ANTIOCH, California (AP) — For one afternoon, on Antioch’s primary road and tranquil riverbank, the perfume of burning incense was paired with the sound of Buddhist and Tao chants. Their cumulative calming vitality was meant to be a balm of kinds to assuage the racial and non secular hate that solid a shadow on Antioch’s legacy.
Antioch’s darkish previous, particularly its horrific mistreatment of early Chinese language immigrants, motivated about 200 Buddhists to undertake a current pilgrimage to town of about 115,000, tucked deep within the delta that drains into the San Francisco Bay. Their purpose was to supplant the unfavorable with the optimistic by reconciling a dreadful previous and anxiety-filled current — each time durations when Asian Individuals nationwide have confronted hate and discrimination — with the hope for a extra egalitarian and harmonious future.
Within the 1800s, 1000’s of Chinese language immigrants got here to the world in the course of the gold rush to work in mines, and construct railroads and levees. Those that lived in Antioch have been topic to sunset legal guidelines and used secret tunnels to commute to and from work, in keeping with native newspaper reviews. Finally, town’s Chinatown spanning a few metropolis blocks — which additionally housed a Buddhist/Tao temple the place new immigrants congregated — was burned down.
On Saturday, the group of Buddhists gathered for the pilgrimage, an occasion they titled “Might We Collect.” It was deliberately scheduled on the third anniversary of the Atlanta mass capturing when a white gunman focused feminine staff at Asian American therapeutic massage parlors as a result of he noticed them as “sources of temptation.” Six of the eight victims have been girls of Asian descent.
Duncan Williams, a Soto Zen priest of Japanese descent and one of many occasion’s organizers, mentioned the Atlanta killings bore eerie similarity to Antioch in 1876 when raging locals burned down the properties of Chinese language girls branded as intercourse staff. In 2021, Antioch turned the primary U.S. metropolis to difficulty a public apology for the mistreatment of early Chinese language immigrants in the course of the gold rush.
Williams, who is also a faith professor on the College of Southern California, mentioned occasion organizers desired not only a political response, however “a Buddhist response that pulls on our teachings and follow,” which goals to honor ancestors and heal racial trauma, previous and current.
So in Antioch’s El Campanil Theatre, a gathering of Buddhist monks and leaders from throughout the diaspora engaged in a means of “karmic therapeutic.” They supplied chants and prayers on the altar of the thousand-armed Guan Yin, the goddess of mercy and compassion. 4 tablets rested on the altar bearing the names of victims of hate and violence.
The Buddhists in attendance got here from numerous international locations and traditions — Chinese language, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Thai, Tibetan, Indian and Sri Lankan. Holy chants rang out in a number of languages together with Pali, the antiquated language closest to what the Buddha himself spoke.
Grace Music, an ordained minister and a division chair on the Gained Institute of Graduate Research in Warminster, Pennsylvania, mentioned she had by no means been a part of a peace-building occasion that celebrated various Buddhist traditions till now.
“I hope we get nearer, construct solidarity and help one another as we deepen our roots on this nation,” she mentioned.
Khenpo Paljor, a Tibetan lama from Des Moines, Iowa, supplied prayers on the Birthplace of Antioch marker erected in 1850 by the primary European settlers. Right here, attendees positioned multi-colored Tibetan kata, that are conventional prayer scarves. Williams mentioned the coloured scarves mirror a Buddhist scripture that speaks of pure souls as coloured lights shining in unison, with none canceling out the others.
For Cristina Moon, a Honolulu-based Zen priest, karmic therapeutic is the method of adjusting “our relationship to what occurred and the methods wherein we are able to management tips on how to act sooner or later.”
“It’s essential we acknowledge what occurred and acknowledge it’s uncomfortable,” she mentioned. “It’s about not getting caught in a painful previous however shifting ahead in a optimistic method.”
Russell Jeung, co-founder of Cease AAPI Hate, sees these Buddhist ceremonies as Asian Individuals reclaiming their traditions to recuperate in “the face of ethical harm.”
“When Trump mocked Asians and stigmatized the group by calling (COVID) ‘the Chinese language virus,’ that basically is a case of ethical harm, the place we as Individuals are betrayed by our elected officers,” Jeung mentioned.
Hatred of the Chinese language in the course of the gold rush was fueled by political rhetoric as effectively. The one article that addressed a racial or ethnic group in California’s structure, which was ratified in 1879, acknowledged that “no Chinese language shall be employed on any State, county, municipal or different public work, besides in punishment for crime.” The Chinese language Exclusion Act of 1882 barred Chinese language laborers from immigrating.
Kaishin Victory Matsui, a priest on the Brooklyn Zen Middle, mentioned religion can be utilized as a strategy to heal the hurt of racism.
“We come to those historic websites the place trauma has occurred to convey peace and therapeutic,” she mentioned. “The concept is to recollect the previous so it isn’t forgotten. This occasion connects Asians throughout time and ethnicity, and reminds us of how huge and highly effective we’re.”
Bhikkhunis (Buddhist nuns) Hyokeun and Hyung Jeon from the Korean Borisa Zen Middle in Las Vegas, supplied a white, ceramic lotus to Guan Yin in the course of the ceremony.
“The lotus flower is sacred in Buddhism as a result of it maintains its purity and wonder regardless of rising within the mud,” Hyokeun mentioned. “Hatred can’t remedy hatred, solely compassion can.”
Tao Grasp Eman, a priest from the First Taoist Basis in Arcadia, California, carried out a ritual on the riverbank as members walked silently across the block the place Chinatown and its temple stood practically 150 years in the past. Eman mentioned he known as on traumatized spirits and comforted them, to allow them to transfer on to a greater place.
For some like Myokei Caine-Barrett, who leads a multi-ethnic Nichiren Shu Buddhist temple in Houston, coming right here was about therapeutic her personal trauma. She is half Japanese and half African American, and mentioned her religion has given her “the inspiration to say all of myself.”
“Buddhism teaches us that we can’t management how individuals obtain us, however we are able to management how we reply,” she mentioned. “Not all Asians look alike, however we’re all nonetheless Asian. Our purpose is recognizing and respecting one another, interval.”
One of many attendees was Sasanna Yee, who has been talking out about anti-Asian hate since her 88-year-old grandmother, Yik Oi Huang, was fatally overwhelmed in January 2019 in a San Francisco park. Authorities charged a then 17-year-old boy within the assault. Huang died the next 12 months.
Yee, who supplied prayers and a memorial pill on the altar the place her grandmother was memorialized, noticed the occasion as therapeutic.
“It is a actually stunning answer to maneuver us into the longer term the place we join over shared hopes and goals,” she mentioned.
Lengthy-time Antioch residents seen the occasion as obligatory for town to maneuver away from its traumatic previous and turn into extra inclusive. Antioch made headlines not too long ago after a number of civil rights lawsuits involving 20 plaintiffs alleged they have been victims of police misconduct, extreme drive and racial profiling.
Karen J. Oliver mentioned she was horrified however not shocked to study how her metropolis had mistreated Chinese language immigrants.
“All of us want peace and reconciliation and no matter highway we are able to discover it on, we have to take that highway,” she mentioned.
Frank Sterling, who has Indigenous roots, noticed the Buddhist rituals as a serious step in therapeutic your entire group.
“You may’t try this till you acknowledge the previous and there’s a lot for us to maneuver on from,” he mentioned. “It is a good begin.”
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Related Press faith protection receives help by the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely liable for this content material.
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