01/18/2008
By David Perry, dperry@lowellsun.com
Lowell Sun (Lowell, Mass., USA)
LOWELL -- In his 90 years, the Venerable Ly Van Aggadipo witnessed the worst in humanity but as a respected community member and spiritual leader of Lowell's Glory Buddhist Temple, worked to bring out the best in people.
The Buddhist monk, who since 1989 led Glory Buddhist Temple in Lowell, died Saturday afternoon at Lowell General Hospital, surrounded by friends, followers and family, including his wife of 70 years, Sea Tan.
Like many who arrived here in the 1980s, he escaped the horrors of Killing Fields of Cambodia, fleeing Khmer Rouge soldiers.
The temple and community have mourned his passing this week with prayers and chanting, as the leader lies in state. Among the earliest of the first wave of Cambodians to resettle in Lowell, he arrived in June 1981.
A mainstay in ushering other Cambodian refugees to normalcy in their new land, he helped found the Cambodian Mutual Aid Association of Greater Lowell Inc., and was also among those who created the Cambodian Buddhist Association of Lowell.
With that group, he helped establish the Trairatanaram Temple in North Chelmsford, which served not only as a religious temple but a cultural center.He was invited to lead the Glory Buddhist Temple in 1989, shortly after his ordination in Maryland.
Though two other monks also serve the temple, Ly Van was its leader until his death.
Local Buddhists remember Ly Van as a peaceful man, a respected temple elder and a voice of reason.
"He was a kind, gentle person, full of wisdom," said Samkhann Khoeun, former director of the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association.
"People talked to him and he helped many, many people, He was always willing to make an extra effort."Sokhar Sao, the temple's president and Ly Van's nephew, said that Ly Van was ordained a Buddhist Novice in Cambodia at 19, but left a year later to marry Tan Sear.
They had a son, Chha Non Ly, of Paris, and adopted a daughter, Chivby Ho, of Lowell.Ly Van worked rice fields as a farmer in their Cambodian village of Don Teav, Battambang.
In the 1970s, when the Khmer Rouge began its reign of torture and execution, Ly Van was forced to work on agricultural projects for 12 to 14 hours a day, and nearly starved to death.
When the Vietnamese Communist troops invaded in 1979, Ly Van and his family were among thousands who fled to the Thai border, but were turned back.
Ly Van and his family were among the first wave, taken to Mount Dangrek, where hundreds "and maybe thousands," said Sao, plunged to their deaths.
Ly Van and his family escaped by climbing down the mountain, using rocks, limbs and small trees. For six weeks, they ate whatever they could and avoided landmines, booby traps and the battles of Vietnamese and Khmer soldiers.
They entered Thailand across a stream and eventually were taken to a holding center, where Thai soldiers regularly mistreated residents.
They were eventually transferred to a refugee processing center in the Philippines, granted political asylum and began their journey to America.
"I say anyone who survived that to make it to the U.S. has 1,000 lucks," said Sao.Sao said he had heard of his uncle but never met him in Cambodia.
When he met Ly Van in Maryland in 1988, "I told him my story and of my relatives. He said, 'you are related to me.' I was shocked.
"Sao, who was living in Pennsylvania at the time, moved to Lowell in 1989.Ly Van never forgot his homeland, whatever horrors happened there.
"He helped so many in the community, not just here, but in Cambodia," said Sao, 47. "He helped other temples and villages over in Cambodia, sometimes with money to help build schools, bridges, roads and ponds to store water.
Sometimes he went back and sometimes he helped from here."Khoeun was surprised to learn that Ly Van knew his grandfather back in Cambodia.
He was equally surprised to find a batch of poetry the monk had composed."It is wonderful poetry," said Khoeun.
"It is about his experiences with the Khmer Rouge and his life, escaping the ordeal in Cambodia."
He also wrote poems of the country's kings, generals and other political figures in the 1960s and '70s, Khoeun said.
"I want to type them up and put a small book together in his memory."Ly Van's body is to be cremated tomorrow.
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