Remember the Hummingbird Prologue

 

The rocky province of Xieng Khouang was the heart of the Hmong homeland in Laos.  Every morning before the roosters’ crow, thick smoke clouds squeezed through the cracks of thatched-roof huts and swirled toward the kingdom between Earth and heaven.  Cool breezes blew through the serenity of the morning and gently unraveled the grey smokes.  Once the golden celestial star splendidly gazed over the precious brown earth, shades of green painted themselves on the lush hillsides where Hmong villages laid.  The sounds of birds chirping, squirrels chucking, water falling gracefully, and flowers blooming to welcome a new, hopeful day could be heard miles away within the tranquil and wondrous hills.  That was before the war. 

Now, five years after the American soldiers withdrew from Southeast Asia, the mountainous terrains were no longer the same.  The once crystal clear blue sky transformed into a smoky grey heaven, an after effect of massive bombings.  The green shades vanished as they were devoured by the intensive fires introduced by the enemy.  The birds stopped singing, the squirrels stopped chattering, the water fell turbulently, and the flowers refused to bloom as darkness overwhelmed the rocky mountains of Xieng Khouang.  Even the ghostly past of the mysterious Plain of Jars seemed to have been disturbed and awakened by war and annihilation on Northeastern Laos.  But within these five years, one thing did remain the same.  And that was the quietness of the mountainsides.

While many Hmong refugees journeyed by foot and died along the trip or consumed by the Mekong River to try to escape to neighboring Thailand, others returned to their old villages—attempting to resume the life disrupted by the Secret War.  The memory of lost love ones lingered around and life became much more painful than the Hmong remembered.  But they could not abandon a millennium old lifestyle and struggled to find meanings to live on.  Gradually, they instilled life upon the land and brought back the colors and sounds of nature.  


Author: TT Vang