The Chinese population in Singapore is the largest.  Their spirituality tends to center on reverence for their family and their ancestry.   During the month of the “hungry ghost,” Chinese burned fake money (or as they would say hell note)s and other things to honor their family or all who have gone before.  You would see barrels for burning and altars with food and incense all along the streets.   During Chinese New Year, most Chinese return to their families, and the streets of Singapore are deserted.  Many shops and restaurants are closed for one to three days.  On that holiday the older members of the family give gifts of money to all the younger generations.   It is important to give big bucks to save face and bring good luck.

The importance of ancestry came home to me in a conversation with a Singaporean female friend.  Her family left southern China during the diaspora when many fled to escape food and work shortages.   Many followed the trade winds and settled in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.  My friend, Chialee, with a number of her cousins returned to the village of her mother’s family.  They found an ancestral hall belonging to her family.  She learned that her mother’s older brother, a very successful businessman pressed all the related rich family especially in Indonesia to send money back to the village to support the ancestral hall.  They met a distant cousin who cared for the hall.  He took them on a tour of the building. 

 My friend offered the following notes to make sure that my description is more accurate.:

In the hall, there was an altar with two tablets, with the names on the altar.  On one side were the names of the living members of the family; on the other side were the names of the one who had died.  The two tablets (more like columns) state the family values. The one on the right speaks about the importance of education, the one on the left speaks of the importance of filial piety.

But they also double up to determine generational names for the family. The paired words (one from each tablet) are adopted by each generation in naming of children. So the first generation would use the first word on either side in their names. The word on the left side – for the name in life, and the word on the right for the name in death ( on the altar name plate and the grave marker). The word in life would be used in the first part of a usually two word name; for example, my name is Chia Lee. Chia is the generational name in life and Lee a name given to me. All my siblings and cousins on my father’s side of the family would be named Chia something. So if there is a family gathering, anyone with a Chia in their name, I would know is from my generation. Similarly any one with the generational name above Chia would likely be an aunt or uncle. Although in more traditional families, this practice is only applied to males because the females all marry (out) to other families and are considered lost.

It used to be that each child born and named would have its name written in a book kept in the ancestral hall. Both books in my family have sadly disappeared.

Even more tragic is that this is now not practiced much. I believe this was one the practices the Cultural Revolution destroyed. Many Chinese born in the sixties in China have only one-word names.

To Moslems, Christians, and Jews who focus their reverence on a god who created and oversees all, this kind of spirituality is hard to understand because it does not fit their worldview.  

Kauai

Kauai is the older island in the Hawaiian chain.  The hot spot left it many thousands of years ago as the land mass has marched toward the west at the pace of 6 miles per year.  An extinct volcano forms the core of the island with ridges that run across the island at an angle.  The only major roads are along the shore.  People live near the shore, along the river valleys and on the shoulders of the mountain.  We were on the wet side of the island.  The other side is drier. 

We have stayed in a rented semi apartment in someone’s home.   A young man named Eli has returned to his father’s 3 acre plot to turn it into a permaculture heaven – shades of my days at the Pendle Hill garden.   He and his buddies were off skydiving before we arrived and kayaking under the full moon.  Joni would have loved their adventurous spirits and asked to go with them.  It is a quiet low pressure place, just right for rest and enjoy.

Hawaiians are Polynesian and came to Hawaii between 500 and 1000 years ago.  Missionaries settled here in the early 1800’s and acquired a lot of land.  Their children tuned the land into sugar plantations and got rich.  Once sugar cane was no longer profitable, another mono-crop, pineapple, was introduced.  The pineapple in particular demanded heavy pesticide use and some land here is still unusable.

Whites have not been nice to Hawaii.   Probably the most damaging long term problems are the introduction of plant and animal species and the loss of habitat.  The state bird, the nene goose, has declined for two primary reasons.  The mongoose was introduced in some of the islands (not Kauai) to control rats in the sugar cane.  Without predators, they have multiplied and eat both the geese and their eggs.  Second, the imported grasses which have invaded the open land lack nutrition and some geese have starved to death.

The government is creating controlled habitat for birds that depend on native grasses for their survival.  This valley has artificial ponds developed with plants to feed the birds.  When the imported grasses intrude, they dig out the pond and redo it.  It is a huge project..  You can see some of the ponds below. 

The trade routes to Asia traveled through these islands.  The ships  This lighthouse was built by the US in the early 1900’s.   Along the cliffs on either side are wild fowl refuge.   We saw one rookery nearby for the red footed coot.  In the distance we saw a sperm whale as it began its journey to Alaska.

would restock food and water for the last long voyage.

There is a river valley just south of where we are staying that is sacred to the Hawaiians.  There are several broad expanses of river bottom that would have been quite fertile.   The Hawaiian royalty had a temple above the river valley where they probably performed rituals.  A birthing rock is in another clearing above the valley.  The expectant mother would lean against the rock to give birth.  All royal children were born here.  There is a flat stone in front of it where a goat would be sacrificed.  If rats carried off the goat, the loss was considered bad luck for the child.

In the 1830’s, the Hawaiian religion was banned in the islands.  It survived in pockets, through their language and culture and as a substructure of their Christianity.  Today there are US laws to protect all native religions.  

Higher up the same river valley and 70 years ago, a Hindu priest had a vision for building a monastery.   Peggy’s friend, David, took us there to visit. 

