Forest Walk on Pu Lon Mountain with Phra Paisal

Chaiyaphum Province (Northeastern Thailand)

We met Phra Paisal and some of the youth who work with him to conserve the birds of the region. We waited near the river as our lunch was prepared, talking to the youth and communing with the dogs! The young people in the village are learning to draw fantastic portraits of the birds they see. The area is quite remote, as you can see from our translator Kaeng's need to hold the antenna in her hand in order to call on a cell phone. After lunch, we hauled ourselves onto the back of a pickup and traveled about an hour along the dusty roads to the forest temple. We watched the denuded forest land pass as we traveled.

Once at the temple we were surprised to see that this was a very simple place. There were outdoor bathrooms, simple wooden structures, and a pathway leading up into the forest where we shared our meals with the monkeys! The women set up camp in one of the temple structures, and were quite proud of the way we strung up our mosquito nets. In the evening we shared our first meal at the temple, prepared for us by two wonderful Mae Chi named Oud and Rosy. The meal was anything but simple. For desert we had a delicious baked pumpkin stuffed with a sweet, coconut paste. In the evening, we sat by the fire and began to ask Phra Paisal our questions about Buddhism. Finally, we would have a longer period of time with a monk just to explore whatever questions concerned us. Phra Paisal is among the most educated monks in Thailand, a graduate of Thammasat University and a prolific writer in both English and Thai languages. If he chose to do so, he could be as well known to the west as are Thich Nhat Hahn and His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. He chooses, however, to focus his efforts on grass roots efforts in the village, reform of the Buddhist sangha, and work with other NGO's in Thailand. As we sat by the fire, we roasted bamboo stalks that were filled with sticky rice so we could carry with them on our hike the next morning.

The next morning we hiked through the forest. Jungle is a better word for the terrain we traversed. We were led by a monk with a machete who was blazing a trail for us. We were told to breathe in compassion for ourselves and the forest as we walked. At times, we could not see the person ahead of us, as the vegetation was so thick. This was Pu Lon Mountain, lost mountain, the only mountain that had escaped clear cutting. Hunters go deep into the mountain in search of wild boars. Often they make fires to scare them out and in so doing set the whole forest ablaze. Villagers travel through the mountain to forage for herbs and to poach the birds for sport and food. Phra Paisal and the other two monks who live there work to create fire breaks, put out fires, and dissuade the villagers from poaching.

As we traveled through the forest, we would hike to one precipice after another, gaze down across the various valley, and alternate intense physical exertion with rest. It was quite a vigorous walk. Many of us felt as if we were pushed to our physical and even mental limits during the eight hours of that one day. The terrain and the walk itself taught many of us to have compassion for ourselves, for each other, and for the land. One of the monks encouraged Marta to take a particular route. She took his advise only to find herself stranded out on a limb from which she could go nowhere. I recall seeing several trees that were being engulfed by other trees. One tree wrapped around a smaller tree as if it were hugging it, or strangling it. At other times, I'd see trees in contorted shapes, showing evidence of what had once been engulfed in its embraced, only by the absence. So much of this day was a metaphor for life. It was also one of the most intimate ways I could imagine to get to know Thailand. I've never hiked a piece of land in this manner back in the states. In the evening, we camped at a spot by a river on top of the mountain, only an hour from where we had begun. Later that night we sat by the fire again and asked questions of each other. In the morning we slowly made our way back down the mountain to our base camp.

During our last day, we celebrated Kate's birthday and spent the evening asking the mae chi questions and reflecting on what we were learning about ourselves and Buddhism. On the last night, I slept outside of my mosquito net so I could have no barriers between myself and the world. For many Warren Wilson this would be not new adventure. But, for one who has lived all of her life with a shield between nature and my experience, this was an important event. I could hardly sleep. (Click here for a journal entry on the forest walk experience)

In the morning, we gathered on the truck to return to the village. Phra Paisal gave everyone a small book, Life is a Prison, by Buddhadhasa Bhikku. The villagers had brought the monks some beautiful pink flowers that morning and Phra Paisal offered them to me before we left. We returned to the village and had to wait several hours before the bus came to get us. In many ways, it felt as if we were settling down just at the moment when we were also beginning to gear up to return to the states.