Hoa Pham

Here are some pictures of Prajna Monastery in its heyday before it was destroyed. It is always in my heart. In Fragrant Palm Leaves Thich Nhat Hanh talks about how Phuong Bo is the monastery haven that he always has in his heart although it too was destroyed by the Vietnamese government. The insights I was blessed with in 2007 will always stay with me.

The Wall fell in Berlin, Communism crumbled in the USSR, oppresssion can come to an end through peaceful action. Today I am more hopeful about oppression around the world- change can occur. I have been repositioning my work in response to the religious oppression in Vietnam- and decided that the Lady of the Realm which is a historical fantasy novel about Quan Am is about oppression and responses to it. Quan Am responds with compassion. Perhaps now I am closer to understanding the response of non violence. Thay (Thich Nhat Hanh) has asked us to voice our concerns for those in Bat Nha and I have been meditating and cultivating positive energy while I can. Yesterday I met two activitists- a queer Italian activist in my German class and a Marxist feminist that I knew ten years ago from student politics. Their take on European politics is fascinating. Germany is not utopia although liberal feminism has come a long way here. Der Grun is also not equivalent to the Greens in Australia- they are much weaker now having formed coalitions with the Christian conservatives in the south of Germany and making compromises. Der Linke is more like the Greeens at home.

Italy is conservative and getting worse. Davide is flying back to Italy for two days to participate in a demonstration against the Vatican. There have been bombings of queer nightclubs in Rome in Italy. In Berlin sexuality is open here with affection part of everyday life. Davide questioned me about Australia, yes we have the mardi gras but that does not mean Australia is not homophobic.

On the other hand Kate has been telling me that amongst left student activists in Germany women are still not holding leading positions and taking part in political debate.  Which boggles my mind a bit- I associate the left with women’s liberation so am trying to grasp this and how it might work.

So there are so many nuances and one thing great about this residency is learning about these things.

Today I went to the Museum Island and visited two museums, the Bod Museum and the Pergammon Museum. Lots of greek, roman and byzantine statues and art. Last night I went to the Reconciliation Day celebrations at Brandenburg Tor and concluded that most Western rock music sounds exactly the same! (even if I can’t understand the words!) It makes me wonder what our civilisation will be remembered for. The statues are bleached white bone marble in the Pergammon. In Vietnam ancient history is restored for UNESCO and tourist purposes much like here in Berlin. How Australia remembers its history is hotly contested, although the apology did wonders for the official government stance.  In regards to writing my historical fantasy fictions I wonder what I’m choosing to remember. I have found some hope that what Thich Nhat Hanh teaches will outlive him through the worldwide sanghas and what Prajna Monastery taught will not be forgotten. After all one Wall did come down, and so did the USSR so anything is possible.

East Side Gallery

Yesterday went to a surrealism exhibition which was brilliant and gave me much food for creative thinking. It featured, Dali, Magritte, Miro and others and slices open what can be done in the representation of the mind, consciousness and psychic states. Since my work features psychics, psychosis and hallucinations it made me wonder how else I can represent the fragmented mind in my writing. The short story “Yolk” (which you will find in my collection “Vivid”) is the closest i have come to attempting it.  What also fascinated me is that the Surrealism manifesto came out during the chaos of world war 2. The oppression of war and violence undercuts some of the works I saw. Perhaps the repeated oppressions of Vietnam birthed the Order of Interbeing so beauty can come from oppression like a lotus from mud. Here are some lines from my impressions:

Sliding escape of psychic realities

Red bloody twisted shapes splashed onto the subconscious lake

Freedom undercuts every movement of the sharpest mind

Against the blackest midnight.

Lest we forget

I have started my German classes at the Goethe Institut which has a diverse range of people from around the world in it. One of my contacts at the Literaturewerkstratt is Italian and we went out for dinner tonight with her boyfriend and her German friend. So we have had wide ranging discusssions around politics respectively in Australia, Germany, Italy and India- the last from one of the women I’m getting to know better from my German class. As can be seen from my most recent posts I have also been vastly disturbed by the latest repressions in Vietnam. This has moved me to add to “The Daughters of Au Co” the story I’m reading at the Literaturwerkstratt in November and to ponder changing the end of my doctorate novel the Lady of the Realm.  What has changed for me is the optimism I had for peace with the Communist regime in Vietnam in 2007 and 2008.  Berlin is one peaceful example of a communist regime coming down from within. I’m not sure that this is possible in Vietnam and until recently I optimistically hoped that the regime was changing due to its global commitments. Thich Nhat Hanh inspired me to think that peace was possible when I went on retreat with him in 2007. Now I think that in some instances it is possible- but in some cases not probable.

Today I have discovered that Vietnam is now the head of the UN Security Council for 2 months from today. Ironically the situation for the Prajna monastics has worsened and they are now under siege from uniformed police in Bao Loc. Below is an article that I have submitted to various newspapers for publication.

