My father Sang, is a humble man. Born into a family of eight, he grew up surrounded by rice fields in Preah Trapeang province in an era of chaos and war during the 1970s. At the age of 17, he became a Buddhist monk at Wat knong srok, a local temple in the village of knong srok located in Preah Trapeang (aka Tra Vinh) of Kampuchea-Krom (Mekong Delta of Vietnam). 

My grandpa, Ta Lim was adamant that all of his sons would enter monkhood, a Khmer-Krom tradition that encouraged young men to become a monk as a way to give thanks to their parents for raising them and to live a good life, guided and blessed by Buddha. 

Wat Knong Srok, like the five hundred temples scattered across the Mekong Delta is more than a religious institution; it was a place where he learned the scripts of his native Khmer language, the chants of  Theravada Buddhism and cultures and traditions of our people.  Most importantly, it was a place that taught young men like him how to live his life according to the moral teaching and principles of Buddhism. 

His elder brother, Sophol was quite the scholar, finishing his Buddhism studies at the local temple and then heading to Phnom Penh to complete his diploma. He was fluent in Khmer, English and French. He was the few that was able to get an education but like many who had to leave monkhood and fight in the war, he too lost his life, along with his second brother and was never heard from again.

After three years at the temple, my father left monkhood to become a local teacher, helping to transmit our Khmer language to the next generation of Khmer-Krom children. It was there that he met my mother and together they would embark on a journey that would forever change the course of our lives, a story for another time and day. 

From the rice fields of Kampuchea-Krom through the jungles of Thailand to his adopted home in Australia, my dad always put his family first. He was willing to do what he took to give his family a better opportunity at life. 

When we arrived in Australia in the 1990s, he made education a priority for us, doing whatever it took to make sure we got the best education possible. We all finished high school and a few of us are university graduates, the first in our family. 

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“People could take away your riches but they can never take away your knowledge,”

My dad’s favorite saying

He is a man of honor, doing as he says and keeping his promises.  We may have been poor, struggling to make ends meet as I was growing up but never were we poor in our dignity or values.  

He also taught me the value of working hard and never protested the type of work he had to do in order to support his family. Whether it was the painstaking work of picking strawberries in the open fields of the Adelaide Hills or riding a cyclo across the streets of Phnom Penh, he did what was necessary to support his family.  

It was my father that first told me of who I was and my identity as a Khmer-Krom. I am grateful for the stories he shared back in 2000 and the journey we traveled together in 2005 to discover my roots. Through his stories, he gave me a piece that I never was missing until he shared a little of his history with me.

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We may have grown up in different eras but the values that he has instilled in us remains more relevant than ever in the world we live in today. 

Thinking about your father, what were some values he taught you?

With Father’s Day coming up, I wanted to dedicate this post to my father and thank him for everything that he has done for us. And to all the Fathers in this world, thank you for everything that you do to help raise the children of today!

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