KARMA POLICE

When we went to Luang Prabang in Laos in 2008, I had the feeling that we had arrived in the country just at the right time. It had enough tourists to make things easy but not enough that tourists were exploited. As a micronism for greater Laos, Luang Prabang fits well with this synopsis. It’s really just a big provincial town, that has maintained enough of its temples and old school charm to be a draw card for tourists but hasn’t became too big to lose its authenticity.

One of the many beautiful temples in Luang Prabang.

At night, people come from the villages and around Luang Prabang to sell goods at the famous night market. Unlike some places in South East Asia, bargaining is still amicable. The stalls are varied, selling mainly handicrafts but also some quite unique items, weapons, masks and good coffee. In the morning, if you rise early, you can watch the monks (there are many) collecting alms from the locals. Unfortunately, as is the case in many developing countries where tourism is important, watching the ceremony is not without its disadvantages. For one, some of the locals have got camera-shy, sick of the constant pictures and intrusions of interested foreigners into what is a long lasting local custom. This lessons the amount of food collected by the monks, which goes to feeding both the monks and the less fortunate members of society. Some local businessmen have also been taking advantage of the situation, selling old, stale food to tourists who give it to the monks. The result of this has been several monks falling sick. There has been some talk of changing the practice but the Laos government sees the ceremony as a major draw card for tourists. Its has been alleged that they would ensure that the ceremony will continue, even if it means getting lay people to dress up as monks and use lay people to dole out the food. Tourists are therefore indirectly responsible for the loss of karma that would have been accrued by these locals for not giving alms to the monks.

Monks on the morning alms collection.

Karma would be a feature of a trip we made to the Pak Ou Caves, famous caves filled with Buddha statues that are about an hour from Luang Prabang. Along the way, we had a chance to stop for snake wine (wine that has the body of a snake in it) and for a couple of shots of LaoLao ( a nasty smelling and tasting moonshine whiskey made from rice). I wouldn't recommend either, both tasted like gasoline and smelt pungent. After an hour, we arrived at a village opposite the caves where we caught a boat to get across the Mekong. On our boat, sat a little girl. She was a young saleswoman, hardened from her few tough years of life experience. Her goal, getting us to buy from her, a songbird encased in a cane cage. By buying it from her, and then releasing it, you would attain karma (this is a relatively common sight throughout Asia, especially near Buddhist sites). Her expressive eyes and bargaining skills, plus the fact that she was on a boat with us so we had nowhere to go or hide so held our full attention for 10 minutes, led us to a decision to buy this bird from her (something I wouldn't usually have done as buying birds only seems to encourage the capture of more birds). We gave her the equivalent of $2 for the cage and bird, got off the boat and walked up to the area in front of the lower caves. It was decided that this was a good place as any to release the bird. I gently removed the bird from its cage. It looked like it was a swallow or a swift, a small, graceful bird. It didn't struggle in my hands. I took to the edge of the cliff that we were standing on and threw it out, expecting to see it take flight. Instead, it flew like a stone, plummeting into the muddy Mekong, its injury or death a blow to my karma accumulation.

The hardened saleswoman who broke our resolve

Karma aside, there wasn't a lot I could do to save the unfortunate bird. I could make a list like Earl but I wouldn't know how to reverse this situation, unless I saved a bird from death (which I suppose I have, saving birds from the jaws of pet cats, both pre and post the Mekong bird massacre). I just felt bad and a little foolish, standing for a minute to reflect on the bird before heading to the caves. The Pak Ou caves are pretty cool, two caves filled with 4000 statues of Buddha, most of which were very old statues left by the locals who have lived in the area around the cave for millennia, others left by more recent visitors to the caves. The statues were of all different sizes, some seated, but mostly in the standing Buddha form favoured in the area. The larger, upper cave has more Buddhas but you need a torch to see them. I preferred the smaller cave, called Tham Ting, that sat behind the altar of bird sacrifice. Here, the statues overlooked the Mekong, acting as guardians as maybe icons from the old Laotian religion did in the days before Buddhism, that served to protect travelers on their journeys along the great river.  Below, you can see boats waiting to take their passengers back to Luang Prabang or just back to the village opposite, buddhas silhouetted against the Mekong, snatches of jungle glimpsed on the far bank.

Buddhas looking out of Pak Ou Caves, over the Mekong River.

Laos is still one of the gems of Asia, slow paced, laidback but increasing in modernity. Standing at the caves, you hope that the modernity takes a while to come, because the serenity of the area deserves more than to be broken by the noise of tourist buses and larger boats pulling up from Luang Prabang. I'm still working on paying off the karma debt I accrued in and around Luang Prabang though.