From The Nation, June 3, 2003

 

A Long Walk Home

By Sujintana Hemtasilpa

 

The Mon in Kanchanaburi’s Sangkhla Buri district have been there for decades, long enough for these refugees from Burma to have assimilated into the local community.

Every morning, visitors to Kanchanaburi's Sangkhla Buri district can see hundreds of Mon leaving their community and cross the Samprasop River on longest wooden bridge in the country on their way to work in downtown Sangkhla Buri or elsewhere.

The men and women carry their lunch boxes, while some of the women, clad in their traditional longyis, also carry an umbrella.

For decades, the 850-metre-long Uttamanusorn Bridge, also known to locals as the Mon Bridge, has linked the Mon Community in the compound of Wangkawiwekaram Temple with other residents of Sangkhla Buri district. The Mon can leave their neighbourhood by several other routes, but many still opt to use the bridge.

Not far from the bridge is the point where three rivers - the Rantee, Songkalia and Bikhlee - merge to form the Samprasop (Junction of Three) River.

The Mon have been here since 1977, when the Wangkawiwekaram Temple, founded by a revered Mon monk known as Luang Pho Uttama, now 93, and the Mon community were relocated from nearby after the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand decided to build Khao Laem, or the Vajiralongkorn Dam.

At that time the community comprised around 400 households. Officials of the Pattanarak Foundation, which does healthcare work in the community, say the number grew to 600 by last year and 800 this year. Most residents, however, do not have Thai nationality.

While the Mon men blend in with other rural villagers, the women stand out because of their unique attire and hairstyle.

"We love Thailand. We want to stay here, and at the same time contribute to the Thai economy," said Fah, a Mon native whose family fled the civil strife in Burma and moved to Thai soil.

Although displaced from their native "Monland" in Burma, residents of the Mon community have striven to maintain their cultural identity.

Ork Pung, 42, a former soldier of the Mon army, leads the effort through the Mon Culture and Literature Survival Project (MCL).

In a bid to preserve their history and language, Ork Pung began to collect and transcribe old Mon palm-leaf manuscripts in 1993.

He has developed Mon computer fonts for both Mac and Microsoft, which allow him to preserve and publish the historical Mon texts he has collected.

Ork Pung says he has already transcribed about 60 palm-leaf manuscripts, which is only one-third of his collection. The topics of the manuscripts range from history and legends to medicine, poetry, religion, proverbs and music.

It's not just the Mon who are helping preserve their culture, Ork Pung said. Among the 12 people who run the MCL project are Thais, Swiss and Americans.

 

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