Interview: interviewee is Sonam, who I did an observation of her chanting by the fieldnotes practice, so I continued an interview with her to explore an artifact in her chanting ritual. We interviewed through Zoom video by Chinese without recording, I did transcription and translation immediately after the interview with reference to the jotting notes.

Xue: Hi, Sonam, thank you for time to continue talking about chanting ritual. So, if you choose one artifact in the ritual that represents its significance to you, what it would be?

Sonam: Hey Xue, no problem. I think it would be the cannon book of sutra. I carried it with me everywhere since my elementary school. When I do the chanting practice, I would like to have it aside of me as a reminder.

Xue: a reminder of what?

Sonam: reminding me not to killing. For example, I am living an environment that has so many mosquitoes, and they bite me and sometimes I will become so annoyed and have to killed them. But I felt so regret of my killing behavior when I saw my sutra book and did the chanting ritual. However, I am also ambivalent and self-contradictory.

Xue: how did that happen? Why did you feel regret? Because of the teaching of the sutra?

Sonam: yeah, the content of sutra is about teaching us how to accumulate merits by not killing, showing respect to masters, friends to neutralizing our bad karma, not to be the causing of the bad karma. While not killing is a very important principle in the Tibetan Buddhism, so I felt so bad when I violated this principle. Actually, sometimes the little insects did not harm us or occupy our space, we can co-exist with them harmoniously, but I just felt like they are so annoying and dirty, so I am repentant when I am chanting the sutra.

Xue: I see. You said you carried with it since the elementary school, so where did you get it?

Sonam: I bought it from a bookstore in my town. Before elementary school, I used my uncle’s sutra book, which is the traditional one, large and landscape, writing by ink and brush. So, I cannot carry it to my boarding school, I think I could have my own one. I found this one in the bookstore using my pocket money.

[could expand more on uncle’s sutra book, changes in the book she was using]

Xue: could you remember how much is it?

[partly change the direction of the topic interruptedly]

Sonam: No idea, let’s check. [she fetched the book but the back cover has been lost]

Xue: no problem, do you remember how the back cover got lost?

Sonam: not really. Actually I protected this book with extra care and attention, more important than any other books, I always put it on the top of the pile of books. When I am settled down in a new place, I will put on the bed near my head.

Xue: why you cherish it so much with extra protection?

Sonam: because Tibetans are taught to revere books and knowledge, for example, we never use books to be placed under other stuff, not to mention books with sutra scripts.

[other examples of revering books/knowledge] 

Xue: good to know. what’s the special significance of this sutra book to you?

Sonam: since I have carried with it for a long time, it is like a companion that reminds me doing good, the symbol of morality, and also help me sense of belonging, belonging to my Tibetan ethnicity.

[expand more on the topic of ethnicity, and sense of belonging]

Xue: wow, that makes a lot sense. I am glad to know your sutra book and your story. Hope to learn more.

Sonam: my pleasure.

 

Reflection: I paired with Theo [his suggestions are in the bracket of italic] to do this line-to-line reflection on the interview process, which I think is a very helpful practice and useful tool I would like to carry on within my study. Because it is not only to learn from each other’s interview, but also help us to rethink reflectively with more fresh ideas from our peers. Sometimes, it gets harder for people to think out of the box, so our talk tones and following up questions get into a pattern that flows naturally without self-awareness, not alone to identify flaws or better alternative ways. Likewise, ethnographers to explore exotic culture as an outsider with refreshing eyes, so did the interviewers could get more honed questions through the eyes of others. For example, after Thoe pointed out that I changed the topic into the price of the book rather than to catch up with a deeper question about uncle’s book, I rethink my own attention and underlying logic to ask this question: why I am caring about the price of the book? My doubt lead to a deeper examination of my focus, which I think that I still pay much attention to the item/artifact itself, rather than the interpersonal relationship or new information that the interviewee gave out in the process. Take another example, after Sonam said she lost the back cover and also protected the sutra book with extra care, I discerned some discrepancy here and I want to know why. However, I don’t want the interviewee to felt like self-contradictory and to make some excuses, so I gave up this thread. Now, I will ask this question but also try to hedge the questions without making the interviewee uncomfortable. Also, the order of questions from easy/natural ones to deep/sophisticated ones needs to pay attention, I think it like an art needs crafting practice, reflection line-by-line is a good start.