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Nguyen M. Nguyen Instructor Amber Lemiere English 101 Winter 2014

Benh Duc Temple-The Monument of Warship in Vietnam

Warships, whichever its purposes are, will need sacrifices. Vietnam, as a small country in the South-East Asia with more than two thousand years of history, had involved in many wars to defense and to expand the boarder. The losses of money and property in the war are unimaginable but what the people is truly remember about are the losses of men and solders. Men had killed and been killed in those wars and the number of life that had been taken had reached the uncountable limit. To remember about the solders and people who sacrificed themselves for the country in those years of war, monuments and museums had been built all over the country. Ben Duoc temple, one of biggest monumental construction that the government had ever built to show the thankful to the people that had sacrificed themselves for the Southern region of Vietnam during the anti-foreigners (the French and the American) and anticolonialism war time period, remind the people the dark side of the war and help the next generations remember about their seniors who had put their names in the history of the homeland defend war. Ben Duoc temple was begun to work at 05/19/1993 and was opened for public at 12/19/1995 to celebrate the 103th birthday of president Ho Chi Minh, the president of Northern Vietnam. It is a part of the Cu Chi tunnel museums, which is the remain of the Cu Chi tunnel systems, a military base of the Northern Vietnam in the Southern Vietnam in the civil wars, which is also known as the Vietnam war (1955-1975). The whole construction was build next to The traditional style, the architecture of the solemn and serene air of ancient temple, was thoroughly used as the model of the whole construction, similar to a lot of old temples across Vietnam. The structure of

Page 2 temple includes three-doors temple gate with a line of round pillars, the ying and yan tile which were expressed with the traditional style. In the middle of gate is the signboard "Ben Duoc Memorial Temple" and on the body of the pillars are the parallel sentences of the poet Bao Dinh Giang. Tri tm lng son v t nc, em dng mu gi qu hng Lng bit cng n nhang thm mt nn i cn bng dng sao sng ngn nm Meaning: Give your willing soul for the country Use your red blood defend your hometown The thankful represent by the incense sticks Live forever like the bright stars

The poem is like the representative of the thought of the people who visit the temple, the thought of thankful about the previous generation parallel with the thought of the people who had fought to reunite of the country themselves. Inside, another the writing carved on the stone tablet is titled "Eternally remember" which sing a praise of the heroes and the pride of the nation. In the middle of the temple, there is an altar of president Ho Chi Minh and all the solders. Flowers are brought there every day by the visitors show the respect of the people to those who once fought for their families and friends, or their country and for their beliefs. The special thing about Ben Duoc temple is that on its walls, the constructers had carved names of the soldiers who felt down in this southern region and return to the land. All the names cover four thirty-feet-high and fifty-feet-wide walls can show the number of men who give their life for the name of the land. However, not all the spot was filled. There are a lot of empty spaces between the names which represent the soldiers who fought in the war with identities that had never been discovered. They lived, fought and died without people acknowledged. Looking at those spaces is like

Page 1 looking at nameless gravestones, it gives out bothersome feelings. Death in general is pure sadness, but it is probably better for one to die in their families arms or at least have somebody know and remember about them. Those solders, those men are someones sons, someones daughters, someones brothers, sisters, and they laid down for the country alone, without names even being recognized. Again, it reminds people about what is warship is truly about: sacrifices. The outside of the temples walls are covered with nine pictures on the theme of Saigon Cho Lon (the Southern Vietnam), resilient and indomitable, presenting the prominent war events of our people and soldiers in the Southern region in particular and Vietnam in general. In general, the pictures protect the anti-foreigners and anti-colonialism war to the civil war, bring back the difficulties and the brutalities that the people had to suffer. In those pictures, the only thing that stands out from others is the images of soldiers and civilians, men and women, young and old, Vietnamese and foreigners fall on the ground, dead or injured. That is the remarkably result of, not only the Vietnam war, but every single war in general. People will wall, blood sheds. Those pictures are the big lesson that our seniors try to teach us: avoid warship as any cost. Agree that some wars are necessary, like defensive war, but people should try to avoid it and only use it as the final solution. My grandfather used to be a soldier in the Southern Army, which was the side that lost the war. However, sometimes, he drove me to this Ben Duoc temple just to bring some fresh flowers, put down some incense sticks and salute. He used to tell me: I sure did upset when we lost the war because I was a military man back then, but at the same time, I felt relief because I did not have to worry about your grandma, your mom and your three aunts anymore, I did not have to worry that they would die in some sudden attack or anything. That is the thought of a man who had been in war. Ben Duoc temple not only remind Vietnamese people to pay respect for those who had felt for the country, but also represents a part of my grandfathers thought too: war is nothing good but its end.