Bokeo: The Pali milieu (2)

Two things come to mind, re: Lao people (not) reading about Buddhism.

One is this well-intentioned by (in my opinion) disasterous program
put together by a bunch of rich, white Falangs in Luang Phabang:

http://www.thequietintheland.org/newsletter3.pdf

... on page 10 they have information about the book they wrote and
distributed to monks in L. Phabang.

These are probably very "nice" white people, who look around and see
that the monks are playing video games (and certainly not reading any
books) and think "We'll write something about Buddhist meditation and
hand it around to the monks..." --well, the problem is that they're
just as ignorant as the Lao monks.

They can't read Pali, either; they're not scholars or experts, and
they do not bother to consult the work of scholars and experts.  It's
the blind leading the blind --howeverso good their intentions may be.

Secondly, yesterday, as I sat by the side of the Mekong, a very lean
man walked up to me and asked me about what I was reading with some
excitement --he looked as if he had been malnourised all of his life.

He neither looked nor sounded Lao, but seemed delighted when I
explained that I was reading Pali.  I had to ask, (in Lao:) "Are you
Lao?"  To which he responded, "Nao," and then again, "Kon Nao"
--apparently the shibboleth for whatever lingual minority he
represents is that they pronounce "L-" as "N-" --as it sounded to me
as if he were saying "Cold, yes I am cold" ("Nao" = "cold/chilled").

I then gave a rehearsed statement in Lao that Pali had come to this
country from India, via Sri Lanka, a long time ago, and was the
original language of Buddhism, etc.; the emaciated man's face was
absolutely glowing as he stared at the various books that were in
front of me (variously in Burmese & Sinhalese script).

Perhaps he was a monk as a young boy, and had once wanted to learn
Pali; I'll never know.

In any case, despite all of the well-earned cynicism one feels about
the Lao "readership", there are still a few souls who show some
sincere interest when unexpectedly confronted with the Pali language.

I neither know where that man came from nor where he was going; likely
he wandered up from a boat on the shore.

E.M.