Japan Finds Story of Hope in Undertaker Who Offered Calm Amid Disaster

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KAMAISHI, Japan -- Amid the grief of finding her mother’s body at a makeshift morgue in this tsunami-ravaged city last March, Fumie Arai took comfort in a small but surprising discovery. Unlike the rest of the muddied body, her mother’s face had been carefully wiped clean.

<< A memorial in Koriyama, Japan, on Saturday was one of many to mark the March 11, 2011, quake and tsunami. More Photos »
Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Atsushi Chiba used Buddhist rituals in caring for nearly 1,000 bodies in Kamaishi. “It's a way to comfort the living,” he said. More Photos »

Mrs. Arai did not know at the time, but the act was the work of a retired undertaker well-versed in the ancient Buddhist rituals of preparing the dead for cremation and burial. The undertaker, Atsushi Chiba, a father of five who cared for almost 1,000 bodies in Kamaishi, has now become an unlikely hero in a community trying to heal its wounds a year after the massive earthquake and tsunami that ravaged much of Japan’s northeastern coast a year ago Sunday.

“I dreaded finding my mother’s body, lying alone on the cold ground among strangers,” Mrs. Arai, 36, said. “When I saw her peaceful, clean face, I knew someone had taken care of her until I arrived. That saved me.”

As Japan marks one year since the quake and tsunami that claimed almost 20,000 lives in the northeastern region of Tohoku, stories like these are being told and retold as mementos of hope even as Japan struggles through what is expected to be an effort lasting decades to rebuild the region.

Mr. Chiba’s story has been immortalized in a best-selling book in Japan, which has sold over 40,000 copies and is in its eleventh printing.

“The dead bodies are the most disturbing aspect of any disaster, and some people might not want to remember,” said the book’s author, Kota Ishii, who spent three months in Kamaishi and its environs in the wake of the disaster, chronicling Mr. Chiba’s work. “But this story is ultimately about how small acts of kindness can bring a little humanity, even in a tragedy that defies all imagination.”

The 30-foot waves that struck Kamaishi shortly after the magnitude 9.0 quake on March 11 spared the white statue of Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy, which looks out to sea from the hills above the city. But the waves destroyed the liveliest parts of the city, the bars and restaurants frequented by the area’s fishermen.

As the black water receded, rescuers entered the city’s devastated streets and started pulling the dead from the rubble, carrying them on trucks to a vacant middle school that had escaped damage. The rundown gymnasium quickly became a large morgue.

Mr. Chiba, in his early 70s, whose home was also spared, raced to the gym on the day after the tsunami to look for friends and family, but was struck by the state of the mounting number of bodies there. Most were still clad in muddy clothes and wrapped in plastic, their rigid limbs jutting out and faces bruised by debris and contorted in agony.

“I thought that if the bodies were left this way, the families who came to claim them wouldn’t be able to bear it,” Mr. Chiba said Thursday in an interview. “Yes, they are dead. But in Japan, we treat the dead with respect, as if they are still alive. It’s a way to comfort the living.”

Mr. Chiba set to work. He became a fixture at the morgue, speaking to the bodies as he prepared them for viewing and then cremation. “You must be so cold and lonely, but your family is going to come for you soon so you’d better think of what you’re going to say to them when they arrive,” he recalled saying.

He also taught city workers at the morgue how to soothe limbs tense with rigor mortis, getting down on his knees and gently massaging them so the bodies looked less contorted. When the relatives of a middle-aged victim sobbed that her corpse looked gaunt, Mr. Chiba asked for some makeup and applied rouge and blush.

Mr. Chiba’s attempts to honor the dead quickly caught on. City workers put together old school desks to make a Buddhist altar. They lay the bodies of couples and of family members together. Each time a body was carried out, workers lined up with heads bowed to pay their last respects.

And at Mr. Chiba’s urging, Kamaishi became one of the only hard-hit communities to cremate all of its dead as called for by Japanese custom, enlisting the help of crematoriums as far as Akita, over 100 miles away.

In all, 888 of Kamaishi’s approximately 40,000 residents are known to have died; 158 more are listed as missing and presumed dead.

