Re-membering Mae Phosop

Recently, Southeast Asia has been receiving extraordinary rainfall that has resulted in disastrous floods. Some of you may remember the article I wrote a few weeks ago about an odd occurrence that took place in the forest village of Hin Lad Nai, a place my family and I regularly visit. We began going there years ago in an effort to learn more about rotational farming, a type of ritual farming that does little harm to the land, essentially borrowing small plots from the forest temporarily with a vow to return the original in-tactness at the end of the harvest before rotating to another divinely inspired plot elsewhere.

In all my years of traveling throughout the world to visit with indigenous farmers, I have never come across a place where the land was managed as well as in Hin Lad Nai. The Pgakenyaw are exceptional tenders of land. And yet, their village flooded. As you can imagine, as soon as people learned of this, images of the disaster spread like wildfire all over social media, with trolls blaming the “tribals” for not taking better care of their land.

Few things hurt me more than when I see/hear misinformation being flippantly spread about regarding people I know carry with them the wisdom we now need most. Years ago, a student at one of the courses we led at our farm brought with them a torn out page from an exam that had been given to their children at a public school in Bangkok. It was one of those ridiculous multiple choice tests that, in my opinion, do little to demonstrate whether or not one has an actual understanding of things. They pointed out to me a question that asked, “What is the cause of the smoke in the North?” (*Each year from about January - May the North of Thailand is ensconced by smoke that comes from the burning off of corn crops and out of control forest fires.) Of the four possible answers to the question, the “correct” choice was “Because the hill tribes burn the forests.”

While it is indeed true that several hill tribes do in fact practice controlled burns annually for numerous reasons, the overwhelming majority of the fires begin burnt each year in Northern Thailand come not from the hill tribes (who know how to control fire) but from Thai farmers who have been pressured into monoculture methods that require the systematic dismantling of traditional farming practices, practices that kept land and water healthy for millennia. The results of this tragic shift have been devastating. Erosion, flooding and fire is only the tip of the iceberg.

Similar to the false narratives that link hill tribes’ methods of land use to the annual smokey season, where P.M.2 rates regularly reach as high as 700-800, the recent floods have also been occasionally linked to hill tribes, suggesting that because rotational farming practices require cutting down sections of the forests, that the flooding is because of this. This is far from true.

It is convenient to find ways to place blame on others when we are at fault and don’t want to admit it. My toddler does this when I catch her doing something she isn’t suppose to be doing. She quickly constructs an alternative narrative and delivers the tale with zest and zeal hoping her antics will distract me from what actually happened. Donald Trump does this all the time too. He blames China for Covid, and immigrants for drug abuse. Adults, even heads of state, often retort to acting like children in this regard, regularly. It’s hard for people to look deeply and admit that they themselves are, if not entirely to blame for many mistakes, certainly playing a part in it all.

Any of us who purchase products made from GMO corn are playing a part in why so much of the planet now regularly experiences wildfires and floods. And those who eat meat that comes from big factory farms are even more to blame. There just is no way to deny this friends. Sorry. I know it stings. I am often to blame too. The rapid surge globally to produce cheap corn so that it can be either turned into corn-syrup (which is in nearly everything found at a typical grocery store in the modern world nowadays) or feed for cattle is taking its toll on earths ability to keep top soil in place and with it, trees, rivers, etc. Depleted soils allow for harsher burns that spread more quickly. And eroded soils equate to more floods. But the worlds elite makes lots of money off corn. So, lo and behold, the toddler changes the narrative.

You may be wondering, Ok wise guy, fair enough, but if the people of Hin Lad Nai are so good with managing land, than why did their village get flooded? Wise question. This is when we have to zoom out and look deeper. Modernity has us thinking with a narrow view that compartmentalizes everything, neglecting to recognize that every action has a counter action and all things inter-are. In other words, we all live downstream.

