Voices from the Plain of Jars: Life under an Air War

Voices from the Plain of Jars

Voices from the Plain of Jars ij Our lives became like those of animals desperately trying to escape their hunters. . . . Human beings whose parents brought them into the world and carefully raised them with overflowing love despite so many difficulties, these human beings would die from a single blast as explosions burst, lying still without moving again at all. And who then thinks of the blood, flesh, sweat, and strength of their parents, and who will have charity and pity for them? . . . In reality, whatever happens, it is only the innocent who suffer. And as for others, do they know all the unimaginable things happening in this war? —a thirty-year-old woman refugee from the Plain of Jars In the life of the people of Xieng Khouang, there was war which brought death to the population and made it impossible to work, to grow rice, and to earn a livelihood. As in this picture, where there were people working in the rice field, in the garden, in the village, who were shot by the airplanes. The earth was struck and many, many cows, buffaloes, horses, and chickens also died. —a twenty-seven-year old What sadness! a twenty-year-old man, a traditional singer 41 What sadness! Formerly, the fragrance of ripening rice would fill the rice fields I would see flowers opening their blossoms everywhere in the forests How beautiful it was for us! And we would sing songs together that the Pathet Lao had taught us. They were usually gay songs. I used to sing the following song together with my friends in the forests and fields. This is the song: The Beautiful Land of Laos The land of Laos, the country of Laos Built strong and prosperous by the Laotian people From long ago The splendor, the beauty of The mountains and great forests, So gorgeous to gaze upon It is our sustenance and We Laotians love this Lao country As if it were a part of us Beautiful land of Laos, Beautiful country of Laos, 42 Voices from the Plain of Jars We are defending it against foreign invaders The Lao people, together In solid partnership helping each other bravely, Are expressing their love of nation They are guarding Laotian traditions, So as to have peace with independence And be united all together. The composer of the above song was a girl of sixteen from Ban Nouao. I am a young farmer, thinking of the past. Although the airplanes bombed my village, we would still sing together. Certain of us died like pigs, like dogs. They bombed everywhere without any of us ever seeing them. I am disturbed just thinking about it, and I will never ever forget it. Much time has passed Since I left the village of my ancestors And now I am homeless, Dwelling in Vientiane, a place of refuge My heart is sad and cries out for my rice field and village, All that which I had built with my own hands and made flourish I have left the region of my birth, My pagoda, my cows, my water buffalo Everything is dead and gone, disappearing without a trace Because of the airplanes that bombed the length and breadth of Xieng The airplanes that caused me to lose all that I had The airplanes that forced me out to the forest to burrow into the earth like a mouse or a mole The airplanes that made me leave my loved ones, Brothers and sisters, aunt and uncle I am so far away now as I dream of my wide rice fields and gardens Of all that I had labored over since coming into this world Each spring my fellow villagers and I would work the land, Helping one another till all had finished Boys and girls together, we would transplant and sing gay songs While the airplanes dropped bombs on us from high in the heavens We had to be brave and finish our work as if we did not know fear, What sadness! 43 Remaining outwardly calm though our hearts were torn with terror within Thinking of our earth and rice fields, now overgrown with weeds, My heart yearns after them Remembering how in the harvesting season, Men and women, old and young, would all reap our crops together How when the airplanes would come, we would run for the holes How when all was quiet once more...