The disaster has been a major blow to the already declining fortunes of the city, whose steel industry thrived during the 1960s and 1970s but has been shrinking ever since. The tsunami laid waste to half the city, and a year later, streets in the worst-hit neighborhoods are still lined with the shells of buildings and empty plots.

As the city prepared this weekend for memorials to mark the disaster’s first anniversary, a Buddhist priest paid tribute to Mr. Chiba’s contribution to the city’s emotional recovery.

The priest, Enou Shibasaki, from the Senjuin Temple in the hills overlooking Kamaishi, remembers the change that came over the makeshift morgue as Mr. Chiba and city workers tended to the bodies.

“Whether you are religious or not, mourning for the dead is a fundamental need,” Mr. Shibasaki said. “Mourning starts by taking care of the body. It’s the last you see of your loved one, and you want to remember them as beautiful as they were in life.”

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What I Saw Outside the Dalai Lama’s House

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Speakeasy reporter Barbara Chai is traveling to Dharamsala, India, this week for a private audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Dhramsala, India -- After a marathon flight, we finally arrive in Dharamsala, home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I won’t lie: the first few hours are a bit of a blur because I am mentally and physically exhausted.

<< The view of the Dhauladhar Himalayas from just outside the Dalai Lama’s residence.

Add to that my attempts to heed the advice given by everyone I spoke to about traveling to India: It’s a lovely country but don’t drink the water, don’t take ice, don’t order salads, don’t eat from street stalls. Then when we take a walk, there are enormous cows and honking minivans and beeping scooters to contend with on a narrow dirt road. It’s charming and jarring in the best way - I’m just saying, it’s a lot to take in at first.

But after the most glorious night’s sleep in the peace of Kashmir Cottage - a guesthouse owned and run by the brother and sister-in-law of His Holiness the Dalai Lama - I’m more than good to go. We venture out after breakfast to find the Dalai Lama’s residence up a steep, rocky path behind the cottage.

There are monks and pilgrims circumnavigating his residence on the kora, or walking meditation path, which includes a breathtaking stupa, miles of prayer wheels, and mani stones - rocks that are inscribed with the mantra, “Om mani padme hum,” which means “Praise to the Jewel in the Lotus.” This is the mantra of Chenrezig (Sanskrit name: Avalokiteshvara), the bodhisattva, or Buddhist deity, of compassion. Tibetan Buddhists believe His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the earthly manifestation of Chenrezig. A man who is the reincarnation of a deity of compassion.

When we practice Chan Buddhism at home, my family and I pray to the same bodhisattva (we envisage her as female, even though this bodhisattva’s gender can vary with different schools). In Chinese her name is Guanshiyin Pusa and she is our goddess of compassion. I chant her name and turn the beads. I pray to her for protection and mercy. To me, Guanshiyin is Buddhism.

So, to encounter Tibetan Buddhists’ fervent devotion to the same bodhisattva, and to learn that they regard their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, as its earthly manifestation, seems entirely fitting. At the same time, even though we’re talking about the same religion, Tibetan Buddhism is still very different from Chan Buddhism in practice, and so an immediate connection to such an important Buddhist deity for both of us also seems coincidental.

As if I needed another reason, I am now even more excited about meeting His Holiness the Dalai Lama in person. How to regard him as just that, a person? Because he is human too. His face is on photographs all over Dharamsala, and I see His Holiness as a young man arriving to India in 1959. I see His Holiness petting cute dogs. I see His Holiness wearing a visor to protect his eyes from the sun. He likes to give hugs. He doesn’t suffer fools. Above all, he is kind. Maybe all of this is what is meant by being human, by being earthly.

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Japanese monk guards remains of tsunami unknown

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YAMAMOTO, Japan -- Hundreds of the 19,000 people killed by Japan's horrific quake-tsunami remain unmourned, their bodies never claimed because there is no one left to notice they have gone.

<< Buddhist monk Ryushin Miyabe offering prayers in front of urns with ashes and bones of tsunami victims at the Myokoin Temple in Yamamoto. Photo courtesy: AFP

But one Buddhist monk has lovingly stored the ashes and bones of some of those whose names no one knows in the hope that one day they can be reunited with their families.

Every day for the last year, Ryushin Miyabe has offered prayers and lit incense for the souls in his care at the Myokoin temple in Yamamoto, a small town on Japan's tsunami-wrecked coast.

