New Adventures at Dawn Kiam - 2

Day 2: Monday 4 May 1998  

Still, much of the recently devastated land — many rai — is still smoldering, for the fire has gotten into the peat and can thus travel underground. The same has happened with fires in previous years or with the two month long fire down in Narathiwat or the blazes in Indonesia. One or two weeks after this kind a fire, one can walk through the burnt, fallen trees, the stumps, and the ash dust finding hot spots. Sometimes one finds the hot spot by stepping in it. These can be the glowing coals of a root slowly being eaten up by the fire, only flaming when it breaks into the air, or the leaves accumulated in the crumbly soil itself.

Small fires dot the land near its border with DK and also along the road separating that property and the hill. So we have been on vigil since last night. During the day we get help from the Burmese workers building things at SMI. At night, it's just us at DK.

Ms. Pikul's land is up around 40 rai or 16 acres. Round 80% of that is burnt. The border to the north side of DK is about 200 meters wide. The path we patrol on the east side is about 100 meters towards Mr. Daun's house and Ms. Pikul's property extends another 200 meters from there. On the west side, we patrol about 250 - 300 meters up & down the road, although there isn’t much action there and the winds generally blow to the south (i.e. DK).

In fact, these Burmese workers — allowed but illegal — have worked hard, along with Mr. Chaub, their foreman. I’d much rather be up all night slugging through the ash and debris than hacking through the brush in 40 degree heat. They have cut paths through the dry, clogged brush so that water hoses can be dragged in to the small fires and hot spots. So we are indebted to these people too. It seems they have some loyalty to Suan Mokkh because they are treated well here and also paid well. Perhaps they appreciate that this is a monastery. I’ve exchanged numerous smiles with them but we lack a common language to discuss these matters.

Chaub brought two water pumps today and these have been very helpful in putting out any small fires that get close to our edge of Ms. Pikul's property. Nothing as powerful as the one used yesterday, but good enough to soak any smoldering area we can reach. So a few of us were up through the night dragging the hoses back and forth through the paths cleared by the Burmese workers to get to various glowing patches.

This work is done much easier at night. We have a bright moon until about 02:00 am, which makes it good enough to see. Any coals, whether of peat, logs, or roots, show up well in the near dark.. Slowly moving through an area we find something hot and hose it down. Slowly because it takes time to move the house. Slowly because each step is taken very carefully. Slowly because we pour a lot of water on each hot spot to make sure it goes out.

So I'm about to go out to check our water pumps and the areas where fire might spread. We are pretty safe now but must be on our guard. No wind now (midnight), but might start up in a few hours.

Another hot day and no rain in sight.

Day 3: Tuesday 5 May 1998 

We’ve gotten through a third day and third night. Nothing much happened during the day. Mr. Chaub and some of his workers cleared the underbrush around the remaining trees opposite Dawn Kiam. They also set fire to brush on the far eastern edge of Ms. Pikul's property, along the path running to Mr. Daun's house and coconut groves. Their idea was to burn up the dry brush piles up there while somebody was watching with ready hose rather than it going up while we off somewhere else.

We used the day to rest in preparation for another night of fire watching and smoldering peat dowsing. Still a lot of smoke drifting from the middle of Ms. Pikul's land. Another hot day without any clouds or rain in sight.

Mr. Chaub suggested that we bring in a Macro (Thai name for a back-hoe) to drag the dying brush from the edge of Ms. Pikul's property into the still hot areas so that we don’t have to spend the next week or two on constant watch. Further, the back-hoe could widen and deepen the ditches along both roads so that water would be available anywhere that fire might break out. Doing so would also provide earth to widen the roads for the sake of a better fire break between the south end of Ms. Pikul's land and Dawn Kiam and between it's west side and Janpaa Hill.

The back-hoe will come tomorrow, but Ms. Pikul is making a fuss. She is claiming that the ditches are on her land and that we shouldn’t mess with them. In fact, Ajarn Poh had these ditches dug when Dawn Kiam was first purchased from her and he built the road from SMI. He was scrupulous to dig only on our land and probably end up erring more in her favor than ours. We don’t know why she is being nasty. She said she will come to look tomorrow. If she doesn’t, we will have to go to her home to ask for cooperation. And if that doesn’t work? Stay tuned ……

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Why am I bothering to document this? For a number of reasons:

This is a major event in the life of Dawn Kiam and may have some long-range consequences;

Such fires aren’t just happening here! We can see smoke burning in three places a couple kilometers to the south, near one of the villages to which we go on alms round. Billows of smoke came up half way to Chaiya. One farmer who is trying to farm in the swamp between Suan Mokkh and SMI has been burning the grass there. Other fires have been burning south of that. Fires are burning everywhere.
And we know that a peat forest in Narathiwat, near the Malay border, has been burning for two months. There are the fires in the Amazon, in Sumatra, in parts of Africa. Too much of the world is going up in smoke. We are killing are world yet few people do much.
By telling this story, I hope to humanize the global tragedy for those who know and care about us. I hope to stir more interest in ecological sanity for we are far from it, even those in the West who think they are enlightened about such things.

This story involves certain practical questions and obstacles that might be overlooked in engaged buddhist theory. For example, how does one wisely and compassionately deal with a confused or stubborn or malicious person who is refusing access to a critical situation's solution without giving proper or honest reasons?

Telling this story allows us to reexamine what happened, to review decisions, and to be better prepared for next time. And there may very well be a next time, if not next year then soon after. Also, there was some carelessness is our lack of preparation and mistakes in our response that need to be acknowledged and learned from.

This story helps me to pull together some of the different threads and influences connected with Dawn Kiam. This helps to better understand how they have been woven together and what the situation we find ourselves in is.

Finally, vivid story telling can bring us closer together, so that we remain committed to our Dhamma work both inner and outer.

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