With skillful hands and the sensitive soul of a Buddhist monk, Venerable Thich GiacThien writes calligraphic Buddhist prayers in Vietnamese on pebbles, which turn out to become valuable art works with a noble humane outlook.

Thich Giac Thien, born in 1979, chose to live a Buddhist life when he was a little boy.

He first studied Buddhism  at Nguyen Thieu Institution in central Binh Dinh Province and then became a student at the Van Hanh Buddhism University in Ho Chi Minh City.

He had a great love for calligraphy and taught himself and trained hard over the years to improve his skills in writing calligraphy in Vietnamese.

In 2002, during a trip to India for official training at the Tree of Enlightenment, he saw many Buddhist prayers carved on pebbles.

Back home, he had the idea of writing Buddhist sayings on pebbles with the hope of popularising Buddha's teachings.

To get the raw materials, he travelled to mountain areas and rivers to collect suitable pebbles.

His experience showed him that to write normal letters on the pebbles is very difficult, but it is harder to engrave calligraphic letters on the hard, easily breakable pebbles, which requires lots of patience and skill.

The first step is to search for a quality pebble suitable for the content of the Buddhist prayer, then to use a small drill to engrave on it, and finally to cover the letters with ink.

The entire process is a thorough, painstaking and creative task.

Depending on the number of letters and the content of the prayer, the writer will select a pebble so that the product will have a high artistic value.

In 2005, Venerable Thich GiacThien produced his first calligraphy on the stone pillars at Dieu Phong Pagoda in Tuy Phuoc District of Binh Dinh Province, where he is chief monk.

Stone-engraved calligraphy by Venerable Thich Giac Thien are normally about Buddha's teachings or idioms by famous scholars and celebrities.  

Through his skillful hands, the rough pebbles and stones have become artistic works, as they contain useful teachings with educational value.

Over the past ten years, Venerable Thich Giac Thien has made thousands of stone calligraphic products and shown them in many places, including cultural events and exhibitions, both at home and abroad.

The Thach Thien Congregation of District 5 in Ho Chi Minh City, which was established by the monk many years ago, is now a place for people to come to exchange ideas and study about Buddhism.

He regularly opens free training courses on calligraphy in Vietnamese, the way he does charity work and at the same time contributes to the preservation of the beauty of the Vietnamese language.

Vietnamese calligraphic letters on pebblea by Thich Giac Thien:

Different sizes of pebbles, semi-precious gemstones or gemstones are available nationwide, on which Thich Giac Thien engraves calligraphic letters.       Brush pens to write calligraphic letters on pebbles belonging to Thich Giac Thien.     Fine and beautiful calligraphic letters on rough pebbles by Thich Giac Thien.     Thich Giac Thien was listed in the Vietnam Book of Records as "a calligrapher with the most stone-engraved calligraphic works in Vietnam".

VNP