Xin chao! Had the usual Vietnamese breakfast of pho and fried rice to make a great start to the day. We had an interesting day ahead of us today.
Today’s class revolved around Buddhism and its role in Vietnamese culture. At UEF, Marvin told us the basis of the religion, followed by the core values and its role in everyday life. After learning about Buddhism in class, we went to a local pagoda to see people practice Buddhism in real life. The main mechanisms of Buddhism are karma and reincarnation. Buddhism teaches us that how we treat people in this life, determines how you’ll be reincarnated in the next life. The ultimate goal of good karma in Buddhism is to be freed from the cycle of rebirth and reach nirvana. In order to reach nirvana, Buddhism tells us that we must eliminate desire because while we wants things, our lives suck because there’s always something that we want that we can’t have. If we let go of desire and live in the moment then we will live good happy lives and reach nirvana.
As someone who’s grown up in the Christian church, I was a little surprised to be drawing parallels from Buddhism to Christianity. While Christianity doesn’t actually use karma or reincarnation as codes to live by, the bible and heaven and hell function similarly. Similar to reincarnation in Buddhism, Christianity says that the way we treat people in this life affects what happens to us after we die. Similar to karma, the bible teaches Christians that if you live a good life and follow the teachings of Jesus then you will have everlasting life in heaven. Despite growing up in the church, I’ve never been a religious or spiritual person; however, I found the similarities in principles between these religions of vastly different origins to be interesting.
After class, we revisited a lunch spot from the first week, but I wasn’t complaining. This was one of my favorite lunches of the whole trip. After lunch, we had two more visits left on the agenda. First was the Reunification Palace. The Reunification Palace was the home of the president of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. This place is known not only for its rich history, but also for its beautiful architecture. As Marvin from UEF took us on a tour through the palace I was impressed by the unique structures all throughout the building.
Last and certainly not least of our visits for today was the War Remnants Museum. Despite, many warnings from our program leaders of this museum’s brutal depiction of the war, nothing could have prepared me for what it actually held. From the tiger cages, to the prison camps, to the genocide of innocent civilians, this museum highlights the ugliest parts of this war that are often left out of American history in order to preserve our image. Of everything I learned at this museum, the most disturbing and heartbreaking was the way that Vietnamese prisoners were treated. After every horrifying torture method I read, I wondered why this war isn’t treated in a similar to the holocaust.
The brutality and ruthlessness of this war only enrich the experience we had at the cu chi tunnels. With more knowledge of the tactics and machinery used in attempt to steamroll Vietnam, I am even more impressed by the savviness of the VC.