somethingmaker

On a sunny February afternoon, wind and water (and extremely loud engines) carried the Tắm Đêm boat across the pulsing Saigon River. With Linh Than’s facilitation, we resurrected poems from a past Tắm Đêm event, words that were washed away by recent rain damage. Together, we performed phóng sinh (life release). Life release, also known as mercy release, is a Buddhist practice of releasing animals held captive with the presumed intention of saving their lives, if they were destined for slaughter, or of giving them back their freedom.

Compassion underscores this ritual, as well as the understanding that by returning freedom and “life” to these beings, we accept that they also will die, but naturally. For this Tắm Đêm event, we practiced the same ritual, liberating life from words or drawings while chanting the poems we resurrected. The night was steered by Hoang Vu’s (somethingmaker) ambient soundscapes.