BY JAN HAAG
PI MAI/PHI MAI
5-22-00/11/22/01
This morning's NET says you don't exist.
One of those dreadful Microsoft-only systems
set up solely for e-commerce, it knows nothing
of history, art, literature, nothing of the world,
It denies other languages, Westernizes and Commerce-izes
Everything.
Your
Importance, your immortality denied,
nonetheless, for an instant, I
see
you,
Phimai,
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."
By October 22, 2001 this reference from BackpackAisa has disappeared from
the NET, I'll find
another.
Phimai
Sanctuary by Peter J. Burns
Though written for the tourist, this tells some of Phimai's history --
toward the bottom.
The Net does not fail me.
Chenla is an early name for
Cambodia.
PHIMAI
Copyright © 2001 Jan Haag
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Jan Haag may be reached via e-mail: jhaag@u.washington.edu
BY JAN HAAG