When the Pgakenyaw of Hin Lad Nai cut down sections of their forest, they make sure that each tree they cut is cut in such a way that it isn’t killed (*see the short film below). The trees will all grow back again, stronger than before. Indeed, when drones flew over the forest to see where the floods came from it was not from where they do rotational farming. That land was unscathed. Rather, the source of the destruction was found towards the outskirts of their land, land managed by indoctrinated neighboring villagers who have chosen modern industrial methods of farming over traditional practices that have resulted in mass erosion that has caused excellent conditions for flooding to occur. Additionally, roads built by the government through swaths of the forest that arguably should have never had roads there to begin with have caused great stress on the land. If we zoom back further still we can see that the chaotic spiraling winds now swirling about over such seemingly disconnected places as the American midwest where winds recently reached up to 65 MPH in Indiana as they blew over similarly poorly managed lands, play a crucial role in the increase of typhoons and hurricanes we now see developing throughout the world with increasing intensity. Global adoption of narrow-sited modern practices have clearly resulted in what we now refer to as “climate change”.

It wasn’t long ago that before roads were cut through wild lands, before trees were felled and ditches dug, the goddess had to be consoled. Offerings were made and permission was asked. If the answer was “no”, than no holes were dug, no road was constructed. The old agreements were honored. Nowadays however, as modern education quickly kills such thinking and all the gods thus die, with their morbid removal so goes the need to slow down and think. We want a road, we make a road. We want money, we cut down the forest, cover the dead, spiritless soil with chemicals and grow genetically modified corn where once was a living Story that was the foundation of our meaning. It’s more efficient to live in a world without myth I suppose. No code to follow, no need to ask permission. How lovely that we now don’t need to waste our time with long-winded rituals and superstitious practices that wed us to forces we cannot see! Poppycock! Such outdated thinking! Thanks to civilization we now can simply have the tractor quickly strip the land for us in an afternoon. Free from all that extra labor and meaningless prayer we can now spend our days thumbing through social media or learning about wars happening on the other side of the world. A dream come true!

Yet I promise you thus, in the months and years ahead, it will not be the people of Hin Lad Nai who ultimately suffer but those on the outskirts of the village. For the people of Hin Lad Nai did in fact ask permission. They made the offerings and followed the ancient law. This is not the first time they have encountered tragedy, and just as before they will recover quickly, even more able than before to adapt. Yet those who have completely leveled their fields for one crop, or worse yet, those who have no land at all and have chosen instead to shift entirely to a life that relies completely on “the economy”, fully severed from right relations with earth, will see more than a quick flood pass through the center of town. When all memory of how to live well in a place is lost due to a full acceptance of modernities indoctrination into corporate run everything we shall see who’s view is “primitive” and “culturally backwards” which is what the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has called hill tribes such as the Pgakenyaw who still practice in traditional ways, proposing that governments “solve” their issues by shifting to modern agricultural practices so they can “emerge from their blind alley”, blaming hill tribes for deforestation and not loggers. Classic toddler bullshit.

You may agree with me that we should avoid monoculture, etc but still think that it is outdated to have spiritual views toward the land. We are more advanced now after all, and come on, science! Yet observe the outcome of those who view the mountain as a god, the water as an ancestor. One who only sees a resource to be extracted will soon know what it means to be without clean air or water. For them their is no emotional bond. Therefore it is easy for them to cut down an entire forest. Yet, no one who believes a forest is a living goddess is going to cover Her with toxic chemicals and slit Her throat with thousands of chainsaws. Only a people who refer to land as “it” can be so easily convinced that its ok to chop and entire forest down and grow a foreign plant in its soil for no other purpose than the accumulation of monetary gain. To think otherwise, in a way that revives Right View, one needs myth. And not the Disney kind. But rather, real, living, fully embodied Myth.

Those who carry with them still such “primitive” thinking still bow before the goddess of the land before digging a hole into the side of her ribcage. And they understand that in this life we are in a constant state of re-membering Her back together again, because daily we harm Her. As such, more than corn is found in such places, more than food in fact. Spirit abounds in places like these. Anger and depression and isolation are virtually unknown. Oh tragedy’s like what Hin Lad Nai experienced mere days ago will still occur, but such acts are but awe-inspiring notches on the totem of life’s ever unfolding dream.

May we all be so blessed as to live in Story, in Right Relation with Her.

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There is a Go Fund Me campaign going on now to raise money for necessary supplies for the people of Hin Lad Nai. If you can manage to offer any financial support, I can assure you, your money will go directly into the hands of the villagers who know how to put the money to use in the best way. https://www.gofundme.com/f/urgent-help-for-hua-hin-lad-nai-village

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#MAYPEACEPREVAILONEARTH