March 2001

In This Issue

INTERVIEW WITH NAMKHAI NYINGPO RINPOCHE

NORTHERN TREASURES

A WEEKEND WITH MATTHIEU RICARD AT SSRC

INTERVIEW WITH VENERABLE TENZIN PALMO

NEWS OF THE PEACE VASE PROJECT

PEACE VASE AT AVARA'ATURI, BOUGAINVILLE

Gentle Voice
Contact Information

PEACE VASE AT AVARA'ATURI, BOUGAINVILLE

I placed this vase on 25 June 2000 with James Makata, a man I have been working with over the past few years. He is a Bougainvillean from a small atoll called Nehan (Nissan) Island that lies between the islands of Buka and New Ireland, east of Papua New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean.

James is a practising Roman Catholic but with a strong belief in the traditional religion and spirituality of his ancestors. I explained the nature of Siddhartha's Intent to James and he was very positive about the prospect of placing the vase. He thought it quite auspicious, especially given that he and his family had just moved to Avara'aturi, which is actually his wife's land.

Avara'aturi is of great traditional significance. To help us conceptualise this aspect of this land, it can be compared to a sacred site according to indigenous Australians. The name Avara'aturi is the name of the spiritual custodian of the land. In spite of the ravishing that the land has endured, it is believed that he still resides there.

However, the sacred value of the land did not prevent it from being given over to Asian interests and a cocoa and copra plantation replaced the jungle. The ten-year war in Bougainville, which was as much a war against inappropriate development as it was a war for independence from Papua New Guinea, ended in a ceasefire signed late in 1997. The war routed the plantation owners as well, of course, as the multinational company that owned the Panguna copper mine, which was the largest man-made hole in the ground in the world when production went into full swing.

Given the terrible war in Bougainville and the specific desecration of Avara'aturi, James was very keen for the powerful universal forces of healing and peace to be invoked. He didn't know the ways of Tibetan Buddhism, but he knew that something essential had to be restored at Avara'aturi. Something sacred and precious had to be given back to the land upon which he would raise his family, to the land that would provide for him and his family in every way, to the land that their survival directly depended upon.

There is a hill that rises out of a flat coastal plain at Avara'aturi, three kilometres from the east coast of Bougainville. Indeed, the hill is Avara'aturi. James knew that this was the place that we would place the vase. At its top there are large boulders and pieces of clay cooking pots that, in the mindless destruction of this sacred place, had been broken and scattered around. These were the only remains of the human ancestors that once lived here. The practice of making and using cooking pots made of clay has been around for millennia. With the death of a few elders in southern Bougainville this ancient practice will also die out in Bougainville. These remnants were a physical sign of the shattered sacredness of this site. In sad silence we gathered together the remains of the clay cooking pots - a broken link between the ancient wisdom of a people that lived in harmony with the environment and the foolishness of the children of the modern time.

James selected the spot where we would dig the hole. At the front of the boulder where we heaped the precious remnants, James dug into the soft soil with his bush-knife. After placing the vase we sat quietly on another boulder and looked out over the jungle.

Phillip Miller