Late Cambodian monk's poems detail homeland terror

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

LOWELL, Mass. (AP) — For years, Ly Van Aggadipo served as the spiritual mentor to many Cambodian refugees in this old mill city, guiding followers at the Glory Buddhist Temple through family issues, work problems and recurring nightmares from the horrors of the Khmer Rouge.

But his own internal struggles from the Khmer Rouge remained a mystery, and those who knew him say he rarely spoke of his own story of fleeing war-torn Cambodia.

Then, soon after his death last year, friends found a collection of the monk's poetry tucked under stacks of old Buddhist texts. On worn pages were handwritten, carefully crafted poems describing his memories of witnessing infant executions, starvation at labor camps and dreams of escaping to America.

Now followers are seeking to publish the poetry, even as the discovery of this vivid historical record of the atrocities has reopened for many a painful time they still have not reconciled in their own lives.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h3F20io226VgOMJ4U0VD_K9pYsPAD96T4BV80

[grantcart]

1. A litle background

When resettling Cambodian refugees into the US it was decided to concentrate all of the Cambodian refugees into 5 core cities where social and cultural centers could be developed so that there would be religious and culture centers.


This was not needed for Vietnamese because they had natural centers in the US that would already support that.


As the article points out Long Beach was the largest and Lowell MA was the second largest.


Although I was involved I never learned who was responsible for the brilliant idea.


Because of tha decision temples and cultural centers exist in the US that enabled the stories of genocide to be collected and not lost in a wider diaspora. This is an example of the success of that decision.

[Coventina]

2. Thanks for the info and perspective.

And I want to add for all who click on this thread: Please read the entire article if you can.

It's very moving, and important stuff.