In late January he was finally able to hand over the remains of a five-year-old boy, known until then only as "No. 906", when the child's grandmother was identified through DNA tests.

The young corpse had been cremated in June after coastguards found it floating in the Pacific without any belongings, washed out to sea by the tsunami of March 11 that tore into the coast.

The grandmother told Miyabe that the boy's mother had also been killed in the catastrophe and she had been searching for her grandson's body for nearly a year.

With the boy's remains back with a family member, his spirit can pass into the next world, says Miyabe.

"I guess the boy has met his mother in heaven by now," he said. "She must have told him: 'Hey, you are late!'"

Buddhist tradition dictates that a body is cremated and the ashes are placed in an urn, along with the bones that remain.

The urn is put in a family grave, which Japanese traditionally believe to be the gateway to the next world, one through which souls can return every year during the summer festival of Obon.

The grave must be cared for by surviving family, who in return, expect spiritual protection from their deceased relatives.

Nationwide, 500 bodies recovered after the huge waves swept ashore have still not been identified, and more than 3,000 of those who died have never been found.

At one point Miyabe was looking after the ashes of 30 people, their remains entrusted to him by authorities overwhelmed by the number of people who perished.

After the five-year-old was reunited with his family, Miyabe's temple has only one small jar left.

"I will continue holding vigil, praying for the earliest return of the ashes to the victim's family who must be desperately trying to find the body," Miyabe said.

The majority of those who died in the tsunami were identified before being cremated and their families wanted full funeral rites.

Mortician Ruiko Sasahara prepared more than 300 often badly damaged bodies at makeshift morgues in tsunami-hit coastal towns, to allow relatives to bid their farewells.

As well as making funeral arrangements, morticians in Japan clean, dress and apply cosmetics to bodies in an effort to make them look as much like they did when they were alive as possible.

"My job is to help prepare the dead for their departure to heaven," Sasahara said at her office in Kitakami, 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the tsunami coast.

The practice, which is fading in bigger cities but remains fairly common in rural areas, came to worldwide attention in 2009 when "Departures" won an Oscar for its depiction of an out of work cellist who becomes a mortician in small town Japan.

Many of the bodies that Sasahara was called upon to patch up were in bad condition.

"I'd never seen bodies in such a state -- many of them smelled of decay, there was a lot of maggot damage and some of them were partial skeletons," she said.

But she knew that families desperately needed to be able to say their goodbyes and even resorted to using clippings from her own hair to remake eyelashes and eyebrows.

Sasahara said the process of repair is vital to protect the dignity of the dead and to ease the pain of those left behind.

"Many of the bereaved blame themselves for failing to save their loved ones," she said.

"When they once again see the smile of the person they lost, I think many people can feel they have been forgiven."

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International Buddhist Film Festival (IBFF) 2012 sold out in Hong Kong

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Hong Kong, China -- The opening night at the International Buddhist Film Festival (IBFF) 2012 was sold out at the new Asia Society Hong Kong Center. This is the inaugural event at the Asia Society's Miller Theater.

Director Edward Burger flew in from his home in Hanoi to present the Asia premiere of his "Amongst White Clouds", a feature documentary about Chinese hermit monks, filmed on location in China.

A dozen more programs are scheduled over the next week, all either Asia or Hong Kong premieres, several of which are already sold out.

This year marks the 10th the tenth anniversary season of the International Buddhist Film Festival, and new film festivals are set for Hong Kong, London, and Bangkok in 2012.

“We’ve screened several hundred films from submissions, archival research and invitations. These include dramas, comedies, documentaries and animated works from over a dozen countries,” said Gaetano Kazuo Maida, IBFF Executive Director.

“In each city we will be presenting compelling new selections of the best Buddhist cinema together with some wonderful guests—it’s world cinema with a Buddhist touch.”

IBFF 2012 HONG KONG is one of several inaugural year events at the brand-new Asia Society Hong Kong Center, including a major art exhibition, "Transforming Minds: Buddhism in Art", February 10-May 20, 2012, curated by Dr. Melissa Chiu with co-curators Dr. Adriana Proser and Dr. Miwako Tezuka.

Encore screenings of all the films will be presented through May 12, with a special Vesak Day weekend presentation of David Grubin’s The Buddha, April 28/29 and May 3.

