Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Peace on a Fruit Farm

As I sat peacefully on the deck of the cabin that we had rented for two days, looking over an orchard of rambudon trees (that grow fruit similar to lynchee fruit) to Doi Luang, the third tallest mountain in Thailand, it occurred to me that today was September 11th.

Although I had blissfully not seen any world news in several days, I had no doubt that today, the word ‘terror’ was on too many politicians’ lips around the globe, and that the world media were happily communicating these frightening thoughts to whomever they could gain access to. I knew that Al Qaeda had distributed a video staring their hero, Osama bin Laden, and that George Bush had recently been upping the volume with the message that terrorism was the new ideological evil of this century that had to be fought every step along the way. Sitting in this peaceful setting, I also couldn’t help but wonder how real those messages were. Sure, group and state terrorism has seen a horrific increase in the last number of years. But is this the primary reality for the more than 6 billion inhabitants of our planet? Or are these messages simply broadcast to support the greedy interests of certain politicians and corporate entities? And are there not other messages that we could listen to that could be just as real and provide far better rewards for us ordinary folk who just want to get on with our lives?

Looking around me, I knew the answer to these questions. We were staying at the Yang Tone Farm Stay for Nature Lovers, a fruit plantation several kilometres outside of the small town of Chiang Dao, which is itself about an hour and a half bus ride north of Chiangmai. On this 200 Rai (approximately 170 acres) organic farm are thousands of mango, lychee, rambudon and orange trees interspersed with each other that is owned and managed by Suvit Chootiwat. In the middle of this orchard sits a cluster of about ten cabins next to an outdoor restaurant run by his gracious wife, Sriboot. She has lovingly planted many bushes and flowers that sprout a symphony of colours beyond description. Outside our bedroom windows, for example, is a hedge of birds of paradise that commingle with other bushes whose names we do not know.

Starring past the cabins, flowers and trees, the mountain comes into view. At this time of year, which is the monsoon season, the vista is constantly changing. At times clouds embrace the top, and then moments later it peaks through as the clouds rush by. Later in the day, as the heat of the day evaporate the clouds, it stands out in all of its majesty. Covered by thick jungle, there is a spiritual feeling about this mountain that we can feel if not verbalize. Part of it has a similar shape and feeling to another mountain, Lone Cone, situated on Meares Island on the west coast of British Columbia, under which Lucy and I met for the first time ten years ago at a spiritual retreat that we go back to every year.

The cabins have all been designed by Suvit, who is an architect by trade. They are made with natural materials whenever possible. There is beautiful wood framing, thatched roofs and woven mats from some type of palm tree for the walls and ceilings. The bathroom is outside, surrounded by a brick wall covered in locally grown ivy, ensuring privacy. What a treat to be standing under the open sky while having a shower. There is not a TV or telephone in sight. There is simply homemade wooden furniture constructed of teak wood resting on our brick deck, from which we can sit quietly and view our surroundings.

Suvit and Sriboot are both around 70 years old. The beautiful peaceful surroundings of this environment are certainly a reflection of their state of mind. These are two wonderful people who seem to know how to slowly walk through their day with their feet softly touching the ground as they engage in various chores with open hearts and wonderful smiles. Suvit adds wonderful extra touches to each meal. After a breakfast of kaew tom -a traditional Thai breakfast of rice soup with chicken and herbs (there are other selections one can make as well) – we were given a treat of sculptured fruit. Half of a passion fruit was decorated with slices of carrot and rambudon fruit to look like a turtle with eggs.

Suvit is a fascinating man. He is up every morning by 5:30 a.m., and on the go throughout the day. The energy of his sparkling eyes radiate outward from under his baseball cap, atop his khaki shirt, jeans and gumboots. When the workday is over, he exchanges his boots for a pair of sandals. He never seems too busy for a conversation, of which we had many hours with him. He remembers coming to what is now his property when he was a child and walking through the old growth teak forest. By the time that he returned when he was 30 and bought the land, the teak forest was all gone. By then he had completed university in the Philippines, getting a degree in architecture, and was teaching this subject in one of the universities in Chiangmai. Over the next 15 years he developed an orchard until he was able to retire from the university and run his farm on a full time basis. He uses natural means to grow healthy trees. Various types of trees are interspersed with each other so that harmful insects do not propagate as easily. He allows grass to grow naturally between the trees. Later in each season he will have it cut and then piled around each tree to provide natural fertilizer. His trees are like his children, and he claims to know each tree on his farm.

He is also quite the local historian. One story that sticks out from the time he bought this land were the opium growers. At that time, as in many places in northern Thailand, there were large farms that grew nothing but the opium flower. He remembers hillside people walking down the road past his gate with huge sacks on their pack filled with the picked opium. They would stop to chat and offer him a handful. He never did say what he did with this gift, and in politeness, we didn’t ask. Most of the opium is gone now, although he says there are still some areas off the beaten track that still grow it. He invited us to come back in May or June, when the flowers are blossoming, and he would show us where they are growing. From what we have heard, hillsides are covered in magnificent colours; it must be quite the sight.

