Laotian Aspiration

I hope everyone enjoy last read, “Legend has it.” Today, fresh from the garden, read the “Laotian Aspiration” by your favorite Lao man, Amphone.  You know what they say, you are what you eat.  I say, you are what you fed.  I am trying to feed nothing but good food here.

So “Legend has it” said that the others arrived in the West on foot, on horse backs, in a boat, and on a train. The Laotians, on the other hand, ta yoy ta yoy lorng jak yhon (one by one they got off the aircraft), arrived in airplanes. In desperation the leaders regrouped, established their community quickly. The leaders knew what they had to do. It’s only natural the Laotians took plight when all else had fail and all else did. To live is to the same as to fight. No matter how hard you try, sometime you just can’t resist the forces of nature. Was it the forces nature?

There was that first of everything in the new home away from home. The first generation leaders knew what they had to do. They made sure we know what to do in the event of birth, death, marriage, or when even someone moved into a new home. I remember my first time attending a Laotian wedding. It was very exciting. There were fun, food, and girls to el and jeap (to woo). At such an event, there were always the elders who would always try to teach us something, “We have got to preserve our culture.”  They made sure we adhere to our custom and tradition. There were other events that I like too. The keun heuan may (house warming)…was always fun.  It was always good to hear that someone just move into a new house or an apartment of thier own. Then we would be invited to attend another event.  The house always has to be blessed by a shaman or a mhorpon and a Buddhist monk(s), if there were any around.   There, of course, more food, friends, and fun. Then, the boon pi may that we celebrated always.  Although some part of the country was a little too cold to be splash water on each other, as kids, we did it anyway.  Among other things, water is a big part of the Lao New Year Day.  To us kids, we play.

Speaking of which, our Lunar New Year is coming soon.  Already, the new leaders got together and said, “Let do an International Lao New Year Festival!” How inspiring is that? Quite an inspiration if you ask me. The first generation leaders supported one another. They’ve showed how they’ve done it. How else would they have built so many Lao Buddhist temples in North America? They did it through pat jai (donation) and nam jai (a lot of hearts) of course. In this event, the Laotians expect the support and generosity, in friendship, from our friends and neighbors, peers, and fellow Laotians and so on. Everyone should come and enjoy the Lao New Year with the Laotians. There will be load of fun.  Kon Lao are generally proud and inspiring, “Inspire me and I will write you a song,” someone once said to me.

Since the dawn of time, kon Lao inspired others to act and to perform. Boy, they sure tried hard. The Laotians watched as they tried their hardest to be. With compassion, kon Lao watched them and pae med tha and kaluna (pass on the compassiona and mercy) to them for kon Lao know they’d suffer. Kon Lao like to koi yu koi kin and koi pen koi pai (take it one day at a time). Mee ka dai boh mee ka boh pen yhung (never have to struggle so much). One truth, kon will eventually die and continues to kon. Kon may means a human person but in another speck, kon means to be recycle or circulating on and on like the circle of life. Kon in Laotian also means to stir in a circular motion. When you make a soup you keep stirring and tasting until the soup tastes good, then you stop. Kon have to keep on trying one life after another until they reach the end of their circulation as kon. If they don’t succeed, they will reborn to be a sub kon. That is not good. Kon or non kon should try to make good in words, deeds, and thoughts to others kon.  Kon should be in good standing with each other. One thing about kon Lao is we love are good people.  But good is not what it is in some culture to some people.  They think being good is not good.  That is because they live among many sub kon.  They always afraid to show they are capable of doing good.  They think people would thought of them as weak and would take advantage of them.

I know there’s some goodness in all hearts.  Today, your favorite Lao man say, “me love you long time”.  Yeah, you know who you are Mr. mine rule and dominate your country since 1975.  You should try to learn something from a Laotian.  Stop denying it.  I sure don’t learn anything from you.  You are your country’s shame.  But I have faith that you will contribute something good to my garden.  You pissed on my garden, so you think.  By doing that, I will send you some good food for you to eat.  Until then, get a grip.  Take a day off and join the rest of the world in the twenty first century.   We are trying to make this world a better place.  What is wrong with you anyway?  

Road least taken

There is such a path that pi boh long kon boh teal (the path even the ghosts don’t dare to take). It was called that way because people who chose such a path were never seen again. To travel from point A to point B in the ancient time, one has to know both vedmon karta (magic) and mouai (martial art). Otherwise you would not get there. Typical people would stay in their village in the safety and protective of their home. The village of course is guarded and protected by a pa bahn (village chief). A pa bahn is someone who has both mon karta and mouai. Any one or anything thinking about attackin a village or a villagers has to check out the credential of the pa bahn first.

