UXO Laos Centre

Where do I begin?

It is Tuesday afternoon here in sleepy Luang Prabang, in the country of Lao (full name: Lao’s People Democratic Republic, though it seems that not many Laotians may feel they have a voice in this “democracy”).

I am sitting in Benneton’s Café, across the street from Wat Sop Sickharam, a Theravadin Buddhist temple. At 4 pm, in about half an hour, several of the saffron-robed monks there will climb a stairway to a tower to begin a drum and gong serenade. I have no idea what it signifies but it is trance-inducing, especially in the heat of the afternoon.

Just a little while ago, a huge thunderstorm passed. This is monsoon season here, or ‘green season’ as it is called. I narrowly escaped getting drenched, finding shelter under a storefront awning. The owners were kind enough to let me park my body there until blue sky broke through again. It didn’t take long – the rain was fast and furious but only lasted about 15 minutes.

Right now I am sipping on an iced coffee and just finished the best chocolate croissant I have ever had in my life. You can sit here for hours and no one will ever prompt you to leave or bring you the check unless you ask for it.

That’s one of the things I love about traveling through Southeast Asia. The languid pace of life here shifts me into a very different gear. Even I, a meditator, feel something inside grind to a halt, something that pushes so much more in the States.

The sweltering tropical heat helps. All the time I’m drenched in sweat, a good reminder that I am not separate from the air and atmosphere around me… completely permeable.

It’s been said that Luang Prabang is the perfect fusion of Asian and European cultures. The French influence is strong here due to the period that the French colonized this country from the late 1800’s until Lao declared independence in 1945. In true colonial fashion, the French, however, refused to recognize this declaration until their own defeat in Vietnam in 1954. You can see this influence in the architecture — traditional Buddhist temples and teak houses sitting next to European style buildings, with doors and brightly painted shutters that wouldn’t look out of place in the Vieux Carré of New Orleans. And in the food.

In the wake of this perfect croissant, I am thinking that colonization is not such a bad thing.

But wait, there is more, of course.

Colonizing, empire building…. These are activities not confined to the West, but we have done them with devastating efficiency over the past centuries.

This post didn’t start out being about this topic. I was going to give you a day by day impression of this journey to Thailand and Laos, more like a travelogue, which started 16 days ago.

But please bear with me. This is what is most in my mind and heart right now.

I am feeling torn between mindlessly and gratefully soaking up all this atmosphere, beauty, and grace –

the people I’ve met, those I already knew as well as those for whom I am a stranger, have been wonderfully kind to me;

the food that has been delectable beyond belief;

the landscapes that have been a marvel to behold, as I’ve traveled from busy Bangkok to quirky Chiang Mai, up to northern Thailand and then by a two-day “slow boat” journey along the Mekong River to Luang Prabang

– and then getting tripped up by attacks of conscience, becoming aware of the tremendous impact that the actions of my country, the U.S., have had here, particularly in Lao.

Yesterday I took a trip to the UXO Lao Center, a short tuk-tuk ride from where I am staying. I read other travelers’ reviews and wanted to find out more. The “UXO” stands for unexploded ordnances. Here is what I learned:

• Lao has been the most heavily bombed country in the world, per capita.
• Over 260 million bombs were dropped here by the U.S. between 1964 and 1973.
• Even now, 40 years after that last bomb was dropped, a Laotian man, woman, or child is killed nearly every day by unexploded ordnances. Thousands more have been maimed for life.
• More than a third of the country’s population lives on less than $1.25 USD a day.
• There is a vicious circle between these unexploded bombs and poverty here. The places with the greatest poverty correspond with the most heavily bombed areas. People who have been crippled by these bombs have lost their livelihood and are desperate for resources. People in these areas often search for scrap metal to sell to make some money, and the most readily available form of this scrap metal is the unexploded ordnance…. And the cycle continues.

So here in the midst of all this beauty, I have become acutely aware of how “lucky” I am to travel through this region in luxury and comfort, never once seriously considering my safety and security. My biggest concern right now is making sure I get back the laundry I dropped off yesterday in time for my departure back to Thailand tomorrow. In about a week I’ll fly back to my home in the States where I have everything I need… and a lot of things I don’t.

I am not so sure that all blending of cultures is bad, nor that all Western influence need be categorically harmful. Change is inevitable, movement of people and goods is natural.

What I am sure of, though, is that many of the actions that my government has taken have devastated this part of the world (and many other regions as well). There are a lot of creature comforts involved in being the beneficiary of empire building. Much of our comfort comes, or has come, at a high cost to others.

Engaged Buddhist writer and activist Nathan G. Thompson reflects on this in a moving article on the Buddhist Peace Fellowship website – here’s an excerpt:

Much of the modern world has become essentially a haunted house. A body/mind that endlessly seeks to satiate cravings that are impossible to satiate. A body/mind that is a powerhouse when it comes to producing suffering. Those of the Buddha’s day never had to consider things like nuclear implosion, drone warfare, 24/7 media propaganda, or globalized environmental destruction.

In a handful of centuries, colonialism in its various forms has brought hungry ghosts realms to an entirely unprecedented level. Entire nations are fueled, literally and metaphorically, by efforts to satiate cravings. In the name of “progress” and “economic growth,” humans manipulate the gene patterns of our food supply, and poison entire ecosystems for some oil or natural gas. In the name of “security,” we efficiently kill those we perceive as “immediate threats,” incarcerate large portions of populations deemed “dangerous”, and oppress the rest that aren’t behind actual bars.

Sobering, isn’t it?

And then there is this, from a 2012 proposal brought forth by Ohlone, Pomo, and other Native American activists and allies to change the name of “Occupy Oakland” to “Decolonize Oakland”:

Decolonization is a practice of healing from violence in forms such as slavery, occupation, and poverty. It is about raising our children to find beauty and meaning in their cultural identities. Decolonization means telling stories that emancipate our minds and dreams…. 

 Colonization and imperialism are just as much a state of mind as anything else.

What is the mind that feels compelled to dominate rather than listen and co-create?

What would it look like if we humans committed to entering into every situation with respect and humility rather than fear and aggression?

What would it be like if self-determination were raised up as the most important factor when cultures come together, rather than the profit motive which wreaks economic and environmental destruction?

The temple drums are now starting. Waking us up.

Karma is all about our actions, waking up to the consequences of our actions, understanding that we cannot escape these consequences, that what harms one, harms all.

This is all about freedom, inside and out.

You may not think your life is part of the body politic, but it is. Nearly all of us who live in the developed world carry the seeds of colonization in our being. Even if all this seems pretty far from your reality, it isn’t. It’s as close as your own mind, as near as the dominant / submissive relationships many of us tend to have with each other, without even realizing it. And also the relationship we have with our own psyches.

As I wrote last week when I was at the start of this journey, our freedom is inseparable from that of everyone else. I do not know exactly what it will take to wake up, only that we need to.

This post started with a photo of some the bombs found by the UXO Laos project. I’ll end with one of the monks on their early morning alms round from yesterday. It is, after all, beautiful here. Perhaps in the end that is what love is: beauty mixed up with tragedy.

Our task is to find ways to free ourselves from the suffering in our own minds as well as that we inflict upon others. Tragedy will always be part of human existence, but I believe we can do better about the kind of tragedy that gets generated from our own ignorance, greed, and aggression.

What a journey that will be.

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