Photo: Visiting Hoa Hao Buddhist Ancestral Temple in 1972.

Time has passed, and I have grown up. I did not have the chance to stay long in Hoa Hao Village. My small family suffered harsh discrimination under the government of that time, like other people during wartime.


We moved out of Hoa Hao Village quite early, and we even had to flee from our country for a long time. Later, we had the chance to come back to Hoa Hao Village a couple of times, but only as visitors attending important religious festivities. 

However, the image of my peaceful and loving village has always accompanied me everywhere, and the religious and moral teachings and education I received in my childhood became the model for my lifestyle, the driving force in my life.

Everywhere we went and stayed, my parents always taught and read to me the poetic holy scriptures and teachings of Prophet Huynh Phu So.  Ever since I learned how to read, write, and think by myself, I have sought to read his teachings and study the religious dogma of Hoa Hao Buddhism.

Visiting Duc Ong and Duc Ba’ s graves
(Prophet Huynh '  s parents)
Hoa Hao village, in 1972