{"id":172791,"date":"2019-03-14T13:36:07","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T13:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=172791"},"modified":"2019-03-14T13:36:07","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T13:36:07","slug":"globetrotting-cyclist-the-purpose-of-the-purpose-and-a-funeral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/03\/14\/globetrotting-cyclist-the-purpose-of-the-purpose-and-a-funeral\/","title":{"rendered":"Globetrotting Cyclist: The Purpose of the Purpose and a Funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sapa (or Sa Pa) is a town in the Ho\u00e0ng Li\u00ean Son Mountains of northwestern Vietnam. Its population is made up mainly of hill tribes, such as the Hmong, Tay and Dao. When Will arrived, the desk clerk at his hotel suggested that he go to a certain temple where his boss, Mr. Quan, was \u201cdoing a Purpose.\u201d<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe place was tiny,\u201d Will McCarthy writes. \u201cMaybe thirty people sitting on the floor and a few benches filled it. It was also gaudy. There were more neon lights than you\u2019d think could fit in such a small space. And the music was so good I assumed it was recorded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The ceremony of Purpose<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Four people were in front of the altar, a priest, who was kneeling and dressed in a bright yellow robe, and three attendants sitting in a semicircle around her. The priest then lit a cigarette and moved her arm, the upper arm straight out to her side, the forearm straight up. \u201cThree right angles, and the cigarette, sticking straight up between her fingers, made a fourth, all in one plane,\u201d Will said. \u201cShe brought the cigarette back to her mouth in one robotic motion, took a drag and then whipped her arm back into the right-angle position and exhaled. She repeated that movement three times and handed the cigarette to one of the attendants, who sat there and finished it without ceremony \u2013 just a guy sitting on the floor having a smoke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prayers were said. Then the helpers took a large red cloth and tossed it up in the air \u2013 \u201cexpertly; they done this before\u201d \u2013 so that it landed with the priest\u2019s head in its exact centre and the cloth draped around her body. \u201cAs soon as the cloth settled, the priest started to shake, not violently, but close enough. She shook for maybe fifteen seconds, stopped, waited for the cloth to be lifted and stood up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The priest then removed her yellow robe, to reveal a white one with a yellow sash underneath. She then performed a series of movements with two ceremonial short-swords, prayed and then repeated the same movements with two burning torches. \u201cThe movements, a combination of manoeuvres with swords\/torches and dance steps, were graceful enough but not beautiful,\u201d says Will. \u201cThey were efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Here’s the menu at Will\u2019s favorite restaurant in Sapa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the fire dance, the helpers replaced the yellow sash with a red one and over that, a red robe, and the priest repeated the entire ceremony, the cigarette, the swords, all of it, wearing the red sash and robe. Then she repeated it while wearing a blue robe. And then again in a peach-coloured robe and sash.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked the guy sitting next to me how long the ceremony lasted,\u201d Will said. \u201cTwelve hours, he said. That\u2019s why the efficient dancing. At some point I heard a tiny electric crackle that made me realize the music was live. I stood up and saw, in an alcove behind 20 empty cans of Red Bull and a tiny amplifier, two men sitting on the floor, one playing a box drum and the other picking a long-necked two-stringed instrument with a very big circular body.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two people Will asked disagreed on whether the ceremony was Taoist or Buddhist, but both said that \u201cthe purpose of the Purpose\u201d was to atone for sins, and each repetition represents different sins: the sins of the mountain, the sins of the river, and so on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Will followed a funeral procession to the local burial ground.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI left after five robe changes, but I hope they got around to the sins of the fire ant,\u201d Will writes. \u201cI stepped into a swarm of those little fu***rs once. They have so much to be sorry for.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then followed a funeral procession to the local burial ground, and when it arrived at the grave site, the members of the family of the deceased walked around with gifts for everyone in the procession \u2013 even a tourist. The guests were invited to choose one gift from the tray, a piece of candy, a cigarette or a chaw of betel nut. Bill picked betel nut. This turned out to be a bad choice, for several reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like in India, the nut is wrapped in a leaf with a smear of lime paste and something to add flavour,\u201d Will explains. \u201cIn India the flavour enhancer is usually something sweet \u2013 a shard of candy or a bit of fruit. But here it was a too big piece of dried, fermented fish. Not delicious!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The funeral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The other problem was that betel nuts produce prodigious amounts of red saliva in the mouth of the chewer. \u201cSo there I was, a visitor in a foreign country, an uninvited guest at a solemn event, spitting on graves,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m sure my targets were good people, and I meant no harm.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sapa (or Sa Pa) is a town in the Ho\u00e0ng Li\u00ean Son Mountains of northwestern Vietnam. Its population is made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":172805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4142],"tags":[2352,418,2467],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-172791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ride2unite","tag-globetrotting-cyclist","tag-travel","tag-will-mccarthy"],"yoast_head":"\nGlobetrotting Cyclist: The Purpose of the Purpose and a Funeral - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sapa (or Sa Pa) is a town in the Ho\u00e0ng Li\u00ean Son Mountains of northwestern Vietnam. 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