A Gift from Death Penalty Visitors
Htein Lin’s life story defies belief, and yet it also somehow fits squarely within the fabric of Myanmar’s tumultuous and complicated history. In this excerpt alone, he somehow combines the threads of vipassana meditation, striving for democracy and human rights, incarceration, and art and freedom of expression. How more uplifting can a story be than hearing about murderers on Death Row who voluntarily give their only longyi to an artist so he can paint on them? As inspiring as these stories are to hear, it is equally disheartening to know that Htein Lin is back behind bars, along with his wife, Vicky Bowman, the former Ambassador to Myanmar from the UK. We continue to hold them in our hearts, and hope that their past strength of spirit and Dhamma practice will see them through this difficult time.
“So, at that time in the prison, Death Row was a place that was so nice. Peaceful.”
“So, about ten hours a day, I was meditating. It was not actually a very good place to meditate, on Death Row, with those kinds of criminals in prison. When they realized when we started to meditate, then they [began to] make a lot of noise and they disturbed us at first. But day-by-day, we kept meditating. Our meditating was also progressing a lot, and they stopped harassing to us.
Yet after about six months meditation, our Death Row was so peaceful! They also asked me about why I was meditating. They even asked me how to meditate. ‘Look,’ I said, ‘Okay, I have a guide book.’ Another guy said he could not read; he said, ‘I could not read [that].’ So, I said, ‘Oh, okay; do you want to learn how to read? I can teach you that as well.’ And then, I was also part-time as a teacher for about two guys who were illiterate. After that, I also gave a guide book. So, at that time in the prison, Death Row was a place that was so nice. Peaceful.
At that time, my main family visits were cut for a few years; so, no family visited, and no conversation with the other political prisoners happened. But it was not worrying about food, because according to the prison manual, all of these interned prisoners who got the death penalty, also were given rice and extra meat. So, for us, just lentil soup, lentil soup, with the offered rice, but they also had one piece of meat every day. At the dinner, they have an egg or meat.
So, these guys are feeding me! These guys, they are giving an egg or fish. And then, the most important thing, they gave their longyis to paint.”
They said, ‘We are death penalty prisoners. I got a right to give something.’ Because normally, every prisoner has one uniform after six months, every six months. Prison guards, they would say ‘Where’s your uniform? Why you still in this one?’ They would say, ‘Oh, I am really depressed. I could die, because the death penalty I am crazy. So, I tear all these, my uniforms and threw away;’ so, then the prison officers would bring new uniforms because of the death penalty prisoners. They are really bad, some people sometimes.
So, they gave me their uniforms! Some of the large paintings at that time, which during my time I painted, these longyis were given to me by these death penalty prisoners who were criminals, to use as my canvas. But that was most of them; also there were other cases, they had rebelled and then they came [to Death Row]. And also one or two guys who were great criminals - murder even. They had a lot of crime in their lives. But I asked them, ‘Now, you are very nice; you give me your longyi?’ They said, ‘Yeah, I never did kind things, I never gave help to people; I did lots of crime instead. But this is nice. Now, I have a good feeling that I could help you, an artist, and not without any crime.’ So, that’s a lot of faith. So, that is a gift from the death penalty prisoners.”