[Poem] Maggots

Chew their meals with
Draughts of iron and salt.

They know they hunger,

These mechanics,
These instruments of turning

With their quiet arias of change,
Their inventive waltzes
For raw lacerations.

Live flesh is spared their deliberate groping.

They only have bellies for the dead.

A shaved monk dreads samsara,
The eternal return.

A young boy saves
Coins for a bicycle.

Many mothers understand all of these routines,
Circumambulating their prams before nursing.

From On the Other Side of the Eye, 2007

Lao Buddhist Temple Fire in Colorado

This year, on December 5th, the Lao Buddhist Temple of Colorado caught fire and burned to the ground. Wat Lao Sida Ounnaram has played a vital role to the Lao community resettled in Colorado for almost three decades.

The Lao Buddhist Temple of Colorado was established in 1988 and served over 200 Lao households in Colorado. Like many wat Lao across the US, they also offered many different services and educational programs that were available for everyone.

In addition, they served as the primary festival grounds for traditional Lao celebrations such as the Lao New Year, and also as a meditation space and a space for community forums and outreach.

The founders viewed Wat Lao Sida Onnaram as a public place for everyone to come and enjoy Lao culture and to grow as a community.

It is located at 10685 Dover Street in Broomfield, Colorado. The lead monk is the Venerable Ounkham Veunnasack Thammavaro, who has been with the wat for 23 years. Their website is currently undergoing maintenance, but they do offer ways to support and help the reconstruction efforts.

I was fortunate to have the chance to visit Wat Lao Sida Ounnaram in June this year while traveling and I was deeply impressed by the beauty there and the hospitality of the monks. For many reasons, much of the art at this wat Lao was very unique even among other wat Lao across the United States, and it is a significant and considerable loss.

I would strongly encourage anyone  to assist to donate to them as the community comes together to rebuild.

Lao Buddha of the Day: 15th Century

While I often hear people talking about preserving our culture and heritage, we see very few of those same people who can recognize and talk at length about what makes that culture distinctive. A notable and egregious example of this comes to the traditional Lao approach to Buddhist statues.

While over 60% of the Lao are nominally Buddhist, in the US many of the younger and even some of the older generation can correctly identify an example of a Lao Buddha compared to a Thai, Burmese or Khmer-style Buddha, although it is easier to distinguish them from Japanese, Chinese, and Tibetan statues of the Buddha.

Above is an example from the 15th century (1400-1499). This is from the earliest days of Lan Xang, although there aren't too many details about this particular piece except that it was sold by a foreign antiques dealer to a private collector.

Lao Buddha statues are extremely rare and arguably extremely valuable because Lao sculptors tended to take a more individual approach to carving and casting each statue. 

There's a widespread opinion that Lao Buddhism tends to be more rigid and orthodox because of its adherence to Theravada principles, but if you really look at it closely, the Lao eschew uniformity and are more often than not drawn to the beauty of diversity of individual expression. This, of course, has its ups and downs, and as we've seen, can come into conflict with people who are used to living in a society focused on mass production and conformity rather than celebrating the hand-crafted and individual journeys of one another.

You might hear it said that Laos is a land of a thousand smiles, and that's because no two Lao smiles are exactly alike. This is reflected in many other aspects of our lives. There are some who might argue this can hold us back, but I'd always see it as a strength.

Lao Buddha of the Day: 18th Century Lao/Lanna

 

This interesting example was found in a market in Bangkok.

For many Lao, even those living within Laos, there has often been little discussion regarding the historic art traditions of our community and what has made examples of Lao buddha statues unique and distinctive.

In the last century, many key examples of buddhas from the 15th to 19th century were trafficked to foreign private collectors abroad. Many more were damaged or melted down, and we are left only with hints of which buddhas might still be out there, let alone the actual stories behind who they originally belonged to and the histories and memories connected to them, from their construction to their final fate.

According to those who've described it, this Buddha has a face that is typically Laotian in its style for the era. This one has a particularly fascinating finial that is rare to see. He stands 10 1.2 inches high, with a smooth brown patina. There is a casting flaw to the left hand, but otherwise in excellent condition. He was sold to a private collector for an undisclosed sum.