News Vietnam | Six hundred youngsters practice Buddhism at monastery’s summer camp

Six hundred youngsters practice Buddhism at monastery’s summer camp

Thursday, June 17, 2010 (GMT+7)

As the summer holiday begins, families from many provinces are delivering their kids to the Truc Lam Tay Thien Monastery to practice the life of monks and nuns.

Those families from Hanoi, Ha Giang, Thai Nguyen, Nam Dinh and other northern provinces send their children to the Truc Lam Tay Thien Monastery in Vinh Phuc province.

The monastery began offering its free classes last year, and attracted about 50 trainees. After the good reputation of this class spread everywhere, this year the number of trainees has soared to 600.

Senior monk Thich Kien Nguyet said that Truc Lam Tay Thien Monastery can’t welcome 600 kids at once. At present, all its 90 monks are doing their best to manage and teach the kids, who come for two week sessions.

The monk said “Scientists have proved that kids who practice Zen meditation are more intelligent and persevering than others. Many countries have made Zen meditation part of their school curricula.”

Monks teach the youngsters to wake up at 3 am, tidy up their own beds, enjoy vegetarian food, to look at the world with love, to know right from wrong, to know the meaning and the value of rice or potatoes, and to learn how to do simple housework.

The youngsters finish the day by reviewing their activities to realize wrong and right and mend their manners.

Families have sent their children to the monastery for a number of reasons. Some think they need a different experience, free of online games. Some wish their children to learn Buddhism to understand the meaning and value of life. Some parents think it’s important that their children learn how to do household chores like cooking and cleaning.

On his first day at the monastery, Pham Phuong Thao, 14, from Hanoi grumbled “I didn’t want to come here. It is very boring! My parents forced me to go. I’m addicted to Audition (an online game). With only two bottles of water to sustain me, I can play that game all day long. My friends are now perhaps sitting at an Internet café on To Hieu Road.”

Fourteen year-old Nguyen Viet Ha and six year-old Nguyen Viet Huong, sisters from Hanoi, were very shy. Ha talked with swelling eyes: “My sister began crying after the afternoon blessing hour yesterday. Nuns had to soothe her for an hour. She cried again at 11 pm. All our roommates cried too. I miss my home very much. May I use your phone to call my mum?”

A homesick boy can’t hold back tears

The two kids hugged each other while both cried and talked to their mother.

At the same time, two nuns soothed young Bui Cong Huy, 10, from Ha Giang. Huy cried and said: “I don’t like vegetarian food. I have to wash my clothes, cook rice, queue up to receive rice. . . . I don’t like this. I want to go home with my mum.”

Teens seem to adapt themselves to the life in the monastery more quickly. Phan Thanh Hung, 16, from Hanoi said: “This is the second time I’ve lived in this monastery. Last year my parents sent me here to break my addiction to the Internet. This year I’ve voluntarily joined this class. I’m used to this life now. The monks and nuns here are very thoughful”.

Quach Ngoc Huy, from Hanoi, was about to say goodbye to his daughters. “I have three daughters and would like to send them all to this monastery, but my youngest is only four so she must stay home with my wife. The air here is very clean and peaceful. Seeing my children do chores themselves, I’m very glad. They didn’t know how to do these simple things at home. I wish the pagoda would open many more classes like this,” Huy said.

Photos of kids practicing at the monastery:

Opening ceremonies