing style is kept simple providing for a quick, entertaining read. The author kept his scientific findings abbreviated to keep the attention of the readers not pursuing Masters degrees in wildlife biology or conservation.
Most of all, Beyond the Last Village offers a glimpse at the thoughts of someone who has pushed himself to the limit in the pursuit of his goal. As such, he accomplished what some Guilford College students might someday pursue, and what even more are capable of.