The book and the temple

KinhMõ does not reproduce a genre or a collection of texts. It reproduces exactly one book — the one held in the hand at the Linh Thứu pagoda in Berlin.

The book

It has 48 pages and is a ritual book for the services held in memory of the dead: the funeral itself, and the days of remembrance that follow. It is the pagoda's own compilation: traditional texts, chosen by that community and arranged into an edition for these services. It is read together and out loud, in time, often for well over an hour.

The text is Vietnamese, and much of it is old: Buddhist texts transmitted originally in Chinese, living on in Vietnamese through their Hán-Việt readings. Which is why many native Vietnamese speakers do not understand everything they are reading either — that is not a gap in their language, it is what liturgical language is like.

The print's structure stays too: in Recitation at the default font size, every printed line gets its own row.

The place

The Linh Thứu pagoda in Berlin is this book’s home: a Vietnamese Buddhist temple where the community gathers for ceremonies and days of remembrance. The name goes back to Vulture Peak, the mountain in present-day Bihar where tradition holds some of the most important discourses were given; Vietnamese temples are often named after it.

The ceremony

The book is read together. At the Linh Thứu pagoda that means the Sunday ceremony, from around ten in the morning until about half past twelve: everyone has the same book open at the same page, and everyone recites — there is no audience. The ordained lead the readings and hold the beat with the wooden fish and the bell; the room follows, stands, kneels and bows where the text bows. Incense is lit at the start — before that the ceremony has not really begun.

There is more about the ceremony inside the app — 35 short articles about the figures, the sections and the course of it; that is under Learn. Where the translations come from and how they are checked is on Sources and verification.

Why this app exists

For Anh Thy.

Her family said farewell to her Bà Ngoại at the Linh Thứu pagoda — Sunday after Sunday, with this very book in hand.

The younger generation of the family wants to carry the tradition on — and it was the first time they had been part of such a ceremony themselves. KinhMõ grew out of that wish: a way to read the book today, to understand it, and to recite along.