His father appeared older and thinner, but his gentle voice and facial features remained nearly unchanged.

“He still has the same presence as in my memories. The only difference is, despite meeting after so long, I couldn’t run to hug him or express my feelings like when I was a child. I respect the path of monkhood he has chosen,” Minh, 35, recalled.

Three years ago, Minh decided to leave his work in Germany and return to Vietnam to embark on a journey to reconnect with his roots. The young man chose HCM City as his base, focusing on business while improving his Vietnamese.

He said that life in Germany revolved around work, lacking connection and experiences. At times, he felt lost, unsure of his identity, merely surviving rather than truly living.

This prompted him to set aside everything and return to Vietnam to explore his parents’ homeland and reconnect with family and roots, including finding his father, with whom he had lost contact for over 15 years.

In early 2025, Minh traveled to Hanoi, where paternal relatives and acquaintances helped him contact his father, who lived about six hours by flight from Vietnam. 

“It had been 15 years since I had last seen him. My father has been a monk for over 30 years and is currently practicing in India. We reconnected, and I decided to visit Dharamsala, where he practices, to heal and resolve lingering emotional burdens,” Minh said.

To meet his father, Minh planned a trip from Hanoi to Delhi (India), then a connecting flight to Dharamsala, a small town in the Himalayas, Himachal Pradesh. The area attracts thousands of pilgrims and practitioners annually.

On June 8, Minh arrived in Delhi, but the connecting flight to Dharamsala faced repeated delays. By the next afternoon, the airline abruptly canceled the flight.

Exhausted from waiting, Minh booked a hotel room near the airport for $50/night (about VND1.3 million) to rest and await the next flight. But upon reaching the room, he received a message from his father about their meeting which had been scheduled at 9am the next day.

Minh checked out, forfeited the next flight, and took a taxi to a Tibetan neighborhood as per his father’s directions. There, he found a small travel agency and bought a bus ticket departing at 8pm, traveling to the mountain throughout the night.

“The 11-hour journey along winding mountain roads was challenging but deeply meaningful because I managed to reach the destination. For two days, I barely slept or ate, but seeing my father made all the exhaustion vanish,” he recalled.

“Even eating with my father was a great joy”

Reuniting after 15 years, Minh noticed his father had aged significantly and grown thinner, but his gentle voice and features remained familiar.

Upon meeting, Minh wanted to rush and hug his father but held back out of respect for his monkhood path. “I wanted to call him ‘Dad,’ to cry out loud, but I had to suppress my emotions and not show them outwardly,” he said.

Minh’s parents separated when he was small. He lived with his mother, trying to communicate in Vietnamese with relatives there. His father, a monk, practiced at various temples in Germany.

As a teenager, whenever Minh missed his father, he would take a train, spending half a day traveling to visit his father. 

“At 18, I started university and focused on studies, while my father frequently traveled to India, so we gradually grew apart. Back then, I didn’t understand much, so I felt resentment and anger. Now, I empathize and respect his choice, only wishing for his health and peace,” Minh confided.

Minh admitted that during their recent reunion, though they only exchanged greetings, he felt his father’s affection through his expressions and eyes.

He was deeply moved when his father proudly introduced him to other monks, saying, “This is my son.”

Minh remembered that his father was passionate about painting. So, for the trip to India, Minh prepared small gifts, including food, art supplies, and traditional medicines.

During his 13 days in Dharamsala, Minh and his father visited various places, rented a motorbike to explore the area, and traveled to Tso Pema (Rewalsar), a sacred site in Buddhist tradition.

The rest of the time, Minh joined his father in daily routines, discussing history, life, and Buddhism. “Just eating with my father was a great joy, something it took me years to achieve,” Minh said emotionally.

Thao Trinh