Looking out over the Mae Ta Valley on the watershed hike
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Mae Ta
Cow roaming free in Mae Ta. Certain farmers will set their cows loose for weeks at a time to graze in the forests. Although this can be a risky thing to do. Two years ago several Mae Ta cows were killed and eaten by tigers at the edge of the forest
Friday, October 23, 2009
Palong Hill-tribe villages
After our two nights in Chiang Dao we visited two Palong villages to learn about how, as marginalized people, they manage their land, farm and live.
Palong is an ethnic hill tribe group that came to Thailand many years ago from Burma. There are still many Palong in Burma. Because Palong people are not Thai citizens, they cannot own any land, which makes farming difficult because their land could be taken away from them at any time.
UHDP (Upland Holistic Development Project), the NGO community we stayed with for the second half of our field course, helps teach hilltribes like the Palong how to farm sustainably and diversify their crops to meet the dietary needs of a family. While visiting the Palong villages we saw a lot of agroforests and spoke to Palong farmers who had previously been monocropping.
Staying in the villages was a very different experience from being in Chiang Mai. There weren't any roads and everything was muddy. All of the toilets were squat toilets and the showers were bucket showers. The bathroom was a box of corrugated tin for the walls, roof and door. All of the houses were raised off of the ground, with equipment stored underneath. You could often see through gaps in the walls. Packs of children ran around barefoot and muddy. The women wore traditional outfits: elaborate skirts and short jackets. They all wore rattan belts. The old women were chewing beetle nut to get intoxicated. It made their mouths red and it looked like they were spitting blood (it was initially pretty alarming).
All of the students slept in a long house (bamboo structure with floor raised about 3 or 4 feet off of the ground). We slept on the floor with mats, pillows and mosquito nets around us. I woke up in the morning to a symphony of animals; pigs, dogs, roosters. The roosters were the worst. They started calling the sun around three in morning. One had crawled under the floor of the long house and was crowing right by my head.
I never felt very clean or comfortable in the Palong villages and I became acutely aware of how many of the things that I consider to be necessities are, in fact, luxuries.
I'm happy to have been exposed to the city life of Chiang Mai before going to Mae Ta and the Palong villages because the villages are so different that I probably would have been overwhelmed by culture shock. At the same time, I'm glad to have visited the villages because, had I not, I think my view of life in Thailand would be warped.
Chiang Dao Temple
Having missed the turn to the temple, I decided to get up early the day we were leaving Chiang Dao and check out the wat. The walk to the wat was long and calm. There are 500 steps to the wat, but there are many landings with little buddhist sayings. Surrounded by the forest, climbing the stairs was an enjoyable activity.
At the end of the stairs, before the entrance to the wat, there was a pagoda with lots of photos of a famous monk that founded the temple. When I arrived, there were monks seated in a row in the pagoda preparing food that was being taken to the kitchen further down the trail. I wanted to take a look at the photos and continue to the wat proper, so I decided to enter the pagoda. To be respectful I knelt down and wyed (hands clasped and bow head, called the wy), three times to the Buddha image. Thankfully my host family had taken me to enough wats that I had learned what to do.
As I was seated some women with shaved heads and white robes came in and did the same thing. They were maechi--buddhist nuns. I was very excited because I recently read a book about Thai buddhist nuns and knew that encountering one was rare. After I finished my three wys I realized that something was starting to happen, so I remained seated like the women around me. A young man, of no particular status (aka not a monk) set small silver bowls and silver "i dream of genie"-like flasks in front of the women around me. Then he set one down in front of me.
I was so excited and a bit nervous. The monks began to chant and I sat with head bowed and my hands clasped. I occasionally glanced at the women next to me to see what they were doing. The women uncapped the flask and slowly poured the water into the silver bowl. I did the same.
When the chanting ended the women took their silver bowls and stood up. I did the same. They walked out of the pagoda and down to a patch of grass where they knelt and said a prayer as they poured the water onto the grass. I did the same.
When it was all over, one of the Maechi turned to me and asked if I spoke English, I responded in Thai and our conversation went from there. I told her I was a student in Chiang Mai just passing through. She invited me to eat breakfast in the mess hall, but I unfortunately had to decline (to make sure I got back in time to leave with the group). She wished me good luck and I left.
I was so excited by what had just happened that I hardly knew what to do with myself. I skipped down 500 stairs, pausing every so often to look back up at the wat.
Chiang Dao
We had a break during the middle of our agroecology course and met up with the head professor in the village of Chiang Dao for a mid-course seminar.
Chiang Dao is nestled in a mountain range north of Chian Mai. After the seminar we had some time to explore. A group of us were planning on visiting a wat (temple) close to our accommodations. Lagging behind the rest of the group, my friend, Ellen, and I took a fortuitous wrong turn. After walking around a small village for hours, looking for the wat we were stared down my some menacing dogs. (The trick to dealing with stray dogs in Thailand is to either throw a rock at them or pretend like you're throwing a rock at them). Our rock throwing trick didn't work, and being outnumbered, we retreated. In doing so, we stumbled upon some caves.