You have got to have vedmon and karta. Laotians like to say things in short; mi mon is having magical spells in the Lao language. In ancient land and in an ancient time, people have to have magical power of some sort to survive a journey. Physical strength and versatile are secondary to mind and mon power. People need to have some kind of a talisman or power of their ku ba ajarn (teacher-monk) to safe keep their lives. It was different then. It’s not the same as people today and their wits. Wits are education and intelligent one acquire in their growing years. High school education is considered smart enough. Combine with intelligent, one now posseses knowledge. A whole lot of knowledge, one now possesses wisdom. Experience and wisdom combined becomes the magic or mon that one needs to protect life. For all life form, survival is everything.

People from yesteryears are not much different from people today. The only different is magic today is planted deep within our soul which makes it harder to recognize. Magic of yesteryears is a lot more visible like wan wielding Harry Potter. Where did it all go? Today you might hear people say, mi tae mon pow buang (only have magic to blow a spoon). Eexactly, we have to blow on the soup because it’s hot. People don’t see mon as mon is seen in the past. Magic and illusion today are usually associated with a magic show. Wizards and witches today convinced us to except their magic power as a trick. They offered us a lengthy explanation how everything is done. Perhaps a pigeon in a hat is not a good example of magic but a tree branch turned into a snake is. People in the past would cite a snake spell and blow on the branch to turn it into a snake. A healer would cite a healing spell and blow it on a sick person’s head. In a matter of minutes or hours, the sick person is healed. A mon is a command word or words to create, to fence off, or to destroy one’s enemy. The mon in the past can only be taught to a person of worth and valor.

Mouai is often referred to as fighting techniques. However, the term mouai can be referred to as an art of doing something. The Lao kato players refer to their skill as mouai. It’s either you have a good mouai or you don’t. In the ancient time people traveled to point A and point B protected by what they carried with them. Beside the basic necessity and mon, they need mouai . Because magic sometime does not work against another magic, hand to hand combat will eventually come into play. They had to use their mouai to get through this obstacle. Mouai is the art of fighting using whatever you got starting with your body parts. A person with the lack of self confidence in their survival skill needs not to take the journey alone. He has to spend years and years training under a master. He would accompany his master in many journeys to gain hand on experience. When the time is right the master will approve his detachment.

Before leave on trip from point A to point B, take the road most taken. If not, be sure to have a worthy companion to travel with. Take your talisman with you (a passport) and don’t look stranger in the eyes. Learn eyes using skill if you haven’t. The world is still full of mystery. The jungle is reclaiming the land. New path is being pave as we speak. You might hear people say “the road least taken” a lot. It means you have to take a chance in order to succeed. It is irrelevance here. Voice of the ancient is speaking to us. Hazardous warning signs are everywhere. For those brave souls that traveled alone, they usually have a job that required them to travel at odd hours and taken a path least taken. They know no fear.

It was best to travel during daylight hours and on the road where a people traveled on all the time.

Legend has it

Legend has it Part I

It said that the West was built on legends; tall tales to help us make sense of things too great; too terrifying to believe…

I thought it’s pretty cool when the voice of Sam Elliot came on at the opening of the movie, “Ghost Rider”. At the end of the movie, his voice came on again…

It said that the West was built on legends and legends are ways of understanding things that are greater than our selves; forces that shape our lives, events that defy explanation, individuals who lives are sore to heaven and fall to the earth, this is how legends are born. The thing about legends is…they are sometime true…

When we think of legends, we think of stories that were handed down from one generation to the next… and the tales grew taller on down the line.  For now, lets  look at legend in the making. A lot has happen in the pass thirty years or so. I believe there’s a collection of stories to build on. Sadly, there haven’t been many stories collected. Until more stories reach the surface, I have to do my best to tell the stories of my own. Since it’s only 30 something years, I don’t think this story would pass as legend.

The story goes that the others arrived on foot, on horse backs, in a boat, or on a train. It was by fate that so many of us left our homeland. As for me, it was not my choice. I was only 9 years old. I go where my parents go. I spent 3 years in Nhong Sno, little patch of land in Nongkhai province, Thailand across from Taduar, Laos . Legend has it, that Nhong Sno was haunted. It was a place where many people had die during the Siamese and Lao’s conflict. Since then many people were killed or came and die there. A haunted place is like a place where the dead are unrest. They still moaning and crying for redemption or for their soul to be rescued. When the Laotians flooded on the Thai border in the 70s, the Thai authority with the aid of the UN decided to build a refugee camp on top of Nhong Sno, how cruel was that. We didn’t have a choice but to take it. We have no where else to go.

