The third illustration for "If a Family Heirloom could Tell All" is a fiction based on the Romanticism of the 19th century. There were rabbis that did just as the one in my story. I don't really know how the Widler family acquired the Aracapana statue. The statues head covering has round holes drilled over both ears. They might well have been made bay a pilgrim who sewed the statue to some part of their clothing to prevent it from being stolen by bandits.
In the illustration the turban wearing Ottoman Jewish Rabbi removed his boots and outer long robe to forge a river on the Silk Road.
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The next step is to answer questions. Like: Was our Aracapana Statue really from Nepal? One expert said it could be Nepal another said it was 19th century Tibetan. I saw newly made ones like him for sale at the Potala gift and tea room in Lhasa. The size and details were very much alike only the ear ornaments did not have a circular disk with a cross in the center. Another question is what route did the rabbi take? Is it possible that he left Jerusalem and headed to Bombay. Walked inland to Delhi and went off the beaten Silk Road track towards Nepal then across the Zaskar Range past Western Tibet into the Taklamkan Desert. Then headed further west past the Caspian Sea, through Afganisan ending in Constantinople Turkey. Is is believeable that a single traveler could make such a journey alone?
I am going to put away the story for a few months. Looking up information as time allows. Then next summer invite my grandchildren to help me rewrite parts to make it better reading for junior high or young adults.
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