A memorial to my true home

Hoa Pham is currently in Berlin on a writers residency courtesy of the University of Western Sydney, the University of Technology Sydney, the Goethe Institute and the Copyright Agency Limited.

Time is marked in memorials of concrete and stones in Berlin. The Communist rule here has been taken over and superseded, the Wall is now slabs of art and a gallery, the site of the Third Reich planted with memorials for their victims. Germany lost a war more than fifty years ago, and the tourists visit the legacy of places where once  massacres occurred. The death strip where those who tried to escape East Berlin is also immortalised in stones, reminders of a more recent past.

How different is the reminders of war in Hanoi? Here the memorials are also cast in concrete and history is written by those who won. It is more than thirty years ago now and tourists take pictures next to tanks and the Liberation Palace that witnessed the fall of Saigon. There is no mention of the hundreds of thousands who fled the Communist regime, nor of those murdered or imprisoned for trying to leave. Instead the Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) return to marvel at what has become of their homeland and spend foreign currency much needed to boost the economy.

I visited the statues of Marx and Engels in Berlin, flanked by metal rectangular monoliths that had photos of other Communist regimes incised on the surfaces. Ho Chi Minh was there, along with a photo of a tiny woman from the Viet Cong next to a gigantic American soldier. There is no commentary with the photos, they speak for themselves in black and white on silver.

Both places make a living from the recent past, a morbid fascination with history drives the snapping of cameras, for people to say, I’ve been here. Communism in Germany and Vietnam is a souvenir to Westerners who have not experienced it. Some of the radical left in Australia tag themselves Communist in ideals, expressing values that have resulted in lethal oppression in other countries. To me this seems impossibly naive.

It is the present that concerns me now. As I write three hundred Buddhist monks and nuns, have been forcibly evicted from Prajna Monastery in Bat Nha, 6 hours drive from Ho Chi Minh City. The monastery has been destroyed while police blocked all exits and it is known that plain clothes policemen were part of the mob that destroyed the temple.

Prajna Monastery followed Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings, the exiled Vietnamese Zen Master based in Plum Village in France. Thich Nhat Hanh was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King in the sixties when he was in the US asking for the end of the war. Thich Nhat Hanh was invited back to Vietnam twice by the Vietnamese government, the last time in 2007 when he did a tour of Vietnam for Great Ceremonies of Mourning commemorating all that had suffered during the American/Vietnam War. His teachings say that fear and anger are the enemy, not mankind. In 2007 it seemed that Vietnamese government was opening up and encouraging Buddhism, the predominant religion in Vietnam.

Now in 2009 this action by the Vietnamese Government destroys the optimism of removing Vietnam from the list of repressive regimes by the US just before APEC was held in Hanoi in 2006. Coincidentally APEC occurred just before Thich Nhat Hanh’s last visit to Vietnam. The government that maintains his exile have withdrawn their opportunistic welcome of him once more. On the thirtieth of September the Prajna monks and nuns having fled to Bao Loc’s temple have been placed under siege this time by uniformed police. Under the threat of violence the abbot has been forced to surrender 30 of the youngest nuns and monks who have been arrested and taken to Ho Chi Minh City.

I have been to Prajna Monastery and visited the monks, nuns and aspirants there with their bright smiles and welcoming eyes. It was at this peaceful beautiful place that I thought I had found my spiritual home, connecting me to Vietnam as a Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese). Thich Nhat Hanh held a five day Buddhist retreat there for ten thousand Vietnamese people in 2007, teaching breathing, mindfulness and peace within oneself to promote peace outside oneself. Prajna means insight, one of the three jewels of Buddhism.

At one of the sister temples in Ho Chi Minh City there are five pebbled mounds commemorating the execution of five followers of Thich Nhat Hanh before the war broke out. If the world does not react to the latest oppression in Vietnam there will be yet another memorial for more than 300 monastics in the ground.

I dread to think what this might look like, and weep for my true home.

Today visited the Jewish Museum. It has a striking design where the walls and floors are at angles representing a broken star of David. There is a holocaust memorial echoing the one we saw yesterday except with olive trees growing above it, and a silent tower space made from stone where only a slit of natural light is allowed in.

It disturbed me not only because of the history it represents but also the worsening situation in Bat Nha at Prajna Monastery where I blogged just over two years ago. Three hundred monks and nuns have been taken into custody by the Vietnamese Police and at least three senior monastics have disappeared. This monastery follows Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) the exiled Vietnamese Zen Master whose teachings I follow. When I was in Saigon we visited a temple where five of his followers had been murdered- they suspect by the communists. They are represented by five pebbled mounds in the grounds.  If the world waits and takes no notice of this happening in Vietnam how will these 300 be remembered? Vietnam was taken off this list of regimes that repressed religions prior to it hosting APEC in 2006 when coincidentally they allowed Thich Nhat Hanh to return for a second time to hold Great Ceremonies of Mourning for all those who suffered and died during the American War.