At the end of the Vietnam War, in 1975, close to two million refugees fled the Southeast Asian country—often in boats—in search of better living conditions. Around two hundred thousand “boat people,” as the refugees were often called in popular media, landed in Canada, bringing with them the rich tradition of Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhism. One of the most notable Canadian temples to emerge from this diaspora is Tam Bao Son, or the “Great Pine Forest Monastery,” nestled in the Laurentian Mountains outside of Montreal, Quebec.
Tam Bao Son was founded in 1988 by the Union of Vietnamese Buddhist Churches and pioneered by Venerable Thich Thien Nghi, a monk who had a vision to educate monks and nuns, spread the dharma, and re-create holy sites tied to the Buddha’s life. The temple’s sprawling 832-acre grounds are home to twenty-five larger-than-life statues. To one side of the main building lies an expansive garden with figures depicting the Buddha’s birth at Lumbini, Nepal. Tucked into the trees at the edge of the compound sit five images of disciples facing a golden Thai-style Buddha—a re-creation of the first sermon in Sarnath, India. Other important statues on the temple grounds include the bodhisattvas Maitreya, Avalokiteshvara, and Vajrapani.
Several features nod to Tam Bao Son’s tight-knit and resilient community, such as the meditation hall’s one thousand Buddhas with plaques honoring temple donors. In 2015, marking forty years since the arrival of the boat people, who made the space possible, a fitting new statue was dedicated to them: the Buddha gracefully riding a dragon over the sea.
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