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Chin Students at the funeral of Dr. Vum Son A group of Chin students around Indiana and Illinois made their way heading to Washington DC to show their final condolence and respect to Dr. Vum Son, Chin great geologist, nationalist and nice friend of many. Included are, from left to right, Rikhuma (Zo International Network), Salai Thla Hei (Chin Community of Indiana), Ceu Hlun (Chin Association for Christian Communication), Salai Ngun Cung Lian (Chin National Front), Salai Za Bik (Chin Community of Indiana), Elaisa Vahnie (Mara People Party and Chinland Guardian), Dr. Ro Ding (Chin National League for Democracy), Van Ceu Uk (Chin Community of Indiana), Hre Mang (Chin Community of Indiana). They are active members of Chinland Yahoo Group where Pu Vum Son actively participated in.
It was a 9-hr drive. The 9-member group, comprised of all intellectuals, spent their valuable time for discussion on Chin-related issues. That is what Pu Vum Son would enjoy. First, they talked about how to build unity among our youngsters. According to their conversation, our people in the United States are so divided through different churches. Their leaders put them to small groups in isolation. They have limited exposure to bigger range of public. We wish them have more enjoyable social life. In order that our youths have more meaningful life for their people, they need more experience with intellectual world as well as with their elders. In order to help them out with meaningful and enjoyable youth life, and to transmit our tradition to younger generations, the group feel that they need to do something. The discussion went on and on, indicating that they, educated intellectuals, have lots of things to do. The successive parts of the discussion was mainly on the
Chin National Front.
We arrived Rockville at about seven o'clock. It was not quite dark yet. We were greeted at the funeral hom by Valentine Sawmmal and Pu Van Thawng Cung, who have been there since the beginning of the funeral. The picture above is which I took from car window at night. The funeral home was small. Not so many people were there at the time we got there. However, condolence flowers sent by various organizations and individuals, were all over the floor along the wall, to show how much he was loved.
Many people respect Pu Vum Son for his educational
achievement.
Nationalists mourn when a nationalist dies. On the night of Vum Son's funeral, Ceu Hlun was asked why he described Pu Vum Son, in one of his writings, as a nationalist and not as a politician, while he would describe Pu Lian Uk as a politician. Ceu Hlun answered: "Politics is about power struggle, and that Pu Vum Son never struggled for power. What he did are nationalistic work, and not directly political. He participated in bodies like the Zo Reunification Organization (ZORO), the Chin Forum, Zomi Inkuan, and they are non-political. He never pursued power. In contrast, Pu Lian Uk participated in political activities. He participated in election and got elected MP. He participated in writing constitution. So he is a politician."
Zo History is a masterpiece of Pu Vum Son, and a treasure for his people. Some Chins were glad to meet Bianca and Liana, the two daughters of Pu Vum Son. But some angry Chins didn't want to talk to them for having cremated a father of our people, in spite of the earnest request of Chin elders and leaders as well as Pu Ngo Cin Thawng, the lone brother of Pu Vum Son. After 9:00 pm of September 24, the body of Pu Vum Son was likely taken to the place where it was cremated. We, the student group, were disappointed to learn that we won't have any opportunity to have social fellowship with our brothers and sisters from the Zomi Inkuan and other people from Tedim side of our land. When we began our journey, we expected very much to have such a meeting where we can talk of Pu Vum Son--his life, his vision, his writings, his jokes, anecdotes, etc. However, we were told that the bereaved family was too busy preparing for the next day. No other person of the community helped arrange for us to have such an informal program of social fellowship.
In the discussion, Ceu Hlun was asked. "Why are you always against the Chin refugee program that is going on currently?" He gave five reasons: (1) If we keep taking our people out of our land, that would amount to giving up our land; (2) If people keep their eyes to foreign lands, they don't keep their mind to their homeland. So, they won't be interested in doing developmental work such as gardening, farming, pursuing education, etc. (3) If school teachers and office workers are attracted by the refugee program, that will be suffered by our land; (4) Cultural and traditional transmission from one generation to the other will lose a link if the whole generation go abroad; (5) Our identity may not survive in the lands of dominating culture. Ceu Hlun's arguments were critically discussed. Pu Zo Tum
Hmung said that he believed that all the people in our land are qualified
refugees, and that we should take them out of the hardships under the bad
government.
