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WINDY TOMB Alive our souls need a house to be home. Dead our souls need a tomb for deep rest. Without a house we are homeless. Without a tomb we wander without return. My uncle was VC his son was ARVN North and South just like your war. My uncle was buried when your tank crushed his tunnel. My cousins bones sleep in a mass grave for both sides. My family searched with shovels and spoons but we could not overturn the earth and the water. Finally finally we built windy tombs tombs without bodies tombs without bones. Finally finally father and son sleep together rest again. Once every year when the moon cries its tears with rice porridge and cookies we join in sad feast.3 Two Songs aunt was the widow of this uncle who was killed during the war. In a repeating dream she saw her husband appear before her night after night. He did not speak but shivered with wet and cold and looked like he could not find rest. The aunt consulted a family elder known for his wisdom. The elder advised her that this dream indicated her husband was a wandering soul who needed a home. This consultation led to the family building the windy tomb. After building it the aunts disturbing dreams ceased and have never returned. The Vietnamese honor not only those killed during war but all lost souls. The Vietnamese teach that children lost due to miscarriage abortion or illnesses are also our children. Thus parents who have two living children and who have also had an abortion and a miscarriage say they have four children. These souls lost to early death need honoring and helping ritual as well. When their second son was seven months old Songs wife Lan had a miscarriage. For a long time afterwards Lan had a disturbing dream that a baby son appeared and pushed their infant son from her breast to get milk for himself. She too finally consulted a family elder. He had not known about the miscarriage but asked Did you ever have another baby The elder instructed Song and Lan to build the lost one a tomb and an altar. They constructed it outside their bedroom window. As soon as it was completed the dreams ceased. Now Lan and Song put sweets and toys on the altar just as on other family tombs. And they always say they have three sons not only the two that are living. Three Chu Li lying near the eastern coast between Da Nang and My Lai was the site of the first battle between newly arrived American troops and Viet Cong in May 1965. Marines had occupied a rocky hill and the Viet Cong wanted it back. Today there is a tall spire with an emblazoned date standing atop the battle mount. Water buffalo walk up the stone steps drop mounds and munch grass. Peasants collect wood and cut greens nearby. During one healing and reconcilia- tion pilgrimage I lead to Viet Nam every year our group stopped at Chu Li to pray at a Windy Tomb an earlier travel group had built for an American MIA from that battle. This is the only windy tomb known to have been built for an American MIA in all of Viet Nam. Some members of our group honored MIAs from families at home and we prayed for all lost souls. Another of our travelers Beth Marie Murphy had been a nurse on the hos- pital ship U.S.S. Sanctuary during the war. In addition to wounded American troops Lt. Murphy had treated Viet- namese children maimed and burned by American bombs and napalm. She developed a special bond with a young girl named Mein who lost both her legs during an American raid. Beth Marie oversaw Meins treatment and recovery until her parents arrived to prematurely take her back to their jungle village. Beth Marie has lived for decades with the fear and grief that Mein died of her wounds or of exposure in the harsh jungle environment. Like the Vietnamese women of Songs family Beth Marie had dreamed of Mein for years and has felt the burden of carrying endless grief. Seeking to bring healing and peace to both souls Meins and her own Beth Marie asked to build a second Windy Tomb close to the first. 18 A Journal of Contemporary Shamanism Volume 6 Issue 1 SPRING 2013