Because of the notable success of 1996's Dhamma-Yatra for
Songkhla Lake and a perceived need for a follow-up, the preparation for a second walk
began shortly after the first one ended. Finally, on April 21, a determined band of people
set out from Ranod District in Songkhla Province for the month long journey around the
sick and beleaguered lake. (Click here for other article / background information of the
lake.) There was much to do in those thirty days: people would be practicing mindfulness
and meditation, developing as a (mobile) community, learning together with local people
about their situations, and thinking with them, where possible, about solutions. With the
various challenges facing our group -- challenges of coordination, people continually
joining and leaving the walk, fatigue from hours of walking in the sun (and occasionally,
the rain), understanding the lake's complex and frustrating issues -- we would need all
the mindfulness and harmony we could muster.
The procession sometimes numbered over 150, when villagers
joined as we walked through their area, or when large student groups came along for a few
days. About 25 were there for all or nearly all of the walk, and many more came for short
periods. This group was mostly from Bangkok and other regions, but included some
Southerners as well. There were many twenty somethings -- students, activists, a noodle
salesman, artists, people between jobs, monks, recent graduates -- and the group had a
certain spark and vitality: quick to express themselves, tell a story, share a joke. The
Environmental Management Department from Prince of Songkhla University was heavily
involved this year, providing not only logistical support (transportation, housing, and a
forum for two days of activities), but a scientific perspective. (See their website
address for more detailed information about pressures and developments affecting the
lake.) For about a week, eight 10 - 14 year-old novices from the Northeast joined in.
Several university groups and secondary school groups came for shorter periods. There was
an international tinge with people from Japan, Finland, the United States, Britain,
Bangladesh, and Australia. The walk was also blessed again this year by the presence of
the Venerable Maha Gosananda, the Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia whose peace walks there
helped inspire Thailand's Dhamma-Yatras. Two nuns and two monks also came from Cambodia
this year, and the nuns sang a warbly and chilling Khmer invitation to speak the Dhamma
before each of the Patriarch's talks. The talks during his five days with the Dhamma-Yatra
were delightful, but perhaps more enjoyable were his smile and calm, peaceful being, and
the light, joyous rapport of all the Cambodians.
First, we aimed at having the month be a kind of
meditation practice. Initially there was some concern that walking meditatively would keep
us from interacting with villagers along the way, and that people's inclination for fun
would make quiet walking difficult to do (last year's procession was often festive, rowdy
and strung out), but it proved to be within our capabilities: the walking itself was
generally quiet and orderly, conducive to mindfulness practice. Meditation periods
followed each morning and evening chanting service, with occasional brief instructions.
The walking and formal meditation contributed to our informal practice of living and
working together unselfishly.
Also, even though we were mobile and people were always
joining and leaving the group, we nonetheless lived, learned, ate, slept, sweated, worked,
walked, talked, and hung out together for a whole month. For this reason, there was the
second aim of initiating and continuing a process of community building through various
activities.
Third was the goal of participatory action research, a
method of investigation and learning about issues concerning a group of people by those
people themselves with results that they can use. The walk had hoped to bring local people
together to help each other look into their problems, the causes and possible solutions.
There are many long standing factors affecting the lake
which are not going to vanish overnight. And there are factors which have only recently
cropped up. "Development" continues unabated. Many roads which were only gravel
or dirt tracks last year had been paved, allowing people quicker access to the cities and
towns for work and pleasure, and allowing the flow of goods from the urban areas to
further infiltrate the country side. The rural, agricultural based culture and the values
that are inseparable from it continue to lose ground in most places to the urban consumer
non-culture and all that it breeds. This trend is exemplified by the automated harvester
combines which were working many of the paddy fields we passed. It is extremely rare --
perhaps even impossible -- to find anyone in this region who does not hire a combine to
harvest the rice. It's quicker, yes, but when the laborious hand harvesting is gone, so
too are many rich traditions and customs which provided the bonding cement for village
life, as each family was dependent on the others for their help in harvesting his rice.
Vanishing are the songs, the dances, the communal meals, the cooperation, the sense of the
whole village being one's home. Instead there is a quick swap of money to the stranger
from up north who rents out the combine; the grinding, mechanical monsters lumbering over
the lands; competitiveness; and feelings of isolation and separateness. (The old saying
which spoke of the country's natural and unquestionable bounty, "In the fields, there
is rice; in the streams there are fish," may not be applicable much longer. A
billboard ad has recently appeared, which, twisted as it is, captures neatly the shift in
cultural values. It reads, "In the fields there is rice, in the bars, there is Black.
Black Label Whiskey.")
Most villages are no longer self-sufficient and naturally
cooperative institutions. For one thing, most working-age people go into factories around
Songkhla and Had Yai each day, leaving only the very young and old in the villages. In
many cases, whole families or villages have immigrated permanently to the urban areas for
low paying jobs and often wind up living in the most unhealthy, dangerous places. We
stopped in Songkhla and talked with the residents from one of the ten major slum areas --
Yes! Quaint, quiet little Songkhla is packed with slums! -- who have organized themselves
to call on the government to provide various services, and to provide support for each
other.