Pu Vum's memorial service was held on Sunday September 25, 2005. A few hundred of people gathered to show their respect and final condolence, together with the bereaved family. It was a long program, lasting about three hours.
Pa Khai Cin Pau was the program chairman. Opening and closing prayers were done by Rev. Rolin Vanbik (in the picture) and Rev. C. Duh Kam. They are the church pastors of Lai Baptist Church and Chin Baptist Mission Church respectively, whose members made about half of the audience of the memorial service. 
Zomi Inkuan choir Zomi Inkuan choir group was given three times to perform. That made me think of how hard it would be for them to do all the singing and guest hosting. If there were other choir groups, say, from Oklahoma or Florida, or Mizo Kohhran, or Lungbang fellowship etc., the Zomi Inkuan members would probably get relieved. Another thing we noticed was that there was no song composed in dedication to our nationalist. I don't know where Zo artists we have are.
Chin Baptist Mission Church choir
As Pu Vum
Son was a great nationalist, he was greatly respected by his people.
His funeral would have been much more crowded if everybody who loves and
respect him would be able to attend it. But the funeral program took place
too soon.
The service might have been organized better, and more people might have come, if it didn't come a little bit too soon.
Pu Ngo Nang, a long time friend of Pu Vum Son, told of the life of Pu Vum Son. According to what he said, Pu Vum Son immensely regretted the biggest mistake he made in his entire life. That was the mistake that he married a woman of different culture. He wanted all Chin young people be warned not to marry people of different culture. In fact, Pu Vum Son was not the only one to regret marrying someone of a different culture. Everybody who married someone of a different language are reported to have implicitly or overtly regretted that mistake. Picture: Pu Ngo Nang, who is sitting in front of Pu Zing Cung in the picture above, is speaking to Dr. Sein Win of NCGUB (whose wife is wearing a white shirt). Dr. Za Hlei Thang is seated somewhere else.
A slideshow was presented by Liana, the younger daughter of Pu Vum Son. The pictures told a lot about Pu Vum Son's life from his homeland to Germany, then to the land where he died. That was followed by short speech and condolence messages. Condolence messages from various organizations were read. They are from NCGUB, Chin National Front, Chin Forum, Chin Community of USA, different Zomi Inkuans, Chin Youth Organization, Kuki International Forum, Chin Freedom Coalition, Chin Community of Indianapolis, First Mizo Christian Fellowship, Zomi Momno Association, First Mizo SDA, etc. Pu Tial Hu read the message of Chin Freedom Coalition. I also took the picture of others who read condolence message, but I was stupid to use power zooming as a result of which I got dark pictures (because the camera light cannot illuminate the object if it's too far).
Three members of our group, namely, Pu Hre Mang, Pu Ngun Cung Lian and Pu Rikhuma had a chance to read condolence letters of the respective organizations they represent. Pu Hre Mang represented Chin Community of Indiana, Pu Ngun Cung Lian represented Chin National Front, and Pu Rikhuma represented Zo International Network.
Shame to Chins: they used only Burmese and English at the funeral and memorial service of their nationalist. Except the secretary of Florida Zomi Inkuan, who used Tedim tongue for a minute, nobody chose to speak in any language of Dr. Vum Son's people. I don't know how he would feel to learn that. We were so emotional to see Pu Ngo Cin Thawng, the lone brother of Pu Vum Son, speaking word of thanks. We can see how much he would have suffered to be bereaved by his only brother untimely. We also sympathized him when we heard that he had not much authority on how to take care of the funeral and the body of his own brother. Condolence meal was served at the end of the memorial service. It was a wonderful meal likely supplied by Zomi Inkuan of Washington DC. It's said that Pu Vum Son enjoyed having Christmas and Khuado meals at his house crowded with his fellow Chins/Zos. If he were given a chance to say his final words as the way he likes, the generous good man would surely suggest such a big meal for everybody that comes to his funeral. The memorial service ended at about 2:00 pm.
