Dear Sombath,
Today, I left Asia. Among all my memories, yours is for sure the most brief but the deepest. We met very shortly in Vientiane during the Asia Europe Peoples Forum in 2012 and we shook hands saying that we would continue chatting. But that never happened. A few months later, you were last seen at a police outpost and since then the authorities of Laos have never given an explanation of what had happened to you.
When I came to Asia, more than three years ago, I had just finished writing the book about my brother José Carlos Trujillo Oroza who was enforced disappeared in 1972 during the dictatorship of Banzer. I was able to finish his book before my mother passed away after searching for him for 40 years. I must confess that when we presented that book I had the thought that the nightmare of enforced disappearances was something of old dictatorships. I didn’t think that I would face again a situation like that and even less in Asia. Continue reading “Dear Sombath…from Pablo Solón”
Today we made merits for you as well to blessed us all for the fresh Lao new year. Wherever you are i wish you received our pray and the food we offer in spirits. We did the ceremony at the wooden house that you bought just couple months before someone disappeared you. I remember very well this house and the rice hut, you said you were very very proud you found it, they are old that the owner wanted to tear it down and you want to preserve it. I never thought before that I will have to work on this house for you, moving them in pieces all the way from Savannakhet province and rebuild in Vientiane capital. It was my very first time in my life to build a house, and I always wish that you could come back and tell me what I should do with these old pieces of woods.
I sometimes thought whether it’s worth to work on them, but I manage to finished them at last, with some adaptation. For nearly 2 years that it’s done, we never use it, and not many people see the house attractive because it’s typical Lao house. But to me, I always say to myself that this house is lovely. I love looking at it and it make me smile inside. For me it’s symbol of you, your taste and happiness. Hope you will get to come back to see it by yourself soon. Jit
o, to mark the day, members of your family and I went to offer food for the monks in the forest temple, Wat Na Khoune Noi, the temple that you have been so closely associated with. This is the temple where you first started the Buddhist Development Program (BDP), under the protective endorsement from Phra Arjan Sali, the Vice Partriarch of the Buddhist Sangha. Through the BDP you were able to introduce to some monks the concepts of Engaged Buddhism, a system of Buddhist teachings and practice that encourage the monastics to step outside the confines of their temples and be more engaged in issues that affected the wider community and society. 