A lot happened in that forsaken place. Being a haunted place to begin with, rumors of ghosts found its way to my ears but not until after the fact. When we arrived in the camp, the Hmong refugees and the Tai Dum were already there. When the refugees overwhelmed the camp, the UN built another camp next to the old camp and moved all the Hmongs and the Tai Dums to the new camp. The area was vacant and needed excavation to house the incoming Laotians. They needed to build some more buildings on top of the area where the Hmongs were. As a boy, I was amazed to see all these bull dozers rolling in. It was like an army of Transformers. What they dug up freaked me out. We did not know that the Hmongs had buried their dead there. I knew they had no choice. There were no where else to bury their dead. Of course we didn’t know this until the Hmong were relocated to the new facilities. The excavation was completed quickly. The thing was, they only excavated the area they needed to build the building.  They didn’t excavate the site where my building was.   When they finished with the building and before they moved people in, they brought in a dozen of Buddhist monks to bless the place. In no time, the buildings were occupied by refugees.  My building remained standing next to the new ones.  What lied beneath, who knows? Before the excavation came, I used to crawl underneath the building to find cool spot to nap. I had no idea I was sleeping on top of a burial site. Although I did not encounter any paranormal activities, I still was spooked after the excavation of the burial site came. People claimed they were haunted by the ghosts buried underneath their building. There was a ghost story about a Hmong lady and her baby crying in the night looking for her lost family. Hearing such a story made my skin crawl. After that I no longer need to look for a cool spot to nap. My sisters no longer go to the bathroom alone at night. Anytime they had to go and use it, especially late at night, they had to wake me up to escorted them. That was an oddest job I have ever had. I had to stand outside alone and waited for them to do what they had to do. Sometime they take too long. I had to rush them. I was afraid of the ghosts.

The ghost story in the camp did not stop at the Hmongs’ old burial ground. It continues with pi ya pa (ghost of the elder of Nhong Sno). Somehow, there was some sort of mishap where we may have offended the pi ya pa. So what happened was, he started to take one life at a time. He took one from each building beginning with building number one on down. People got really scared when more and more people started to die one after another. The Buddhist monks were summoned once more to bless the place and ask for forgiveness for any wrong doing. After that it stops.

For 3 years our family remain in the camp. Needless to say, as a boy I have a little concern of what future might bring. Camp life was adventureous.  The worry was laid on my parents’ shoulders. In December of 1979 our family board a bus headed to Bangkok where we bounded for the United States . We arrived in our final destination a few days later. Murfreesboro was my new home. I was placed in 7^th grade. I completed middle school and went on to Riverdale High School . I moved to Georgia in the middle of my junior year because of my dad’s job. Georgia had been my home ever since.

It said that the West was built on legends and legends are ways of understanding things that are greater than our selves; forces that shape our lives, events that defy explanation, individuals who lives are sore to heaven and fall to the earth, this is how legends are born. The thing about legends is…they are sometime true…the legend of “the Laotian in the West” continues.

It’s Dawn

Night of the Living Dead (1968 )

Dawn of the Dead (1978 )

Day of the Dead (1985 )

Night of the Living Dead (1990)

Land of the Dead (2005)

There are other zombie motivated films.  Why more and more zombies are made?  I tell you later.   I came to know what a zombie is when I saw “Dawn of the Dead” for the first time when I was in my teans.  Back then you have to stay up late to catch a horror film.   I didn’t think of it when the “Day of the Dead” came out in 1985.  I thought I check it out too since I already saw “Dawn of the Dead”. Since then, there has been many more zombie movie made by different people.

Fast forward here a second, why zombie is such a big hit? It is because it’s simple.  It’s kill and be killed.  You kill the thing or you get killed. The modern zombie movies, however, are more like an action film with hero or heroin figure out to save everyone.  What is a zombie.  By definition a zombie is a walking corpse.  There is nothing infected about the creature. A zombie is a reanimated human corpse.   In a zombie film, people will be fighting for their lives.  They are usually out numbered by zombies.   A zombie can be killed or get blown away by shooting it in its head. Senseless, the zombies will keep going and it is killed or until there is nothing left to kill.  Sound familiar now?

The whole point I am trying to make is people are starting to act a lot like zombies. People are more and more foolish and senseless. They rather just kill and destroy without reasoning.  Watch the world news tonight, what do you see? You will see corpses reanimated in the hearts and minds of their remaining relatives.  Legacy of hate goes on.  Forget about going to a movies. Just stay tune.  There are two kinds of people in this world today, the human and the zombies. The zombie films may have suggested otherwise, but the message is loud and clear.  Look around you. People are walking around carrying on about their problems.  They seem to have a lot going for them and nothing is going to hindering their progress.  When ever someone or something gets in their ways, they honks their little horn (this is happening a lot lately) or they just run over them and be on their way.  Sounds harsh but true.  Human got a lot going on in their heads.  Their concerns are enless.  More and more human are becoming zombies, empty and senseless. Unlike zombies, human still have a spirit, heart, mind, and body that capable of making change, alter directions, and come back from oblivion.   Zombies just need to be put out of its mystery.

Since the first zombie film, I can offer many reasons why I see zombie as a good metaphor for evil spirits exist in what’s left of a human body remains.   They just the hate reincarnated, to kill and to destroy over and over again infecting one person after another.   There is nothing mystereous about hate.  Hate can only put out by destroy the core of it.  Hate is like a seed.  You plant it in your heart and you keep watering it.  In time, it grows and grows.  One last thing, as a human being, we have a choice. Don’t be a zombie.