Have you ever heard about A Bao A Qu, the creature that endlessly goes up and down the stairs of the Tower of Victory in Chitor, India? If you want to dive into something unusual today, this is the story for you.
The legendary A Bao A Qu is commonly known thanks to the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (sorry, we meant Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo), which in collaboration with Margarita Guerrero, published in the fifties of the 20th century a magical book, titled “Manual de zoología fantástica” (Handbook of Fantastic Zoology). After expanding it and republishing it in 1969, it was renamed “El libro de los seres imaginarios”, which was translated to Book of Imaginary Beings.
The book contains descriptions of 120 mythical beasts from folklore, literature, and probably Borges’ own imagination. And while the beings described in the book are imaginary, some of them are so vivid, lively, and creative, that it feels that something in them, something, must be real.
Although the book comes in an encyclopedic-like form, don’t take it too seriously – even Borges himself approached it with some humor. In the preface of the 1967 edition, he wrote that:
“The title of this book [Book of Imaginary Beings] would justify the inclusion of Prince Hamlet, of the point, of the line, of the surface, of n-dimensional hyperplanes and hypervolumes, of all generic terms, and perhaps of each one of us and of the godhead. In brief, the sum of all things – the universe. We have limited ourselves, however, to what is immediately suggested by the words ‘imaginary beings’; we have compiled a handbook of the strange creatures conceived through time and space by the human imagination.
We are ignorant of the meaning of the dragon in the same way that we are ignorant of the meaning of the universe, but there is something in the dragon’s image that fits man’s imagination, and this accounts for the dragon’s appearance in different places and periods.
… The Book of Imaginary Beings is not meant to be read straight through; rather, we should like the reader to dip into these pages at random, just as one plays with the shifting patterns of a kaleidoscope.”
And while A Bao A Qu is in a way imaginary, its story ignites in us quite real feelings, thoughts, and inspires very real ideas. For example, the book inspired the American DJ and composer Mason Bates to create a 30-minute orchestral symphony Anthology of Fantastic Zoology that premiered in 2015. The eleven movements of the symphony imagine eleven different creatures from Borges’ book, and the movement about A Bao A Qu is a musical palindrome – the moment the music ends, it immediately starts going in reverse back to the start (can you spot the moment it happens?) It has a good reason for being palindromic, but you’ll have to read the story to understand why.
source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5t3vS7Bk966KKlJrGns66RP/sprite-and-a-bao-a-qu-from-anthology-of-fantastic-zoology-by-mason-bates
from the above link: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/tv/tenpieces/BatesBao.mp3
source: https://open.spotify.com/track/1pOUtp5uGbUrquBwbdddUQ
So, sit back, relax, turn on the palindromusic, and imagine the story of –
A Bao A Qu
If you want to look out over the loveliest landscape in the world, you must climb to the top of the Tower of Victory in Chitor. There, standing on a circular terrace, one has a sweep of the whole horizon. A winding stairway gives access to this terrace, but only those who do not believe in the legend dare climb up. The tale runs:
On the stairway of the Tower of Victory there has lived since the beginning of time a being sensitive to the many shades of the human soul and known as the A Bao A Qu. It lies dormant, for the most part on the first step, until at the approach of a person some secret life is touched off in it, and deep within the creature an inner light begins to glow. At the same time, its body and almost translucent skin begin to stir. But only when someone starts up the spiralling stairs is the A Bao A Qu brought to consciousness, and then it sticks close to the visitor’s heels, keeping to the outside of the turning steps, where they are most worn by the generations of pilgrims. At each level the creature’s colour becomes more intense, its shape approaches perfection, and the bluish form it gives off is more brilliant. But it achieves its ultimate form only at the topmost step, when the climber is a person who has attained Nirvana and whose acts cast no shadows. Otherwise, the A Bao A Qu hangs back before reaching the top, as if paralysed, its body incomplete, its blue growing paler, and its glow hesitant. The creature suffers when it cannot come to completion, and its moan is a barely audible sound, something like the rustling of silk. Its span of life is brief, since as soon as the traveller climbs down, the A Bao A Qu wheels and tumbles to the first steps, where, worn out and almost shapeless, it waits for the next visitor. People say that its tentacles are visible only when it reaches the middle of the staircase. It is also said that it can see with its whole body and that to the touch it is like the skin of a peach. In the course of centuries, the A Bao A Qu has reached the terrace only once.
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