Building the Printing Press
There are some big events taking place in the village this week. With the donations from the lama last week, villagers start to consider of building a printing press, library, and a medicine factory. Moreover, new cliff carves have been discovered recently, so some people are arranging an expedition to these caves. As a book trader, it is actually hard for me to make a decision on which event I should take part, since all of them are interesting, and my professional skill is useful for all the activities — some of these activities need my books, and all the activities will certainly need money and gold as their funding. Finally, I accept the invitation from the group that want to build the printing press, because I think by establishing a printing press, books and Buddhist sutras can then be produced in a large quantity, which will in turn give more people the chance to read them. Nothing will gain more merit than spreading the Buddhist teachings; also, it appears to be impossible for me to bring a large amount of Tantric Buddhist texts back to China by hand-copying, a printing press is indispensable.
The group I joined has 6 people with different jobs and professions. Leah is the head teacher of our local nunnery, she will take charge of selecting the books and deciding how many copies should be printed for each book, since we feel that some of the most sacred texts should not be widely circulated and read by people who do not have a strong faith in Buddhism. Dilshad and Candice are two very well-trained female ritualists in the village, they will take charge of finding the amulets and performing rituals that will ensure the safety during the construction process; they will also make sure that our printing factory and our printing machines will be long-lasting and will not be destroyed by natural disasters. Another group member, Reah, is the main builder of the printing press. She will design and construct both the outlook and the inner chambers of the printing factory; besides, she will also craft the printing tools. Since her job is the most important but also the most dangerous one, our two ritualists will ensure that she can finish her work safely with protections from the amulets. Our fifth member, Sarah, will be our ink provider and craver. As an artist with a secondary skill in scholarship, we all agree that she is qualified for handling these tasks. Finally, as the last member of the group, my job is to collect as many books as I can. Apart from the books I already have, I should also use my connections in the village to obtain books from other people. For example, I have talked to a few nuns in the library construction group, and they are happy to provide us with some rare monastic manuals. They also told me that they would like to work with us, since they need our printed books to be stored in their library. Moreover, I have also built a strong connection with the medicine factory construction group via my friend Kedao; the doctors are also happy to give us some medical books for reproduction.
We need a total of 500 resources in order to build this printing press. Our plan is that each of our group members will provide 20 resources, which will be 120 in total. Then, we will try to gain some donations from the next village, hopefully 100; we think they will be glad to make this donation, since last time our doctors and ritualists saved their lives from the naga illness, not to mention that a printing press will benefit them as well. Then, we hope to gather the rest 280 resources from other groups. Actually, our 6 members can provide more resources; we each can provide at least 50. The reason we do not want to do this is because we want to save our resources to help other groups, and in retrospect, we hope other villagers can donate to us. Someone may think such exchanging of resources is unnecessary, but what we want to build up through this is a kind of group-consciousness; we belong to the same village, even we are divided into different groups by performing different tasks, we are still making contributions to the entire village. In other words, we do not want to hear sayings like, “we build this library, so this library belongs to us.” We want all groups to be connected to each other, and we want each of our villagers to play a part in all projects by making some donations.
We plan to finish our project by the end of November, before the snow covers the entire Himalayan area. We divide our project into three different stages. First of all, we will either buy or borrow the books and sutras we want to print. Leah will give me a list of books we need, and I will go to get them. Meanwhile, our builder will start to construct the factory building and make the machines and tools; the two ritualists will perform the necessary rituals and find the amulets; Sarah at the same time will go to find the ink and wood. Secondly, after all these preliminary preparations have been finished, 5 of us will help Sarah to crave the words onto the wooden blocks. Finally, we will start to print and distribute the printed books to the nunnery, library, and book market.