"Hei na tum dang, ngam
kuam thuk, Zo ngam zang pan, From now on, we will wipe our tear, and try to forget our sorrow. We will try to smile, and be on the sunny side of life. We took pictures with our friends in Washington DC. This is a group of friends whom Pu Vum Son had loved and gathered together through his funeral. We will never have such a good chance to be together. So, we took the chance.
It was Sunday. Local people need to go to their respective churches. Our group has to leave for where we came from. We had more than 600 mile to go before dawn. We had a good time on the way. Unlike our coming trip when we had serious debate like cat and dog, we had lots of fun along our way home. Everybody has good sense of humor, as did Pu Vum Son. The whole van was full of laughter all along the way. We drove slowly. We stopped and took rest whenever we wanted to. On that passenger van, we built a small model community where our people of different language group come together without any language barrier. The reason is that, everybody understand any kind of language anybody used. Nobody has to borrow somebody's language. We shared the same humor in any language. We laughed at the same time. That's a model of what our land should be. If everybody (at least) tolerates and understand any language of our people, like Pu Vum Son did, that with good attitude would change our land into paradise. Mangttha u. |
From what we can see, there was serious criticism and
negative feeling upon
the CNF. That was tediously discussed all
along the way. In one occasion, there was something that means that the CNF
should not collect "tax" from those who are unwilling to pay. Counter
argument said that, even democratic governments collect taxes against the will
of the people. Most citizens would like to avoid taxes, but they are
required to pay. The discussion was serious, but not heated. Finally,
they came to unanimous conclusion that the CNF or any party that is working
for the whole of our people, needs to welcome reformative or innovative
measures so that they can be in the mind of the people they are serving. 
Disappointed, we put up at the residence of Pu Van Thawng Cung. There, his
wife Pen Sung (Mercy's mom) prepared a wonderful meal for all of the student group (some
had gone to their friends' house though). Some of our friends in DC
visited us. Pu Lian Uk, Pu Zo Tum Hmung and Salai Siang Dun were some of
them. We had a friendly and long discussion of Chin related issues. 
He
was supported by Pu Lian Uk, giving the example of the Philippines.
Everybody else strongly argued against the two. They said, "Our situation is
not the same as what Pu Lian Uk said about the "beehive" example where the
bees collect nectar from different places and bring back to the hive,
because not too many Chins will return back to their homeland if they are
settled as permanent residents in their host countries. Further more, we
cannot tell what kind of government system there will be in Myanmar in the
future. Suppose there is a communist government, not too many people may like to return." Pu Zo Tum Hmung
said that he still expect that Chins refugees will give monetary and
intellectual contributions to their homeland even if they can't return.
Counter argument came: The group said that we cannot expect very much, based
on what we are contributing at present, even though this is the first
generation who know well the hardship that is faced in our homeland. The
conversation extended to different issues, and the discussion went on until
5 O'clock in the
morning.
However
people still made it to come from different places far and near. The audience included the Luseis, Tedims,
Falams, Halkhas, Kukis, Bamas and more from various places of the world. It
was reported that some came from Myanmar, some from Europe, and others from
different parts of the United States. However, we didn't have a chance to
know how many people came from where, or who came from where, since no program was made for
letting know who came from where. If there were an announcement such as,
"Everybody who come from Europe, please stand up" etc, we would have been
able to see who came from where. I don't know whether the hosts noticed a
group of pastors and friends who came from Indiana, arriving and leaving
before the students group. 
Two
hymns were sung (in rather low key): Sweet By And By and On
Jordan's Stormy Banks. 