Another result (and perhaps cause) of the urbanization of
the culture is that the village temple has decayed from being a useful, viable
institution. In some of the temples we stayed, there was gambling and whiskey being sold
and drunk, connected to the funerals going on there. When asked about the residents of her
local temple, one village lady answered with despair, "Mai mi phra; mi song
roob." ("There are no phra; there are two monks.") Although sad, she
was making word play. Phra can mean monk, but people also say that you have phra
in your heart, meaning a certain potential for awakening, or goodness. The woman was
saying, "There is no phra, just two monks." The temples that are left may
still be operating, but the vitality is gone. And in many cases, the temples themselves
are abandoned.
We saw other signs of the times, including innumerable
grotesque, gargantuan scars in the sides of hills and mountains whose dirt is being
plundered and sold for road and building construction. Tale Noi, a small lake at the
northern end of Songkhla Lake, continues to be choked with salt intolerant vegetation
which, before a development project cut off the natural inflow of sea water, could not
invade and destroy (as it has since done) the workings of the lake's bountiful, providing
ecosystem. Waste from factories and municipality dumps as well as from small villages
flows untreated into all of Songkhla Lake. Erosion on the lake's watershed due to
development and deforestation continues to cause the lake to fill in.
Two things which became shockingly clear this year are the
direction and implications of industrial development around the lake. Sukhothai company
has bought a huge piece of land on Songkhla’s Satingphra peninsula on which it plans
to build a large petrochemical factory. Roads all over the area are being put in or
improved. The highway leading down to Malaysia and to a planned deep sea port on the
western coast of Malaysia will be expanded to four lanes shortly. Another deep sea port
(in addition to the existing one north of Songkhla town) just south of Songkhla town is
being planned. This port system and highway expansion will enable international cargo
ships to avoid having to go around Singapore as they ply, say oil, between the Middle East
and Japan. Construction on a road across the northern end of the lake, through some of the
last remaining wetlands in the area is proceeding in fits and starts. The bridge (it may
turn out to be a dam with a bridge on top) joining Koh Yai in Songkhla and Laem Jong
Thanon in Pattalung is still being debated. And finally, a tunnel underneath the opening
of the lake to the Gulf of Siam is slated to begin construction soon, despite major
economic, social, and environmental questions. One reality that must not be overlooked
when looking at causes and motivations behind all of this busy-ness and building, is that
tremendous amounts of personal profit and gain are made on such huge infrastructure
projects. With Thailand's economy a huge mess right now, however, many of these plans may
be on hold.
Although development pressures are increasingly impinging
on the lake and the people nearby, and many people seem either unconcerned, unaware or
helpless, there are some groups that are continuing their work to assist the lake and
people who have fallen on hard times, and new projects taking root as well. One place that
impressed most of the walkers was the village of Raht Poon, in Grasaesin District of
Songkhla. Here, thanks in large part to the monastery which sits atop a well-forested hill
in the middle of the village, the people are taking up integrated, organic farming and
have cooperated in helping to conserve the forest on the hill. Furthermore, the villagers
have worked together on various projects, like building the road up to the monastery, and
setting up a cooperative store. Despite the daily outflow of its working age people to the
factories and other changes in village life, many are aware of the various forces
affecting their lives, and are responding in wise and timely ways.
Further south, in Ku Kut district, the villagers have set
up their own fishing conservation zones, in addition to those of the fisheries department.
In Ku Kut we also met some representatives from a teachers network, who are trying to
incorporate local issues into their curriculum, through, for example, short camps in which
students learn about the ecology, culture, and pressures surrounding the lake. At Laem Son
in Songkhla, we once again enjoyed the voices of four local women, who sang, acapella and
with contagious mirth, traditional boating songs from that area, and songs about modern
issues (AIDS, reckless driving) in the old style. Later, in Pattalung’s Bang
Kaew, we
listened to a solo performance by a local woman, also signing songs from the old days.
Knowledge of and pride in local culture is increasingly rare, so it was good to support
and enjoy what we could find.
So it's not all gloom and doom. There are some encouraging
signs, but the work must continue on all fronts. It does little good to wonder, "Will
it be enough to stop a catastrophe?" A "Yes" leads to apathy and thinking
there will always be enough time. A "No" leads to frustration and despair.
Better just to do what one can.
And Next Year?
After initial discussions, it appears that Dhamma-Yatra
III will be shorter in distance and time, focusing on three or four locations and issues.
Meditation and group building activities will still have a place, but instead of staying
just one night in a village and moving on the next day, the group will stay in an area
four or five days. This will allow for time to investigate relevant issues more deeply and
may make logistics easier. Also, walkers will have the energy to participate fully in the
daily activities and a chance to get to know the local people better.
'Sound interesting?
Report on Dhamma-Yatra III.
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