The Oud Journey
The distiller who sold his Ferrari (Part 1)
A few weeks ago the distiller I’ve been working with on the 100 Year-Old Chanthaburi distillation took off to a remote monastery some 12 hours from his farm. There, aspiring mystics visit an illumined monk who lives cut off from society, deep in the forest. In hopes of attaining higher spiritual ranks, students subject themselves to his rigorous routine of mediation and incantation for as long their ambition or time off from work allow them to. Some are able to endure the ascetic lifestyle longer than others; some attain more than what they set out for, while others return with little more than mosquito bites. I never took my distiller for the spiritual type, but when he showed up back at the distillery dressed in traditional orange Buddhist garb and a shaved head…
I would have liked to accompany him to his mentor to perhaps gain a deeper appreciation for a tradition I’ve until now mostly learned from pseudo-spiritualists claiming to follow authentic Buddhist teachings. If not that, I’d at least get to spend some time outdoors, cut off from the wires of modern life for a few nights. But I stayed behind at the distillery… where, mind you, it’s not exactly techno-park either.
It had been about thirteen days since we started cooking our Chanthaburi wood when he returned. When you distill incense-grade agarwood you have to keep your finger on its pulse at each stage of the cooking. With Qi Nam Khmer I trusted the distiller could manage the run in my absence, but we ended up losing more than half the yield! I figured, this time better keep watch every step of the way….
