French television spot about hermit Jacque Vigne, who lives in India and has recently published India Within (not yet translated into English). The short video describes Vigne as the “thinking man’s hermit. Twenty-two years ago, French doctor Jacques Vigne gave up his career to go to India to meditate and write. Brief glimpse of his daily routines.
URL: http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/news/culture.html. If no longer on the home page, search March 26, 2007 and click “Psychology.”
Chinese hermit Peng
This short article in the China Daily News, filed under “Odd News,” is reprinted in full here because the flavor of the report is best conveyed by reading the entire item.
Hermit, 72, comes out after 40 years in wild
(China Daily) Updated: 2007-03-09 09:21A man emerged from his mountain home in Taiwan after 40 years of living as a hermit.
A farmer found the man, surnamed Peng, now 72, who had lived alone, surviving by eating herbs and drinking spring water. He lived in a room built of bamboo and wood. A stove and knife were the only facilities he owned.
Peng lost a lawsuit in 1967 and, in his rage, ran into the wild, vowing never to return to the city. After the farmer found him, Peng, for the first time in his life, had a chance to taste instant noodles.
(China Times News)
URL: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-03/09/content_823532.htm.
Philip Groening interviewed
Angela Zito interviews Philip Groening, the producer of the film Into Great Silence, for the web site “The Revealer.” She offers some introductory personal thoughts and Groening chiefly addresses the making of the film, but also the experience of silence, aloneness, and his own spiritual sensibilities. URL: http://www.therevealer.org/archives/main_story_002784.php.
Sadhus at Ardh Kumbh Mela
From a Malaysian journalist, a straight-forward all-too-brief story “Lifted by the Spirit” on the sadhus or hermits attending the Ardh Kumbh Mela celebration in Allahabad, India, on the banks of the Ganges River, through January and February. From The Star;, includes a few pictures.
URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2007/1/28/
lifefocus/16682714&sec=lifefocus.
Barker, the Black Hills Hermit
The California Historical Association at the University of Southern California holds a ca. 1900 photograph of “Barker, the Black Hills Hermit,” purportedly a miner. A close inspection of the photo, however, suggests a false beard and hair, plus an artifical pose. This is made even more likely by the photographer’s florid description of the hermit, which follows, evoking all of the stereotype of the hermit of modern legend. (The photograph reproduced here is just a small version of the larger, for which USC requires permission and payment. See URLs below.)
This extraordinary individual, a man of “great vigor,” despite his many years, is a character one seldom sees in this busy world. He has lived in this cave, completely isolated from all human companionship, for many years. The only evidence of civilization in that rude habitation was an old faded picture of a young girl with a singularly beautiful face. Feeling instinctly that she was in some way connected with his former life, to my repeated questions, he finally disclosed to me the following narrative: “You are right. I loved that girl; I love her yet. A few days before we were to be united she died. The world lost its charm for me; the old pleasant scenes I once thought so charming became intolerable. So vividly did everything remind me of her that I resolved to go away and live entirely alone. But who can tell,” he added with a mournful smile, “when the inscrutable mists that veil the future are lifted, that I may once more see her again.” He would speak no more, and so I left him, pondering over by-gone memories that all these long years had not served to obliterate.
URLs
Original image:
http://docu2.usc.edu/webcache/chs/production/
80/0f/13/CHS-2144cis_1024_lres.jpg
Close up:
http://docu2.usc.edu/webcache/chs/production/
80/0f/13/CHS-2137cis_1024_lres.jpg
