Bửu Thành: Chúng ta đi mang theo quê hương* | We carry our homeland with us

We carry our homeland with us

In memory of the late Huynh Trưởng Tâm Hòa Ngô Mạnh Thu,
whose weekly Vietnamese-language radio program for the overseas community
bore the title “We Carry Our Homeland with Us.”

A gateway is erected to define a place. It also marks a journey.

The entrance gate of TÂM CHÁNH 2026 adopts the form of a traditional Tam Quan not merely for its architectural beauty, nor simply to evoke nostalgia for the Vietnamese temple. Rather, it is a deliberate symbolic choice. For Vietnamese people—especially those who have grown up in Gia Đình Phật Tử Việt Nam (Vietnamese Buddhist Youth Association)—the Tam Quan is more than the entrance to a Buddhist monastery. It is a threshold into a civilization, a spiritual tradition, and a shared cultural memory preserved across generations.

For the Vietnamese who left their homeland after the watershed of 1975, the Buddhist temple was often among the very first institutions to be established, even before many other cultural organizations. Beyond the temple gate, the Vietnamese language was preserved, religious traditions continued, children learned to bow before the Three Jewels, practiced filial piety, and grew up in the gentle gray shirt of Gia Đình Phật Tử. Thus, for the Vietnamese diaspora, the Tam Quan opens not only into the temple courtyard, but also into the living memory of the homeland itself.

The year 2026 marks two significant milestones: the 75th anniversary of the unification of the name Gia Đình Phật Tử Việt Nam (1951–2026) and the 50th anniversary of Gia Đình Phật Tử Việt Nam in the United States (1976–2026).

Seventy-five years ago, the unification of the Association’s name was far more than an administrative decision. It represented the convergence of diverse streams of Buddhist education throughout Vietnam, giving rise to a common ideal, a shared identity, and a unified path for generations of Vietnamese Buddhist youth. That unified name has enabled countless generations to recognize one another—not only in Huế, Sài Gòn, or Đà Nẵng, but today also in California, Texas, Paris, Sydney, and Toronto.

If the past seventy-five years tell the story of an ideal united in its homeland, then the past fifty years in the United States tell the story of that same ideal taking root in a new land. It is the story of people who left their homeland yet refused to lose it within themselves. Those who crossed the ocean could not carry with them temple roofs, village communal houses, or bamboo hedges. What they carried instead were memory, language, faith, and solemn vows. From those invisible seeds, wherever a temple was established, a Gia Đình Phật Tử unit soon followed, and new generations continued to grow amid a society profoundly different from the one their parents had left behind.

For this reason, the Tam Quan standing at TÂM CHÁNH 2026, in the heart of a campsite in California, becomes a distilled symbol of that half-century journey. Built of simple timber with intentionally unfinished lines, its spirit nevertheless springs from the temple gates that have long stood throughout Vietnam. Though temporary in structure, lasting only a few days, its symbolism has been fashioned from the collective memory of generations.

Within Buddhist thought, the Tam Quan carries profound meanings. It may represent the Three Gates of Liberation—Emptiness (Śūnyatā), Signlessness (Animitta), and Wishlessness (Apraṇihita)—three dimensions of the path toward liberation. It may also remind us of Compassion, Wisdom, and Courage, the three virtues that define the ideals of Gia Đình Phật Tử. Yet, within the context of this reunion camp, the Tam Quan signifies three inner crossings: stepping beyond the self into fraternity; stepping beyond differences into the harmony of the Six Principles of Communal Living (Lục Hòa); and stepping beyond one’s own personal history into the shared historical journey of Gia Đình Phật Tử Việt Nam.

As each participant passes beneath this gate into the campsite, they enter more than a physical space. They enter a landscape of memory, where the presence of earlier generations who first planted the seeds of the Gray Shirt remains quietly alive; where countless unnamed men and women preserved the organization through war, exile, and the uncertainties of history; where we are reminded that history is written not only through great events, but also through ordinary weekends spent returning to the temple, regular youth gatherings, and the silent vows of devoted leaders whose names may never appear in books.

The Tam Quan of TÂM CHÁNH 2026 therefore does not invite us to retreat into the past. Rather, it helps us understand why we are here today and where our journey must continue.

To pass through this gateway is not merely to enter a camp. It is to enter the seventy-five-year history of Gia Đình Phật Tử Việt Nam, to step into the fifty-year journey of Gia Đình Phật Tử Việt Nam in the United States, and, above all, to recognize that one’s homeland is not merely the place of one’s birth, but the values one willingly chooses to preserve.

For there are homelands that cannot be carried as luggage.

The homeland can only be carried through culture, through ideals, through memory, and through the faithful continuity of one generation to the next.

The Tam Quan of TÂM CHÁNH 2026 has been erected precisely for that reason: that every brother and sister who walks beneath it may quietly remind themselves of one simple truth—

We carry our homeland with us.