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Former gang members seek serenity in becoming monks. (Originated from Orange County Register)
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service; 8/6/1993; Eaton, Tracey
When Sophal Nam joined the Tiny Rascal Gang, he brought unspeakable shame to his family. And when he landed in jail, his parents declared, ``Leave him there.'' He decided there was only one way he could redeem himself: by becoming a monk.
``We thought he was kidding,'' said his sister, Sinet Nam, 18. ``I'm like, no, this can't be my brother. He'll go nuts.''
Now Nam sits on the floor and chants Buddhist prayers instead of hanging out with his gang-member pals.
``My thinking is not about gangs anymore,'' said Nam, cloaked in a saffron robe. ``It's all about chanting and being a monk.''
Nam, 19, is a refugee from Cambodia. He lives in Santa Ana's Minnie Street neighborhood, home to at least 3,000 Cambodian refugees, the largest concentration in Orange County.
A friend from the gang, Veasna Lach, a.k.a. Smiley, also went from Rascal to monk.
``I'm doing it to make my parents happy,'' said Lach, 21.
But for former gang members used to living life on their own terms, adjusting to the strict regimen of a Buddhist monk isn't easy.
They must rise at 4 a.m. every day to pray. They must memorize and practice ritual chants. They can't eat anything after noon.
They aren't allowed to dance, tell jokes or swear. They can't harm any living thing, even the smallest bug. They are forbidden to go to parties. And they can't have romantic relationships with women.
Despite the rules, Nam and Lach weathered their apprentice stage and in an initiation ceremony earlier this month, became full-fledged monks.
Lach, Nam and a third apprentice monk alternately knelt, stood and chanted for more than an hour during the ceremony at a Los Angeles temple. Then a dozen senior monks circled them, a way of saying, ``You're one of us.''
``I almost fainted sitting like that,'' Lach said afterward. ``It hurt.''
Nam's mother, Heng Pak Nam, said she was so thankful that her son became a monk that she planned to make a small sacrifice _ by shaving her head.
Cambodian Buddhists believe that fate depends on the sacrifices they make and the good or bad deeds they commit. But bad deeds never can be erased. And for those whose sins are extreme, their only hope is to carry out good deeds that are equally extreme.
Becoming a monk scores big points on the redemption scale. Not only are monks religious, they are respected.
``It's a very gentle culture that pays very high respect to spiritual authority,'' said Rifka Hirsh, head of
Please see INWARD Page 2>
PAUL KURODA/The Orange County Register>
QUIET TIME: Sophal Nam meditates daily as a Buddhist monk at a temple in the Minnie Street neighborhood of Santa Ana.
INWARD: Young Cambodian
men become monks to attone
for being involved in gangs
FROM 1
Cambodian Family Inc., a social-services center in Santa Ana.
The family also is important, she said. But if a family member is in a gang, it taints the entire family's reputation.
=
Lach and Nam live with six other monks in a temple _ two charcoal blue, one-story apartments in Santa Ana. Several Cambodian nuns, elderly women with shaven heads, also live there.
The young monks lead a peaceful existence. They chant for an hour or so every day, read books, watch television and stroll outside to chat with neighbors. Most of the men also smoke cigarettes, which is allowed under the strict monk code.
The faithful stop by every day. They bring offerings _ steamed rice, spicy soup, even pizza.
But not everyone accepts the former gang members.
``Some talk to us like we're still homeboys,'' Lach said. ``No respect. There's always a phone call. They go, `How come you let those gangsters be monks?'''
The Santa Ana temple's senior monk _ the ex-Rascals call him `The Main One' _ said he was more than willing to give the former Rascals a chance.
``I want to help people quit the gang,'' the Rev. Soyudh Jenlao said. ``The past is the past.''
The past is something Lach wants to forget. The other day, he told a former friend in the gang that he can't stand outside the temple and talk to him anymore.
It's just not proper.
Lach also is paying a laser surgeon $2,500 to burn off his gang tattoos, a painful process that leaves terrible scars.
``With tattoos, you can't find a job. They know you're a gangster, a convict.''
Like most of the Cambodians in the neighborhood, Lach and his family fled Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge guerrillas took over and began killing anyone who posed a threat _ government officials, soldiers, teachers, intellectuals and others.
An estimated 2 million Cambodians starved, died of disease or were executed while the communists were in power 1975-1978.
Lach, whose brother was among those killed, said that when his family reached Minnie Street in 1984, he didn't think much about the shootings among rival gangs. He remembers thinking, ``I lived through a real war. This is nothing.''
At the time, the Tiny Rascal Gang had just been formed. Today, police say, it has 40-80 members in Orange County, including hard-core members, wanna-be's and associates. Members claim 2,000 associates nationwide.
The gang is mostly Asian but ethnically mixed. Lach said his decision to join in 1986 was a natural step.
``You grow up with the same people. They're your friends.''
Lach wound up in jail in June 1991 after Santa Ana police arrested him on charges of assault with a firearm.
Lach told police that he pulled a .357 Magnum on a man outside a party in Santa Ana on May 18, 1991. He said the man had threatened a friend with a gun months earlier. So after Lach saw him, he confronted him and shot at him as he drove away in a truck.
As he fired, other gang members grabbed their guns and joined in.
``The bullets were flying,'' Lach said. ``But I wasn't ready to die yet.''
He got a two-year prison term and served 16 months. He said he regrets running with the Rascals.
``When you think back, it isn't worth it.''
He became a monk four months after getting out of jail. He didn't think he would last a month. But as he learned more about Buddhism, he started liking it.
``It's not fun like when I'm out on the street gang-banging and stuff. Here in the temple, fun is chanting and getting to know more about our religion. I like it. When you chant prayers, you become happy inside.''
Nam, nicknamed Chris, followed a similar path from the killing fields of Cambodia to the mean streets of Santa Ana.
He said he joined the Rascals because he ``wanted to fit in.'' He didn't spend much time at home while in the gang, his sister said.
``He would just come home to sleep and eat. You couldn't go in the room if he was in the room. He'd blast the radio and you couldn't study.
``You know what really surprised me is when he started carrying a gun. I was telling him, `It's not right to do that.' He was all like, `Who are you to be telling me what to do. I don't even listen to Mom and Dad. You think I'm going to listen to you?'''
In April 1992, Nam was arrested for purse snatching in Westminster, court records show. He said he needed money because he ``was into marijuana.''
Nam pleaded guilty to a felony charge and got a six-month jail sentence, records show. While in jail, he decided to leave the gang. He sat in his cell, set fire to wads of toilet and tried to burn off the Rascals tattoo on his arm. That left scars. The tattoo is still there.
But Nam was determined to make a fresh start _ as a monk _ and the gang didn't stand in his way.
``Whatever makes you happy,'' his Rascal friends told him.
Nam's sister said she couldn't believe Nam wanted to be a monk _ a celibate, at that _ because he was ``a major flirt'' in high school. She realized he was serious when he began dumping his prized possessions.
``He threw all his clothes away, pictures of girls. He threw everything away,'' she said. ``He's trying hard. He's really humble now. Not like before.''
Nam said he has learned to respect his elders. And more and more people look up to him now that he's a monk.
``People will do anything for us. They cook us food and they don't even eat first. They serve us first.''
Still, neither he nor Lach plan to be monks forever.
Lach said he will stick it out one or two more years, maybe more. Then he'll leave the temple and try to build a normal life outside the gang.
``I want to get my life settled,'' he said. ``No more gang-banging.''
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