Buddhist Temple

This morning my cousin Hoang came by the hotel to take us to the Buddhist temple where my grandparents' and great grandmother's tombs are. When we arrived, the temple smelled of a sweet jasmine incense. There was a slight haze from the myriad of incense burning throughout the various prayer rooms in the temple.


The head monk greeted us and let us know that we were very fortunate to be visiting today because it is a religious holiday and they would be having a special ceremony. He asked how my mother was and asked me to send along his greetings to her back home. Prior to the ceremonial prayers, I had perform my own prayers to pay my respects to my grandparents and my great grandmother. I did so by lighting 3 sticks of incense for each of them and in a bowing motion with my hands clasped together, bow 3 times in front of their tombs. I also had to light 3 sticks of incense, following the same bowing motion while standing and again by kneeling on the ground, in each of the prayer rooms to pay respects to Buddha and other ancestors.


When the monks began the ceremonial prayers, I found it to be very moving even though I really had no idea what was being said in the prayers. Much of it was in Vietnamese but it was sung in an odd echoing manner. It was almost trance-like. Among the prayers were sounds of bells, chimes and gongs along with variations of knocking and drumming. Nearing the end of the 45 minute ceremony, a Buddhist statue was placed into a vat of water lined with white flower petals. The monk blessed water and poured the water on to a statue signifying cleansing and purity.


Many of the people there also collected the water after the ceremony to either bring home to drink or to use it to soak and massage any ailments one may have as the water is believed to have healing abilities.


The monks asked us to join them for lunch afterwards and we had some great vegetarian soup (Bun Rieu) and dessert called Che Soy Nuoc (rice flour balls stuffed with sweet yellow bean in a sweet ginger and sugar syrup). It was quite tasty!


All in all, it was a very unique experience for me and I feel quite fortunate today.