For a list of movies premiering at IBFF Hong Kong, please visit:
http://www.buddhistfilmfoundation.org/events/ibff-begins-10th-anniversary-season-in-hong-kong/

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German scholars to visit major Buddhist sites

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HYDERABAD, India -- A group of scholars from Wurzburg varsity, Germany are keen to do some project work on development of Buddhist sites and monuments in the state.

The group headed by Ingo Strauch, chair of Indology, and comprising Casen Dreyer, Britta Schneider and Anke Sanger, visited the office of the director of archaeology and museums and helddiscussions with director P Chenna Reddy on the matter.

Chenna Reddy said the scholars, who had been teaching Buddhism at the German university for several years, were interested in visiting the Buddhist sites at Thotlakonda, Bavikonda, Pavuralakonda, Salihundam, Sankaram in north Andhra, and Phanigiri in Nelakondapalli in Telangana.

They will also visit Chandavaram in Prakasam district and Nagarjunakonda in Guntur district to study the distribution of Buddhist settlements across the state and their development from Theravada School of Philosophy to Vajrayana School of Philosophy up to the medieval times as noticed at Salihundam in north Andhra and Dhanyakataka (Amaravati) in Guntur district.

Chenna Reddy explained the steps taken by the state government to develop Buddhist sites and monuments as major tourist destinations.

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Buddhist-influenced waka poems are focus of lecture

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KALAMAZOO, MI (USA) --The waka poets of medieval Japan and their work will be examined later this month when a Japanese scholar visits Western Michigan University.

Dr. Stephen Miller, assistant professor of Japanese language and literature at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, will speak about the poets and the intersection of their work with Buddhism at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 22, in Room 3025 of Brown Hall. His presentation, titled "The Wind from Vulture Peak: Japanese Buddhist Poetry and the Heian Aesthetic," is free and open to the public.

Miller is regarded as an expert on medieval waka poetry, a genre of classical Japanese verse and one of the major genres of Japanese literature during the Heian period from 794 to 1185. In his presentation, he will explain how and why the Japanese poets of the Heian period utilized the 31-syllable form of waka poems to speak about the topic of Buddhism, as well as the problems of compiling and translating these poems into English.

Miller's book, "The Wind from Vulture Peak: The Buddhification of Japanese Waka in the Heian Period," is forthcoming from the Cornell East Asia Series in 2012. He has also published translations and edited a collection of Japanese literature about same-sex love and eroticism called "Partings at Dawn."

Miller's visit is sponsored by the WMU Soga Japan Center, the foreign languages and comparative religion departments and the Haenicke Institute for Global Education.

For more information, contact Dr. Jeffrey Angles, associate professor of foreign languages, at jeffrey.angles@wmich.edu or (269) 387-3044.

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Buddhist values more relevant today

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Timphu, Bhutan -- Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, a prominent tulku associated with Dzongsar Monastery in Derge, Eastern Tibet and also a renowned filmmaker and writer, shares his wisdom on issues that relates to our daily world.

Where do you see our central monastic body heading towards 30-50 years from now?

This is something that we have to really think about.  You need vision. It’s a very big gamble. I have seen monasteries in India, China and Bhutan and I tell them to really think about admitting girls and changing the curriculum. I am not a big fan of the education system that exists today in this world. Do you know that some of the most successful people in the world and Bhutan are all school dropouts?

I have been sort of saying that we should really think dramatically and change it drastically. But you are talking to devotees, to people who are stuck with morality and values. It’s really tough. Yes, I will tell bravely, that I can see, our dratshangs, judging from what’s happening, 50 years from now on, there will probably be only 50 monks.

Having said that, there is a lot of encouraging signs also, like young people I have met who say they want to become a monk but feel guilty because their parents have spent so much. How encouraging for the spiritual world. This is what we should bank on.

Should we allocate more resources towards spreading teachings than proliferating Buddhist infrastructure?

I don’t know whether, “we”, this democratic Bhutan, systematically develop the infrastructure of Buddha dharma. But I would strongly say that Buddhist values, wisdom and message are certainly very relevant today more than ever. It is something I don’t think we should lose because this can happen. I see sometimes, many of the younger Bhutanese are beginning to have some interest in Buddhism because all these chilips are beginning to have some interest. That’s not so good. I always say this, that Mahatma Gandhi who is known for non-violence got the idea from foreigners who got the same idea from Indians. So this could happen to you.  You could be learning Buddhism from some John.