Suvit takes great pride in maintaining his land as a natural preserve. He is deeply saddened by much of the destruction of the environment that he sees around Thailand, such as the disappearance of natural teak forests. He told us a heartbreaking story of a beautiful butterfly, which was called the Tiger of Chiang Dao, because it had the markings similar to a tiger and only lived in this region. The Japanese offered the economically poor villagers a high price to capture this butterfly, probably as much as they would normally earn in an entire month, and now this beautiful creature has become extinct.


On the other hand, he is proud of the villagers who fought against the proposal by the prime minister to develop a cable car to the top of the mountain. Apparently the he had come up to this area and had wanted to go to the peak, but wasn’t willing to spend two days hiking up and down. Right now there are government regulations that only give 200 people a year permits to climb the mountain. The villagers have been able to maintain this status quo that will continue to protect the delicate balance of nature on the mountain. Suvit, himself, was offered a huge sum of money to sell a portion of his land to a developer, but he turned it down with the statement “I don’t know what my wife and I would spend that much money on!” Behind the statement was the recognition that there was nothing that money could buy that would give them more than what they already had by living on their beautiful land. After all, how many pairs of gumboots could he possibly store in his closet.

Suvit and Sriboot are an example of people who can combine a love for preserving nature with running a successful business. They have approximately 10,000 mango trees alone, each bearing up to 100 fruit a season. In order to get a higher price for his produce, he exports them to Malaysia and Singapore. Fruits for export need to be of a higher quality. In order to protect the skin of the mangoes from being damaged by fruit flies, he has them individually wrapped with newspaper. Imagine having up to a million pieces of fruit wrapped in newspaper! About 15 years ago he also bought some cleared land not too far from his farm, on which he planted about 40,000 teak trees. While they will be cut down in several years, he will replant trees again for the future.

This morning, Suvit offered to drive us to a natural hot spring about two and a half kilometres away. We climbed into a small old jeep without doors or any other convenience. Lucy sat up front in the open cab, while I balanced on a log on the small flatbed behind. As he drove off he shouted over the shifting gears that this was an American army jeep that was used during the Vietnam War. (The Americans had a number of mega airfields in Thailand from which B-52’s would regularly take off to drop their 750-pound bombs on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.) As we bounced up his long gravel driveway, I couldn’t help but wonder what this jeep had seen in the past. I also couldn’t help but chuckle at how this beautifully peaceful man had transformed this jeep into a companion for on his organic farm.

We drove along a small road past other orchards and farms, with the thick natural jungle never far away. Everything was green and thick with dampness, as only a tropical environment on the edge of a jungle can be. So much of this land was still unspoiled, or developed in very simple ways. For the moment, progress has been kept at bay in this beautiful paradise.

We approached our destination and climbed out. We were at the foot of the mountain. Up ahead was a closed gate to a bird and wildlife research sanctuary. Suvit told us that people come from all over the world to see unusual birds that migrate in the winter from China and Mongolia to only this area. Coming out of the earth was a natural hot spring that had been diverted with plastic pipes into several large cement rings for sitting in. The excess hot water emptied into a river, several meters downhill. About 10 meters down the river a cold stream emptied into the river, complete with a small waterfall that one could sit under. What a treat! After deliciously soaking in the hot tub, we sat under a waterfall to cool down, all the while looking up at the jungle on the opposite bank.

We couldn’t image a better retreat. We will have to return again when the noise, pollution and traffic of Chaingmai get to us. Its good to know that there are places like Yang Tone Farm Stay on this on earth where gentle people like Suvit and Sriboot tend to the earth and the fruit she bears. Blossoming under these branches, we found a state of peace in our hearts and minds. (If you are interested, you can check out their website at: www.yangtonefarmstay.com).

Over breakfast our last morning here, the tune ‘life is but a dream’ kept bouncing around in my head. We often try to distinguish between reality and dreaming, but is this not really just a false dichotomy? I imagine that the inventor of the paper clip must have initially dreamt of finding a better way of holding paper together, and then used his or her ingenuity to turn it into a real product that most of the world now uses. Do not all physical objects, works of art, explorations, profound relationships, new discoveries, etc. all come from daring to allow the dreams of our hearts, souls and minds to see the light of day?

So, is terrorism real? It is for those who dream up ways of creating violence and fear, and then unfortunately, it becomes a real nightmare for those who fall victim to it. What frightens me so much is that we allow the Osama bin Ladens and George Bushes of this world to define their dreams as reality and then impose them on us.

For the past two days, we were honoured to enter the very real environment of two beautiful elders, Suvit and Sriboot Chootiwat, who seemed to derive so much pleasure in sharing their shining dreams with others. What could be a more fitting way of honouring the horrors of September 11th? Rather than dreaming of fighting terror and violence with more of the same, we could come away with the dream of peace, harmony and beauty, and know that this dream not only has the potential to be transformed into reality, but also know that it has the power to spread, one person and one dream at a time.