Phuoc Lam Pagoda

Phuoc Lam Pagoda carries one of the most extraordinary personal stories in all of Vietnamese Buddhist history, and once you hear it, you will never forget this place. The pagoda was founded in the mid-seventeenth century, but the story that defines it belongs to a man named An Thiem, and his life reads like something from a novel. An Thiem was a child prodigy. At the age of eight, he entered monastic life, showing such remarkable intelligence and spiritual depth that his teachers considered him exceptional even among the most gifted young monks. He studied Buddhist scripture, mastered meditation practices, and seemed destined for a life of quiet contemplation. But then war came, as it so often has in Vietnam's long and painful history. When An Thiem was eighteen, the military draft reached his family.

Rather than let his brothers be taken, he volunteered himself. This brilliant young monk put down his prayer beads, picked up a weapon, and went to war. And here is the astonishing part: he was good at it. So good, in fact, that he rose through the military ranks to become a general. He commanded troops, fought battles, and earned the respect of soldiers and commanders alike. But the violence haunted him. After years of military service, An Thiem made a decision that would shape the rest of his life.

He left the army and returned to Hoi An, but he did not go back to the pagoda immediately. Instead, he spent twenty years voluntarily cleaning the Hoi An market every single day as an act of penance, sweeping streets and hauling refuse, humbling himself before the community he had once left behind. Only after those twenty years of self-imposed atonement did he feel worthy of returning to monastic life. He came to Phuoc Lam Pagoda and served as its head monk until his death. Walk through the pagoda grounds now with that...