"Kim Stanley Robinson - Mother Goddess of the World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

it too fast and get poured a second cup, IтАЩm fine. But here I
couldnтАЩt do that, because twenty-odd pairs of laughing eyes were
staring at us.
Kunga Norbu was hunched over the table, slurping from his
cup and going тАЬooh,тАЭ and тАЬahh,тАЭ and saying complimentary things
to the stove keepers. They nodded and looked closely at Freds and
me, big grins on their faces.
Freds grabbed his cup and took a big gulp of the tea. He
smacked his lips like a wine taster. тАЬRight on,тАЭ he said, and drained
the cup down. He held it up to our host. тАЬMore?тАЭ he said, pointing
into the cup.
The porters howled. Our host refilled FredsтАЩs cup and he
slurped it down again, smacking his lips after every swallow. I
slipped some iodine solution into mine from a dropper I keep on
me, and stirred it around and held my nose to get down a sip, and
they thought that was funny too.
So we were in tight with the teahouse crowd, and when I
asked for chang they brought over a whole bucket of it. We poured
it into the little chipped teahouse glasses and went to work on it.
тАЬSo what are you and Kunga Norbu up to?тАЭ I asked him.
тАЬWell,тАЭ he said, and a funny expression crossed his face.
тАЬThatтАЩs kind of a long story, actually.тАЭ
тАЬSo tell it to me.тАЭ
He looked uncertain. тАЬItтАЩs too long to tell tonight.тАЭ
тАЬWhatтАЩs this? A story too long for Freds Fredericks to tell?
Impossible, man, why I once heard you summarize the Bible to
Laure, and it only took you a minute.тАЭ
Freds shook his head. тАЬItтАЩs longer than that.тАЭ
 тАЬI see.тАЭ I let it go, and the three of us kept on drinking the
chang, which is a white beer made from rice or barley. We drank a
lot of it, which is a dangerous proposition on several counts, but
we didnтАЩt care. As we drank we kept slumping lower over the table
to try to get under the smoke layer, and besides we just naturally
felt like slumping at that point. Eventually we were laid out like
mud in a puddle.
Freds kept conferring with Kunga Norbu in Tibetan, and I
got curious. тАЬFreds, you hardly speak a word of Nepali, how is it
you know so much Tibetan?тАЭ
тАЬI spent a couple years in Tibet. I was studying in the
Buddhist lamaseries there.тАЭ
тАЬYou studied in Buddhist lamaseries in Tibet?тАЭ
тАЬYeah sure! CanтАЩt you tell?тАЭ
тАЬWellтАжтАЭ I waved a hand. тАЬI guess that might explain it.тАЭ
тАЬThat was where I met Kunga Norbu, in fact. He was my
teacher.тАЭ
тАЬI thought he was a climbing buddy.тАЭ
тАЬOh he is! HeтАЩs a climbing lama. Actually thereтАЩs quite a
number of them. See when the Chinese invaded Tibet they closed
down all the lamaseries, destroyed most of them in fact. The
monks had to go to work, and the lamas either slipped over to