Research in The Vulture Egg Village

It’s already the 4^th day of research in the “VultureEggVillage” (Wat Tmat Pong).   “Happy 4^th of July” by the way…

All is going well. The story of the village basically says that there were two vultures living in this place before it was decided to build here. I found out through Dr. Judy who extracted the info from a villager that this village is actually cursed ! The story is passed from generation to generation and concerns a King who was imprisoned by the French. He pleaded for the Wat Tmat Pong villagers to save him from imprisoned and attack the French. They did not do as he requested and it is said that he placed a curse on the village that all its inhabitants would always be poor and uneducated.  Whatever the story, our research is moving ahead. My two translators pictured below are progressing and we are getting acclimated to one another each day.  Just six more days and we will have accomplished our task of doing semi-directives interviews with monks, ‘samane’ (novices), nuns, Achar and committee temple members.  Today we did a taped life-history interview with a former temple committee member but he is now just a lay person living at the temple and spends his time meditating.  Here is a photo of our interview with him.  He was also a monk for many years and even had five kids! 

When you do interview you usually have many people listening in and sometimes even adding their two cents !  This time there were six little guys watching us as we conducted our interview. 

I have taken some pictures within our temple. The local school teacher who is diligent about learning English explained the various panels which detail Budda’s life from birth to death. It is fascinating. Here are just two photos from at least 30 panels. They are very colourful and help the villagers to learn about the Budda and his stages of life. They are also used for instruction because my Cambodian villagers can not read or even write.   

Here I am taking a little rest from interviews.  I'm siting on those infamous mats.  Just look at those dirty socks !!!!

I ventured out into the rice fields the other day and met a father and son who were catching small crabs in their paddies. The Cambodian people seem so gentle and happy. The villagers here are quite poor and do subsistence farming. Rice is the main crop.  

The monks at the temple really work hard. They were cutting some trees today. They have no electricity so they can’t use a power saw and don’t have a chainsaw either. The young novices (“samane”) are not even allowed to play soccer or other kid games. Some are just 10 or 12 years old.  

The Abbot is a rather stern guy. We can not eat our lunch until he and all the monks and ‘samane’ finish their respective lunches. Here is a picture of the bowls prepared by the nuns before being served up. You can not imagine the hundreds of flies who buzz around and sit on the food !!

I asked today why the monks left their wooden building to go sleep in the old school house. The teacher said that since monks can not kill any insects, including the pesky termites munching away at their wooden hut, the monks relocated to another area. Can you imagine ?! They can not even kill termites. This just shows you how important life is to these monks, even the lives of such destructive little critters…

I arrange things each day so that I do not have to use the toilet too much next to the ‘sala’ where we have our mats. The toilet is a small hole with a bucket in a basin for flushing purposes. Definitely not for those who like all the comforts of modern plumbing !

Today, we were give ‘amok’ for lunch. This is a traditional Cambodian dish. Amok is a popular Cambodian dish which some have likened to the American Hamburger....but only inasmuch as it's eaten frequently.  The traditional (and most popular) recipe uses fish   however our research shows it is quite acceptable to use  chicken,  lobster and even escargot (snails). The other main ingredients are coconut milk and turmeric which are essential to the dish. The traditional method of using banana leaves for cooking and serving can be got around by using collard greens or cabbage which has the added advantage that the whole thing can be eaten. I don’t really like amok too much. I was happy to eat my fruit wrap and rice !!

Here's a photo of a typical Cambodian village house.  It's occupants are not too poor.  Notice the ox cart in the car port !!!