Dear sponsors and supporters:

We would like to share with you these videos from ordaining of young novice monks by Wat Phum Thom pagoda in August 2011.

Buddhist ordaining is a special event for Khmer Krom people, especially for young Khmer Krom boys. Becoming a monk represents a commitment to scholarship, spiritual development, and humble life.

It is also an important event for their families because many indigenous people are poor and cannot afford to send their children to school beyond secondary level.

Becoming ordain as a Buddhist monk provides an alternative to public school where indigenous children may struggle due to language or cultural barrier that results in high drop-out low success rates.

I am happy to share with everyone that Wat Phum Thom pagoda has made great progress because of the dedication of our communities and monks. In June of 2011, an additional 15 students will be ordained as monks to introduce and preserve the culture and religion of Dharma. Please see the attached recent photographs of the school progress. It is on the way to completion, and I would like to appeal to all world Buddhists on behalf of Wat Phum Thom pagoda for generous contributions to helping poor children and also helping preserving Theravada form of Buddhism in South Vietnam.

Thank you,
Khmer Krom Children

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  School

With great sadness we remember one of our dearly beloved pagoda pupil, Dung, whose untimely depart of our realm bring us all family, friends, and teachers, great anguish and grief to our hearts.

On the last day of the Cambodian new year, as a rows of temple pupils line up to wave their goodbyes to visiting worshipers from other provinces, Dung collapsed and fell into way of a moving van carrying the departing passengers.

Time and destiny took him away from us, but we shall not forget all the joys, laughters, and memories we share with him.

Dung was a nice, funny, and hardworking student. He was 16 years old, and had been living with our Wat Phum Thom temple several years where he undertook studying in Khmer, Pali, and Vietnamese with other students under the tutelage of our resident monks.

click here!

Ladies and gentlemen, please see the attached letter from Ven. Thach Sathol of the Wat Phum Thom Pagoda. I received this letter on behalf of the Ven. to present to other oversea and generous Buddhists for their generous contributions to the development of the temple and completion of the Khmer and Pali language school being built - starting first under the late Ven. Ly Sang. The school is not complete, there are still time to contribute.

Generous donors and Buddhist layperson can make donations to either the construction of the Khmer/Pali school or the fence construction for the temple complex. The fence construction will be designed with traditional Khmer motifs and generous donors and their families can have their names inscribed on the concrete walls of fence.

VOKK on December 5th, 2010 did a brief interview with one Khmer Krom monk in our province. To listen to the interview, visit http://vokk.net/?p=2815

Points from the interview are:
1) There are a substantial number of Khmer people who live in this province
2) Khmer Krom from Binh Phuoc have three existing pagodas
3) One temple [our temple] in Loc Ninh district has opened Khmer language classes for Khmer Krom youths
4) Khmer in this province managed to preserved their cultural traditions and celebrations very well

Interview From VOKK, source: VOKK Radio

By Don Lam
August 8th, 2010

This week at Wat Phum Thom Pagoda the first test for Khmer language was undertaken by the abbots. The exam tested over 70 students for an accumulated knowledge that took three months of studies. These studies were afforded by the summer break in the national school. That the exam had taken place this week while the return to national school from break is also taking place this week is no coincidence.

GENEVA (21 July 2010) – “Most ethnic minority groups remain the poorest of Viet Nam’s poor,” said the UN Independent Expert on minority issues, Gay McDougall, on returning from a ten-day mission to the country to examine the human rights situation of Viet Nam’s numerous minority groups*.

“Persistent problems remain for many of those belonging to Viet Nam’s minority groups, despite a period of economic growth, progress towards the UN Millennium Development Goals and positive results in poverty alleviation and economic development in general,” Ms. McDougall noted.

Image: Binh Phuoc Gov. News

By Don Lam
June 24, 2010
I have received news from our grass root community layman involved in our Khmer literacy project that Mr. Son Son of the Khmer Minority's representative stationed in the nation's capital-Hanoi- had paid our small town a visit last month.

His excellency hosted a banquet for the various Khmer communities in the province and an ostentatious cultural shows were performed at our Wat Phum Thom temple welcoming Mr. Son.

Ven. Ne and his students, Photo: courtesy of daitangkinhvietnam
April 1, 2010 - As of 2010 our temple literacy project at Wat Phum Thom
is well anchored. We have a solid team- monks and villagers-working to keep kids
off the streets away from drugs and getting them excited
about learning and school.

13 Years ago, late venerable Ly Sang came to Phum Thom and established the Wat Phum Thom temple, resided there as the abbot and later went on to try to create the first Khmer language classroom in the province. This was in Binh Phuoc province, South Vietnam. Although Lok Ta (Khmer word for revered monk) Ly Sang passed away without seeing the fruit of his labor, his legacy and great devotion to the preservation of Khmer language lived on. Today, thanks to his work, Wat (temple) Phum Thom host a thriving number of students attending its Khmer language class each evening. Sometimes the small temple class would be completely packed, with all the rows occupied and every spaces and chairs crunched in so closely together that one could not escape a vivid conjuring of a huge centipede moving with its long stretch body of rows and all the students as its great many limbs .