BY JAN HAAG
PI MAI/PHI MAI
5-22-00
The NET this morning
says
you donUt exist.
This is one of those
dreadful
Microsoft-only systems
setup solely for
e-commerce.
It knows nothing of history,
art,
literature,
nothing of the world.
It denies other
languages,
Westernizes and commerce-tizes
Everything.
Your
rightful immortality denied,
nonetheless, for an instant, I see
you
flashing in the background.
It seems you might exist in
German.
And I remember.
The stones.
the grass green,
straggly,
the jungle cut back
the mile-long corridors of chiseled
stone
crossing at right angles,
the silence,
the
loneliness,
the wondering
who built this and why?
I had the
privilege of you,
Pi Mai
Loburi
Sukhothai
Ayuttaya
Ban
Chaing
when I wander through Thailand,
a glimpse of your
history
maybe 7,000 years older than mine.
I return to the
NET
I find it
"Phimai
is home to an ancient Khmer sanctuary.
It
predates the Angkor ruins of Cambodia
and is believed by some
scholars to
have been a model for them."
The
Net
does not fail me.
Chenla is an early name for
Cambodia.
PHIMAI
Copyright © 2000 Jan Haag
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Jan Haag may be reached via e-mail: jhaag@u.washington.edu
BY JAN HAAG