VIETNAM BRIDGE
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| Thich Tu Nghiem, a Buddhist monk with his collection of Buddha statues |
VIETNAM---Thich Tu Nghiem, a Buddhist monk at Pho Da Pagoda in the central city of Da Nang, has collected over 200 religious statues on his travels around the region. Over the past 10 years, the collection has outgrown the 20sq.m room at the pagoda, which is filled to the brim with ancient works such as a 700-year-old copper casting of the Goddess of Mercy and a colossal sandstone statue from the 11th-century Champa Kingdom, where it originally guarded a temple.
"I try to pick up Buddha statues whenever I go for religious indoctrinations or study abroad. Because monks worship Buddha, searching for these statues is my way of paying respect to the deity," Nghiem said. For the 55-year-old monk, the search has also been a personal journey. Each statue in the collection conjures up a specific memory. [
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