Taking vegetarian meals makes people focus on benevolence and avoid fighting and killing. It also makes people become healthier, practise thrift and enjoy a simple and peaceful life.

Pagoda welcoming followers to enjoy vegetarian meal

On the occasion of significant events, such as Vu Lan (the Buddhist festival expressing gratitude and appreciation to mothers) and Phat Dan (Buddha’s birthday), pagodas often prepare a vegetarian meal at 12:00 to serve followers from all parts of the country.

State employees tasting vegetarian food

As well as monks and nuns, many families also keep the habit of eating vegetarian meals on the 1^st, 14^th and 15^th and 30^th days of every lunar month. Some people even spend eight or ten days eating only vegetarian food.

Restaurants serving vegetarian food for all budgets take shape in many places in Hue city. Every day, these restaurants attract large numbers of customers, and it is difficult to book a seat during special occasions like Vu Lan and Phat Dan.

Nuns in pagodas in Hue are very good at cooking vegetarian meals. They create a wide variety of dishes from simple ingredients such as vegetables, rice powder, flour, fruit and nuts.

During the Buddha’s birthday in 2008, a vegetarian cuisine week took place in Hue city, drawing the participation of 100 nuns from 70 pagodas in the city.

Although people may enjoy expensive dishes prepared with materials imported from Taiwan, the Republic of Korea and Japan, Buddhist nuns like simple food made from rice, salt, peanuts and soybean curds not only to save cooking time but to keep themselves pure and clean from any dust of life.