The caves were part of a temple complex, but we decided they might be fun to check out. Upon entering the caves, we found a group of Thai tour guides with lanterns in hand. Ellen and I decided to sign up for a tour. A hundred baht later we were on a private tour of the most amazing caves I'd ever seen. We saw bats and natural stone structures that looked like animals (with buddhist scarves and robes wrapped around them). We also saw the most incredible stalactites and stalagmites I've ever seen. Some were still alive and were glistening when the lantern shed its light upon them.
The tour was about half an hour long and our guide led us from cavern to cavern. Sometimes we'd have to squeeze through some pretty small passageways. The caves were so silent and all you could hear was the faint roar or the gas lantern and drips of water. Before the caves were opened up to the public they were only visited by monks. The caves were a bit eerie, but felt mostly peaceful. At times the sanctity of the caves was palpable and I could see why it would be such an appealing place for monks wanting to meditate.
Our tour guide was so kind and really liked us because we spoke Thai. Unlike in the United States, where foreigners are expected to speak English, Thai people get so excited if foreigners can even say a word or two in Thai.
At the end of the tour we were giddy. The beauty was overwhelming and it was a great way to top off an afternoon of unexpected adventure.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
City exploration and Organic Farming
The past two weeks have been a blur of activity. Three weekends ago I moved out of my host family's house and into dorm-style apartments with the other students. While I was sad to say goodbye to my host family, I relished in the new-found freedom and opportunity to explore downtown Chiang Mai. The downside to living in the dorms is that we speak much more English (which can also be a welcome mental break), the upside is that every night is a party.
After a week of in-class instruction about Agroecology, we headed out into the field. Last week I went with a group of 16 other students to the northern Thai village, Mae Ta. A significant portion of Mae Ta's farmers made a switch from mono-crop farming to organic farming about sixteen years ago. During the week we went on tours of organic farms, spoke with the town youth and women and hiked around the watershed. The greatest part of the experience, however, was getting to stay with a Thai host family.
My host family had an organic farm on the foot of the mountain. They had peanuts, ginger, cabbage, papaya, pineapple, mangoes, green beans, long beans, basil, mint, licorice, and many other leafy greens that I couldn't identify. I found it fascinating that they had little to no pest problems. Their management strategy was to companion plant--grow strong smelling plants next to other plants to deter bugs. I had a lovely time the day I went to help my host family on the farm. As we walked around the farm they explained what each plant was and usually ripped off a leaf for me to smell and eat. Talk about sensory learning!
Because it is still too early to harvest rice, I helped my host family weed. Although, at times I felt more like a hindrance than a help because they were doing the same work three times as fast.
Another highlight was touring an agroforest. It was amazing to see the theories of agroecology put into practice. During our hike through the forest, I would have had no idea that I was walking through a farm without a guide, because it looked just like any other forest. The idea of agroforestry is to left plants grow on their own as if in a natural system, practicing under the assumption that nature knows best.
By far the best experience of the whole week, however, was living with a Thai host family that spoke no English. While sometimes frustrating, this experience let me reflect upon how much Thai I really knew! A triumphant moment was when my host father was explaining how he makes sugar from honey (smokes the bees out of the hive, takes apart the hive, lets honey drip from the combs, leaves the honey in a bottle, untouched and settled for two years and then scrapes out the sugar that has risen to the top of the bottle). A Thai-english dictionary, and many gestures were used to get the point across, but I was still astounded that I had understood. It made my day...my week!
After a week of in-class instruction about Agroecology, we headed out into the field. Last week I went with a group of 16 other students to the northern Thai village, Mae Ta. A significant portion of Mae Ta's farmers made a switch from mono-crop farming to organic farming about sixteen years ago. During the week we went on tours of organic farms, spoke with the town youth and women and hiked around the watershed. The greatest part of the experience, however, was getting to stay with a Thai host family.
My host family had an organic farm on the foot of the mountain. They had peanuts, ginger, cabbage, papaya, pineapple, mangoes, green beans, long beans, basil, mint, licorice, and many other leafy greens that I couldn't identify. I found it fascinating that they had little to no pest problems. Their management strategy was to companion plant--grow strong smelling plants next to other plants to deter bugs. I had a lovely time the day I went to help my host family on the farm. As we walked around the farm they explained what each plant was and usually ripped off a leaf for me to smell and eat. Talk about sensory learning!
Because it is still too early to harvest rice, I helped my host family weed. Although, at times I felt more like a hindrance than a help because they were doing the same work three times as fast.
Another highlight was touring an agroforest. It was amazing to see the theories of agroecology put into practice. During our hike through the forest, I would have had no idea that I was walking through a farm without a guide, because it looked just like any other forest. The idea of agroforestry is to left plants grow on their own as if in a natural system, practicing under the assumption that nature knows best.
By far the best experience of the whole week, however, was living with a Thai host family that spoke no English. While sometimes frustrating, this experience let me reflect upon how much Thai I really knew! A triumphant moment was when my host father was explaining how he makes sugar from honey (smokes the bees out of the hive, takes apart the hive, lets honey drip from the combs, leaves the honey in a bottle, untouched and settled for two years and then scrapes out the sugar that has risen to the top of the bottle). A Thai-english dictionary, and many gestures were used to get the point across, but I was still astounded that I had understood. It made my day...my week!
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