This banyan tree was planted at the beginning of the monastery.  Banyan have a unique trait.  Their branches send down roots which then become trees themselves.  The tree could endlessly extend itself out in all directions.  The center tree could die, but its babies continue to spread.  This tree and its children extend out probably over 40 feet.  A path between the trunks leads to a central space for meditation.  The energy here is unbelievably fine. 

A small, active temple graces the grounds with a very large quartz crystal in the center.  The monastery sits on a bluff overlooking a bend in the river.  There are falls just before a large pool of water.  David said that the pool had been a lava tube when the volcano was active.  The tube is now filled with water.  It is so deep, they have never found the bottom. 

There are two birds here that interest me.  The red created cardinal is an import from South America.   The other is the common chicken.  Some years ago a chick farm lost its livestock.  With no predators except cats and rats, they have flourished.  You find them everywhere.  We wake up to the dueling crowing roosters in the woods.

I have been in Hawaii for the past 10 days on two very different islands.   I arrived in Honolulu to have one overnight before my friend, Peggy, arrived.  We went to the big island, Hawaii.  It is the newest of these volcano-based islands.  The  “hot spot” in the oceanic plate that creates the volcanic activity has moved 6 miles per year to create first Kauai and then successively the other islands.  The island of Hawaii is over the volcanic activity for the moment.  Hence, there are two active volcanoes on the island.  There is always a threat of lava flow from the older and less active volcano and from the younger, smaller and more active one.  We saw the consequences of living on the edge of new creation.

Our first stop on the journey was a yoga retreat center.  Peggy had asked and I had agreed to stay there.  I don’t practice yoga, but I loved the idea of staying in the jungle and enjoying the quiet of a more meditative place.  Unfortunately, the pictures gave us a more rosy view of the place than really existed.  In my 20’s and 30’s, I would have loved this place.  In my 70’s, it lacked too many creature comforts – a comfortable bed, access to internet, complete isolation from the outside world.  The food was great.   The people were interesting. 

One of the most interesting natural phenomena was the volcanic activity in the area.  The area around the retreat center is one of the newer areas of growth from lava flow.  Lava on the island has two types, one is sharp ah-ah and the other is smoother and easier to walk on.  You can see layers upon layers of outflow along the edges of the cliffs.  There are a few accessible “black sand” beaches.  The lava had flowed over a town near the yoga center last year burying 30 houses.  It came right up to the edge of a recycle center.  This picture shows the lava in the background.

Sunrise from the Yoga Retreat Center

Interestingly, people are rebuilding their homes back on top of the lava flow.  Someone explained to us that the families were allowed to rebuild by the government and could live on the plot for $25 per year.  I wondered at the mindset that allowed people to take nature’s expression as a given in their world.  Plants return to the lava area beginning with the small ferns and gradually the trees.  Until that happens, I would think that the black lava  will be hot to live on.  Interestingly, with the outflow, they now have an absolutely fabulous view of the ocean.

We moved to town for the second two days, rented a car, and saw something of the island.  I in particular wanted to see Volcano Park located at the caldron of the smaller, more active volcano.  It was suggested to visit late in the day to get the best view.  The volcano last exploded out of the caldron in the 1980’s when it threw boulders the size of refrigerators over the landscape.  It obliterated the former observation site that was quite close.  Now the observation deck is 2 miles away.  You can see the wider shell of cinders from the caldron, but you have to wait until after dark to see the glow from the gases escaping from the caldron.  Most of the lava flows from small craters down the side of the volcano and from weaknesses in the ground. 

We made another stop at a great fall.  It was the site of a movie from the 1930 – 1940’s.  The movie, Four Frightened People, was about a group escaping a plague outbreak in Africa and having to overcome animal and people attacks.   The movie company imported trees and plants to make the area look like a “real” rain forest.  They left the imports and many of the new plants are threatening native species.  At the base of the fall they build a stone basin for Claudette Colbert to take a bath.  

Hawaii is the island of orchids.  This opportunistic plant grows wild in the forest on the branches of living and dead trees.  At the retreat center, I found a number of them.  We also stopped at a grower’s store.  The Hawaiian orchids are a different genus than the popular US orchids.  It was an amazing variety.  He had one S. American endangered orchid that he had crossed with a relative to create a new orchid that he was allowed to sell.  (It’s illegal to sell endangered species, but okay to hybridize.  Go figure)   My friend bought six orchids to be sent to her in the states.

On our very last day on the island, we just explored.  We saw some great shore spots.  As we walked the only white beach in the area, we met a family collecting crabs to feed their pet octopus.   I wonder at people's taste in pets.

Indians from south India immigrated to Singapore many generations ago.  During early February every year these Singaporeans pierce their bodies and place jugs of milk on their heads and march all day through Singapore.  They end the procession at a temple near my home.  The people dance and pour milk over a god’s statue.  Part of the milk is saved for people to drink and to absorb the blessings.  This picture shows one participant from the parade.  Wires pierce his body and support the elaborate headdress.  His tongue, nose, arms, and other body parts were pierced.   

Religion is so unique to every culture - what we do, how we do it, what we seek from the experience.  I remember some years ago when I was visiting Mama, I saw a group of men drawing a giant cross on wheels down the sidewalk.  When they saw me looking, they stopped to ask if I was saved.  This parallel could seem offensive to some; but hopefully you can see the personal yearning lying at the root of both actions.