Sacred Place Essay

Our assignment was to share a sacred place and the religious significance of that place with the reader while incorporating Lane's phenomenological approach as well as geographical connections to the sacredness of that place. This may seem like quite the task for some people, but I knew exactly what I wanted to share about! When I was a senior in high school, I was given the opportunity to travel with a group of 14 other students and 2 chaperons to Thailand and Laos. It was in Laos that I found this sacred place. We spent 4 days backpacking and trekking through the mountains. One night we stopped at this upland village to stay the night. The whole time we had been walking, we were surrounded by trees everywhere. Upon arrival to this village, everything cleared out and it was this vast dessert like area with a few homes and some animals. These people had no electricity of any kind and probably didn't even know what it was. They had just recently been given candles to be able to see in the dark. They have never seen any westerner step foot in their village ever. This was a place that not even national geographic had been to. Being humbled by the environment they were living in, I couldn't help but feel the sacredness of this place. It wasn't just the people, but rather where these people were. The amazing thing is that they were very happy people too. The kids were constantly playing and having fun and all of the parents were always spending time with each other too. They didn't need electricity to make them happy. They didn't need any kind of materialistic item in their life to find happiness and peace. They needed each other and their connection to the spirits. This village was a village of Hmong people who were animists. They held a Baci Ceremony for us while we were there which involved sacrificing a chicken to the spirits or kwan so that they could be called to be with each of us to protect us on our journey. Although this ceremony didn't really connect with me because of my lack of knowledge about it previously, i could see the importance of this ceremony in the villagers. These people were living their sacred life in their sacred place and were loving it. They were so welcoming to outsiders like us who looked so foreign to them which was so comforting after having trekked for so long. Their place is truly sacred.