news, sites, and pages of interest about hermits and solitude
Photography website It’s Nice That describes India-born Nishant Shukla’s photographic series Seeking Moksha in an article titled: “Nishant Shukla’s meditative series documents the hermits who live in the Himalayas.”
URL: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/nishant-shukla-seeking-moksha-photography-300819; original site: https://nishantshukla.com/Seeking-Moksha
The SCMP or South Chia Morning Post’s Post Magazine offers an update on Dan Hummel, American veteran who quit the USA during the Vietnam War era and moved to Ireland. Title and byline: “The Ivy League-educated Vietnam veteran Dan Hummel has spent most of the past 46 years alone, having left Nixon’s America in 1969 never to return. He’s divided his time between the windswept wilds of Ireland’s Atlantic coast and the mountaintop delights of Dali, in Yunnan province, southwest China.”
The headline of a Siberian Times article announces “Siberian hermit, 75, who ‘lives in 18th century’ refuses to be moved by Space Age” and the byline “Agafya Lykova rejects leaving her remote house even though debris from coming rocket launch could fall dangerously close.” After years of following Agafya’s refusals to leave for lack of food, medical care, need for help in chopping wood and other chores, it hardly seems that she would leave based on a threat of space debris, though she might not realize what space debris is about. The article summarizes her life and how she became a hermit.Includes photos.
Reuters reports on a 62-year old Russian hermit named Viktor in an article titled “Russian hermit seeks peace in remote Siberia.”
“Viktor, 62, turned his back on society 16 years ago and moved to the remote forest wilderness of Russian Siberia where he lives in seclusion in a wooden hut, studying the Bible and foraging for food.
Gray-bearded, enigmatic and with a huge tattoo of Christ across his back, the former barge operator refuses to disclose his surname. The hut he built himself sits on the banks of the Yenisei River which carves through Siberia.
“I like the company of trees more than the company of people,” he says.
One long-time acquaintance – a former police officer – who knows Viktor from chance encounters while sailing by on a boat says the hermit shunned society after he was jailed – on charges he denied – over the sinking of a barge he was operating.
He moved there after serving several years in jail, the former officer said.
Viktor declined to talk about his past.
Nowadays, he lives on fresh fish, berries and mushrooms, and refuses to use medicine. He fell gravely ill last year from a tick bite, he says, but recovered by praying with his ceramic cross and eating hand-picked herbs.
In winter, he braves icy climes by heating his hut using a gas cylinder. When the seasons change, he feels himself physically rejuvenate along with the wildlife around him, he says.
He sometimes comes into contact with people when they sail past on boats or stop to buy fish. Viktor himself very occasionally leaves his seclusion, crossing the two-kilometer-wide river to buy cigarettes.”
A February 2019 interview of Bill Porter, author of Road to Heaven: Encounters With Chinese Hermits, in Emergence Magazine. The interview is titled “Lone Moon Lights Cold Spring,” with the byline: “In this in-depth interview, Bill Porter, famously known as the translator Red Pine, reflects on his encounters with Chinese hermits and his long history with the great Taoist and Buddhist poets of China.” Among the range of China topics, Porter discusses his favorite hermits Cold Mountain and Stonehouse. Available as audio or transcript.
URL: https://emergencemagazine.org/story/lone-moon-lights-cold-spring/