Blooming Through Adversity
Morgan Hill ' s Tam Tu Metta Buddhist Temple
by Crystal Han
Walking through the garden of the Tam Tu Metta Buddhist Temple in Morgan Hill, it’ s easy to feel a sense of peace wash over you. Surrounded by beautiful trees and statues, all of life’ s stressors fade away, leaving only the joy of the moment.
This is exactly what The Venerable Chon Nguyen hoped to achieve when he built the temple, but the path to this point was far from peaceful.
The roots of Morgan Hill’ s Buddhist temple begin in Vietnam when Nguyen decided to become a Buddhist monk at age seven. He lived and trained in a temple monastery for over ten years, until turbulence in the country made it dangerous to be Buddhist. In the aftermath of the Vietnam war, all religions were seen as a threat to the ruling communist government. So, like so many others during that time, Nguyen fled the country by boat in search of a place where he could safely practice his faith.
Nguyen’ s harrowing boat journey landed him in Hong Kong, where he was held in a refugee camp for three years— a place he described being like a prison. After getting an interview with immigration, Nguyen was allowed to stay as a refugee in the Philippines for a year, until he was eventually accepted by the Canadian government and allowed to settle there in 1992. There, Nguyen practiced Buddhism and learned English, and after two and a half years he was invited to train novices at a Buddhist monastery in California. He applied for a U. S. green card and moved to California in 1996, where he has remained ever since.( Continued...)
10 SPRING 2026 Gilroy • Morgan Hill TODAY Magazine: Go. Make history... gmhtoday. com