The Godfather of Kathmandu

by John Burdett

  Hey, China, stop being stupid!

  Don’t go down this road anymore!

  Look at the West. It may be confused, but it has been down this road of yours and has much to teach: Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Franco, Nixon, Botha. And there’s a guy called Mao you really need to study more deeply. Know who they all were, these guys? They were the direct cultural products of Clive, Palmerston, Kitchener, Curzon, Younghusband: the kind of guys Marx hated most in all the world. Remember Marx?

  Monocultures with iron fists don’t last very long these days. Better get yourself some variety if you want to survive.

  Things are looking good for you at the moment, aren’t they? Did anyone explain the Third Reich was supposed to last a thousand years?

  Listen, China, this is a new age we have here. Freedom isn’t a theory anymore, it is an instinct people are born with. So is the longing for the transcendent. Nothing you can do about it: it’s even stronger than money!

  Here’s something from your own culture:

  A cup of wine under the flowering trees;

  I drink alone, for no friend is near.

  Raising my cup I beckon the bright moon …

  Li Po is the greatest poet in world literature. He was also a Buddhist, by the way. So were the Emperor Wu of Han, Yao Xing, Cao Xueqin, Liu Ying, Li Shizhen, Commissioner Lin, and the Emperor Ming.

  You better link up again with those guys if you want your good karma to continue. The way you treat my people is filling the Illustrious Ancestors with shame.

  Let my people go, China. The alternative is too ugly to contemplate.

  Om mani padme hum

  SOURCES

  Bayonets to Lhasa, Peter Fleming

  Circling the Sacred Mountain: A Spiritual Adventure Through the Himalayas, Robert Thurman and Tad Wise

  Esoteric Teachings of the Tibetan Tantra, translated by Chang Chen Chi

  Lords of the Rim, Sterling Seagrave

  The Madman’s Middle Way, Donald Lopez

  Opium, Empire, and the Global Political Economy: A Study of the Asian Opium Trade, Carl A. Trocki

  Pax Britannica: Climax of an Empire, Jan Morris

  The Ritual and Mythology of the Chinese Triads: Creating an Identity, Berend J. Ter Harr

  The Shadow Circus: The CIA in Tibet, White Crane Films

  Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas, Claudia Mulles-Ebeling, Christian Ratsch, and Surendra Bahadur Shahi

  Very Thai, Philip Cornwel-Smith

  A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  John Burdett is the author of A Personal History of Thirst, The Last Six Million Seconds, Bangkok 8, Bangkok Tattoo, and Bangkok Haunts.

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK

  PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  Copyright © 2010 by John Burdett

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  www.aaknopf.com

  Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Burdett, John.

  The godfather of Kathmandu / by John Burdett.—1st ed.

  p. cm.

  “This is a Borzoi Book”—T.p. verso

  eISBN: 978-0-307-27294-2

  1. Sonchai Jitpleecheep (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Police—Thailand—Bangkok—Fiction. 3. Bangkok (Thailand)—Fiction. 4. Corruption—Fiction. I. Title.

  PR6052.U617G63 2010

  823′.914—dc 2009038459

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  v3.0