Dear Yangguanzhai crew:

Like all of you, I am in total shock and devastated over the news of Byler. I cannot help but thinking of him. I think of his smile, his hair, his hat, his white T-shirt with a big black Chinese character long— the dragon, of his voice, and of his songs. Most of all I think of his passion for archaeology. I remember one night being waked up by a heated debate between him and Matthew over archaeological methods; the voice came from below, from the front porch at the Base. The summer heat had finally relented late in the night; there was a dim light, damp air, and occasionally, heavy trucks loaded with sand zoomed by.

 I miss his hard work. He was talkative sometimes, but every now and then you found him quietly screening by himself. He never wore gloves, using bare hand to break the dirt. He told me this way he would not miss anything. He had a special way of using the trowel, elegant and precise. I can still hear him saying “No trowel marks!” He worked on his assigned quad, T4937-3, from the beginning to the end, and never complained. He was so passionate about what he was doing. In the beginning, his teammate was uncomfortable with his sometimes bossy attitude, but toward the end, his teammate told me that she enjoyed working with him. 

If he had any stress while in China, he kept it by himself (and toward the end, I learned he was on pills). He came to see me few times during lunch breaks, asked questions mostly about Chinese archaeological practice. He tried hard to understand the practice of salvage archaeology in China. He was sensitive to the fact that he raised many questions to Chinese archaeologists, explaining to me several times that he only meant to understand.

He enjoyed life in China. He told me that he was very nervous of traveling to China when I first talked to him over the phone. He called from Colorado—the cell phone connection wasn’t good, I could barely hear him, but I remember his slightly hoarse voice. Once in China, he grabbed the opportunity fully-- he worked hard and enjoyed going out with many of you.

I wish I could be together with you mourning the great loss of our Byler, Bai Long, the White Dragon. He vanished too fast. I wish I could have a chance to tell him that he is always welcome back to YGZ, but I did not. I wish I could have been more attentive after the field school. I regret a great deal.  Lisa once told me that she felt we are more than colleagues, students, and teachers, we are a family. If we are able to work hard and care about each other in the five weeks of field school, we should be able not just to enjoy the good times together but also to face this great tragedy together.

I am very grateful for the support from you all, especially during this extremely difficult time. Katie, Matthew, Sarah, Lu Guoquan, Zhang Wei (John Wayne), Dr. Sun, Prof. von Falkenhausen, and Susanna, helped me get through the initial shock, the stage of feeling tremendous guilt. To me, the only way to honor Byler, a fine young man with great potential in life, is to keep working hard on the Yangguanzhai project, and use this opportunity to train more students.  I know you will join me, continually provide me with vital suggestions even if you are no longer at the site.

Prof. von Falkenhausen suggests having some sort of ceremony next year at the site in honor of Byler. Maybe we shall plant a tree in the front yard at the Base. Byler could always look at the tree from his window, knowing we all care about him in great deal.

Attached please find some pictures of Byler. I lost my camera, so the pictures were taken by Liang Xiao and others.

My Skype is yedawa, please feel free to contact me.

I miss you all terribly...

Big hugs,                         ——Ye Wa