He has no valuable assets and has to hunt for food for every meal but Tong Phuoc Phuc is bringing up tens of children, many pregnant women and has buried nearly 10,000 unfortunate unborn babies.
For several days I followed him to bury unborn babies to, according to him, pay his debt to… God. And I’m still obsessed by the question: Is he crazy?
I went to Tong Phuoc Phuc’s house (56/3 Phuong Sai ward, Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province) in the late afternoon because he is only at home at that time after a hard day working for money or going to health stations and hospitals to ask for bodies of unborn babies to bury or cremate. Phuc was busy with his children. He was feeding milk to a child with one hand and the other hand was rocking a cradle. The house was like a market ringing with children’s laughter and cries.
Phuc was born in a very poor family. His mother gave birth eight times but only six children lived. Phuc was the last child. Though they had six children, Phuc’s parents adopted two more, thinking that the two adopted children would replace their two dead children.
In 1979, when he was a 7th grade pupil, Phuc had to quit school to move to the central province of Dak Lak to reclaim virgin land. In 1980, his father died and some elder sisters and brothers got married, and the family returned to Nha Trang. Several years later, his mother got ill and died. Phuc then worked for a construction company in Khanh Hoa.
After a period of time, Phuc had saved some capital and gained some experience and so opened his own company, Phuoc Phuoc Co., Ltd. This is a small company with few builders, so Phuc also works as a worker. He often receives small construction jobs. Because of his hard life, Phuoc did not get married until the age of 37.
His strange job started from the day he took his wife, Nguyen Le Yen, to a local health station to give birth. She suffered from a painful childbirth for two days. Phuc stayed awake both nights at the health station with her. He kneeled at the door of the health station and prayed: “God, let my wife and my child be safe; I will do anything to repay you.”
It seemed that his wish was magical because his wife gave birth at that time, but at the same time, in the next room, another woman delivered a dead child. That unfortunate mother left the body at the health station without a word. Doctors told him the body is considered “hospital waste”.
During his time in the hospital with his wife, Phuc witnessed many cases which he could never have imagined. Young girls came to the hospital for abortions coldly and some others left their children at the hospital after giving birth.
Phuc couldn’t sleep thinking of what he had seen at the hospital. He asked himself what those children would become. Who would bring them up? What would their futures be like? In a nightmare he saw thousands of babies flying through the air without hands, legs, eyes. Some smiled while some cried, and all looked at him. God looked at him from the blue sky with a sad face. Waking up, he knew what he must do.
The next day he returned to the hospital to ask for the bodies of unborn and dead babies to bury. After hearing Phuc’s explanation, the doctor consulted the medical history of Phuc and his family to be sure that he was not insane. As his family had no history of mental illness, the doctor asked him why he wanted to do that job. He said frankly, “That’s the job God has assigned me.” The doctor refused to continue talking with him.
Phuc went to another health centre, the Centre for Protection of Mothers and Children at 31 Le Thanh Phuong, Nha Trang city, to ask for bodies of unborn babies and dead babies. However, an official there resolutely denied his request because he said the job was too odd and unnecessary. Some doctors said bodies of unborn babies are medical waste so they are not allowed to be buried. He cried and said, “They are small people, who also have limbs, eyes, and noses – why do you refer to them with such cold words?”
Considered a mad man, he met doctor Xuan, Deputy Director of the Nha Trang Centre for Protection of Mothers and Children, who supported Phuc’s idea.
“In terms of policy, that task is not allowed, but as a human, I vigorously support you,” doctor Xuan said. She and some nurses quietly took bodies of dead babies for Phuc to bury.
Doctor Xuan also advised Phuc to undergo mental tests to prove that he was a normal person in good health and get personal papers from local authorities affirming that he was a good citizen. At every health centre Phuc presented these papers as evidence that he was not suffering from delusions. Since then, doctors have understood and supported his mission.
During this process, Phuc cried many times. Once he received a call from a motorbike taxi driver saying that there was the body of an unborn child left on the beach. The driver would have ignored it but since he had Phuc’s card, he felt he had to call him. Phuc told the driver to take care of the body. When he arrived, he saw a fist-sized, blood-red foetus in the shape of a baby.
He paid for the motorbike taxi driver’s phone call and took the body home. He placed the body in front of a statue of Christ, gave the child a name and performed burial formalities. He wanted to know why the mother had thrown her child away like this so he met the driver to get the address of the mother. He was shocked when he learned the mother was a 9th grade student who without her parents knowing had gone to a private health unit for an abortion and then threw the dead body of her child onto a coastal dumping ground.
Phuc has buried and incinerated nearly 10,000 unborn babies accompanied by 10,000 sad stories. There were girls of 14-15 years old who got pregnant from their boyfriends; some were raped by their relatives or acquaintances, etc. They were too ashamed to tell anybody and went to hospitals for abortions.
Phuc has now been involved in this unusual calling for seven years. People in Khanh Hoa province all know his job so they immediately call him when they know of any abortion case. Doctors and motorbike taxi drivers, street vendors, and schoolgirls all have Phuc’s address and telephone number.
On a windy afternoon, Phuc took me to Hon Thom Mountain in Vinh Ngoc commune, around 10km from Nha Trang city, where there are the tombs of nearly 10,000 unborn babies, to attend the funeral of ten unborn babies. The burial rituals for unborn babies, who are not recognised as men under law, lacked wreaths, music and tears of their relatives. Ten bodies in ten small coffins, made by Phuc alone. The coffins were arranged in a line on a stone altar.
Babies who were fully-formed humans with limbs, eyes, noses, etc. were buried under Phuc’s family name, Tong Phuoc.
All the names have meaning, which can help their mothers identify them if they go there, for example Tong Phuoc Kon Tum, Tong Phuoc Cam Ranh, Tong Phuoc Cao Bang (Kon Tum, Cam Ranh and Cao Bang are the names of some provinces: perhaps the mothers came from these locations), etc.
After giving them names, Phuc called them his children and put the coffins into graves. He had done this task nearly 10,000 times but he hadn’t been able to avoid crying a single time.
Phuc stopped for a while at a tomb. Last year, a schoolgirl cried till fainting when she visited the tomb of her child. But the girl was not brave enough to give her child a name after her and her boyfriend’s family names. He was sad looking on at that scene, and he didn’t understand why the girl was so, but the child was there, bearing his family name, and so the child was not so lonely.
Phuc bought a corner of Hon Thom mount, around 8,000sq.m, several years ago at a price of VND15 million (US$1,000) to open Dong Nhi cemetery. That was the money he had been accumulating for many years. After buying the land, he himself levelled the foundation to build a cemetery. He has poured a lot of sweat on this mountain to create a peaceful place for unfortunate souls.
The darkness came but some people were still in the cemetery to worship. Many fishermen from nearby fishing villages go to the cemetery to pray for peaceful trips to the sea. Monks from some local pagodas often visit the cemetery as well.
Phuc has faced a lot of difficulties in burying unborn babies. Local authorities have destroyed the road he built to Hon Thom peak, and some of the ready-made tombs he built.
But he feels the meaning of his strange job when he sees schoolgirls coming to the cemetery with white flowers. Looking at thousands of small tombs and witnessing Phuc’s job, these girls can learn lessons for themselves, how to protect themselves and understand maternal love.
Many schools in Khanh Hoa province have organised visits to Dong Nhi cemetery with the hope that the visits will teach children how to live more responsibly.
That’s also the wish of the man called “Crazy Phuc”.
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