The Book of Lost Fragrances

Author’s Note

As with most of my work, there is a lot of fact mixed in with this fictional tale.

Cleopatra’s love of fragrance was legendary and she did in fact have a perfume factory. Archaeologists believe they found remains of it in the Dead Sea, thirty kilometers from Ein Gedi. According to Dioscorides, Homer and Pliny the Elder, the Egyptian queen kept a record of her favorite fragrances and cosmetic formulas in a book called Cleopatra gynaeciarum libri.

No known copy of the book exists today.

Napoleon, who was sensitive to scent, did go to Egypt in the late 1700s and while there explored the pyramids with an army of savants; there is no record of a perfumer having accompanied him.

The history of perfume and the fragrance industry past and present, the Triads, the methods by which lamas are found and how monks study and live are all based on research.

That’s also true of Tibetan beliefs and rituals having to do with reincarnation, which are sadly being threatened by China’s rules requiring people to register to reincarnate.

Unfortunately, Xie’s story is rooted in history. In 1995, the Dalai Lama identified the next reincarnated Panchen Lama, a five-year-old boy named Gedhun Choekyi Nyima. Months later, the child disappeared. The Chinese government admits to taking Nyima and claims he is alive and living with his family in Tibet, but his whereabouts remain unknown and no foreign party has been allowed to see him.

While there is no Phoenix Foundation, the work done there was inspired by work done at the University of Virginia Medical Center by Dr. Ian Stevenson, who studied children with past life memories for more than thirty years. Dr. Bruce Greyson and Dr. Jim Tucker, a child psychiatrist, continue Ian Stevenson’s work today.

And then there’s Paris. I’ll never be able to do her justice. What a magical city. If you visit, do voyage down to the catacombs. They are moving, fascinating and yes, a little frightening. Afterward, stop at Café Marly for a glass of wine and then on to L’Orangerie-Claude Monet’s paintings are truly breathtaking.