Malaysia

My friends and I travelled to Malacca yesterday, about 100 km from Kuala Lumpur, to experience Malaysian history. On the way, we stopped at an outdoor history museum where we visited traditional homes from across Malaysia. It was interesting to see the commonalities and differences between these buildings and those I saw just a couple of days ago at the Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi. The Malaysian homes, except those from Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo, use a lot more wood and less bamboo and natural grasses than the Vietnamese.

Malacca is a beautiful town with a rich history. A seaport, it has been home to Chinese, Indians, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, and British. Each group has left its mark to some extent. Ivy said that the city had changed a lot since she was last there in the early/mid 1990s. The four or five museums we visited were all new, and there were a couple of new shopping malls. ("Malaysians love to shop," Ivy tells me.)

We enjoyed dinner last night at what we Westerners would call an outdoor food court, a style of eating I'd experienced before in Malaysia. But this food court was in a beautiful new building with a historic feel. It isn't easy being a vegetarian in Malaysia, but I got to sample some Indonesian specialties, including cassava greens and bamboo shoots! And I washed it all down with the juice of a fragrant coconut.

The museums we visited were quite interesting. I was as taken by the buildings as I was by some of the exhibits. The city has done a lovely job of adaptive reuse of some of the historic structures. The streets in the downtown area are quite narrow. Small shops and homes line the streets behind shaded walkways. Some of the buildings are painted a deep, rich brick red, and many have tile roofs. We returned to K.L. this afternoon, and I enjoyed a home-cooked meal and got to eat my first fresh durian. YUM!!

(See recent photos at http://tinyurl.com/32g6hw.)

I continue to think about the rich teachings from Thay. Malaysia celebrates 50 years of independence this year. Like many countries, their independence was hard won, although independence here seems to have been marked by less violence than in other areas. The primary reason for Thay's visit to Vietnam was to conduct three Great Requiem Ceremonies to help heal the wounds of war in his native land. Here are some of the words from the ceremony, which certainly are a powerful invocation for Vietnam, but are equally meaningful in many other situations marked by conflict:

"We vow that from now on we will not let the country be separated again, not even one more time. From now on, when there are internal difficulties, we will not request the help of any foreign power to intervene with weapons and troops in our country. From now on, we will not start a way for any ideology. From now on, we will not use foreign weapons to kill each other. From now on we will use our best efforts to build a society with real democracy, to be able to resolve all kinds of disagreements by peaceful democratic methods, and we will not resort to violence against fellow countrymen and countrywomen.

We vow...to build a brotherhood/sisterhood and mutual love of fellow countrymen and countrywomen. We will remember that pumpkin vines and squash vines can share a single frame, that chickens from the same mother will never fight each other. This insight from our ancestors will shine out its light for us, now and forever."

On 19 April, I took a late night flight from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur to visit my friend Ivy Wong and her family. A Malaysian woman who sat across the aisle from me on the plane saw the two Thich Nhat Hanh books that I was reading and asked to borrow one. She hadn't heard of him but was interested in the Dharma. She enjoyed looking at the book and wrote the title so she could try to find it in Malaysia. We had a wonderful conversation about simple living and religious practices.

This is my first visit to peninsular Malaysia. I travelled to Sarawak, on Borneo, with my husband over a decade ago. That was when I met Ivy Wong, the friend I am visiting here, and got to know her when she was a university student. She's now married, has two beautiful daughters, and has a position with the World Wildlife Federation-Malaysia.

Today, I spent the day today touring KL, which is a beautiful city, and sampling some of the wonderful foods that Malaysia has to offer. Malaysia is a tantalizing mixture of ethnicities. There are many, many indigenous peoples, plus communities of Chinese and Indians. Today, we had a fabulous Indian lunch and a delicious Chinese dinner, with a foamy cup of cappuccino in between! No suffering on the food front here... We also saw an interesting photojournalism exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of Malaysian independence.

K.L. is also a bit of culture shock after Vietnam. Although K.L. is only a three-hour flight and one time zone away from Hanoi, in many respects, the two countries are worlds apart. Peninsular Malaysia is predominantly Muslim, while most Hanoi residents are Buddhist. This part of Malaysia is also quite prosperous compared to Vietnam. I see late-model cars everywhere (which leads to late-model traffic jams...), and there are numerous huge shopping malls with all the latest fashions. Prices are also a big contrast. Vietnam is extremely affordable by Western standards. A room at a 5-star hotel can be had for $100 a night. Here, prices are much closer to U.S. standards.

Tomorrow, we are heading for Malacca, a historic town on the west coast. I'm sure I'll learn a lot of Malaysian history!

On the Dharma front, I am missing my friends from the delegation, most of whom have returned to the many corners of the earth they call home. When I feel their absence most acutely, I try to remember the many nourishing practices we enjoyed together.

mindful eating
reciting the Five Contemplations before meals
sitting meditation
walking meditation
Noble Silence
sharing in Dharma families
chanting
singing Dharma songs
Dharma talks
touching the earth
paying mindful attention to my Second Body (a wonderful Aussie named Perrie)
the Five Mindfulness Trainings
full body relaxation
the bell