Will anarchy alleviate all sufferings because it seems the foundation of all sufferings is a result of a society, its rules and perceptions.

I have always said that the biggest contribution to the world from the west is not science or technology. It’s anarchism. But this I say half jokingly. The thing is, we human beings are such a sucker to rules. We love rules. I don’t think we have the courage and wisdom to live with anarchism. So it’s not going to work. I think its good to, since we will not know how to live with lawlessness, might as well live with some law, even though it’s really not good.

If trulkus are reincarnations of former masters, why do they have to be subjected through exhaustive re-education process?

That is if only they go through all these exhausting training these days. They don’t even do that now. Trulkus are just pretending that they have to go through all these.  After all they are trulku, trulba, which means show magic, drama, exhibition.

Rinpoche’s comments on religion divides people.

It doesn’t take much to divide human beings. Religion just happens to be a very good device. This religion has created lot of chaos and havoc but I have to say that religion has also answered lot of personal quests. When we say religion, are we talking about some kind of a systematic religion or a spiritual path?

Spiritual path is different. It’s necessary, like songs, romance and poetry. Romance from the mathematic, scientific point of view, is just so ridiculous. But it gives some kind of a solace and religion is or especially the spiritual path has so many profound answers to many of the budding questions that we have.

Gomchens say its korzey when they perform prayers and also receive payment. Aren’t they paid for their work like any one of us?

When this gomchen says its korzey, is he being humble? There is a little bit of negative connotation when you say korzey. I really wish these gomchens and gelongs know wholeheartedly that devotees offering money or gifts or service, even a short bow, is kor, which basically is karmic debt. And if you don’t perform your job well, it will haunt you, rather go through the consequences.

I don’t know whether it should be considered like a normal wage, probably not. Although, I am sure within 20 years, if the religious aspect of Buddhism is still thriving in Bhutan, I can already see sort of hotlines for rimdos and gomchens. Like dial 8888 for rimdo.

Is there anything as black magic or nyen in Buddhism?

In Buddhism the most important is the wisdom of non-duality. Rest, methods, anything is fine. Mahayana Buddhism has infinite methods of dealing with people. Generally you’ll never find black magic in the sutras and sastras. There’s none. Actually there are only three that Mahayana Buddhists are not supposed to have – covetousness, harmful thinking, and wrong view. Other than that, anything can be the path.

Why is it that sometimes the more we practice dharma the more pain one goes through, where as the more negative act one commits, the more successful they become?

There is a prayer where Jigme Lingpa says, “Buddhists and Bodhisattvas, please make sure that what ever I want never happens.” Buddhist blessings, he said is when 100 things that you wish never come true but 1,000 things that you dare not wish come true. That’s Buddha’s blessing. So I would say, if you are a serious dharma practitioner, you are fulfilling your wish when things are going wrong. You are seeing the truth, actualising it and when that is happening, you should see it as a blessing. Next time when things are going wrong, go home and throw a big party.

How do wangs, prayers and mantras work?

Wang actually is like lets say, you had amnesia, forgot your name and whereabouts. Then somebody says, you are from Paro and your name is Dorji. You wake up because we have all forgotten our true identity, which is the Buddha.

On the more relative level, if you are a Buddhist, this is something you must know. Buddha dharma is probably the only system, only path that wholeheartedly and completely embraces the system of cause, condition and effect. So in this way, Buddhism is very scientific. Everything depends on cause, condition and effect. And cause and condition are endless.

Some ask me how Buddhist karma works because some do lots of prayers and are not successful while some kill and steal and are still successful. You know this unpredictability of karma. I can tell you karma is basically a science of cause and condition. These advanced scientists today can’t predict tomorrow’s or this afternoon’s weather, how can we ignorant, limited beings predict the complex situation of cause, condition and effect. But one thing we know is that nothing emerges out of the blue. And as Buddhists, we don’t believe that things are created by god, so prayers, blessings, are or could be part of those intricate, complex of cause, condition and effect.

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