Vietnamese Buddhist Teachers

Introduction

     Vietnam has been dubbed as the next tiger to wake up in terms of economics. For, Vietnam has moved from its pure communist ideology to a socialist based market economy. This is the economy that has catapulted Communist Mainland China to its present high pedestal in terms of economic growth and improvement of the living conditions of its residents. Vietnam has set into place a series of continuing economic reforms resulting to its steady climb to towards a reaching goal of economic sustainability. It has been accepted as a new member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN.

    It has garnered an eight percent economic growth since 1992.  In fact, the ratio of poor to the rich has decreased from its former estimated sixty percent to it a lower thirty seven percent. Poverty still pervades in the country sides of Vietnam. But, life is improving. The following paragraphs explains that one of the many reasons for the economic miracle slowly taking place in Vietnam is because Vietnamese religious leaders like Most Venerable Huyen Quang and Most Venerable Quang Do have been instrumental in forcing government to change their stand in terms of improving the living conditions of the people (Dinh 2000, 360).

BODY

Most Ven. Huyen Quang  

Reference: http://www.fva.org/bios/thquang.htm

Achievements

    Thich Huyen Quang is Vietnam’s most respected Buddhist leader. He is the highest ranking leader of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. One of his best achievements is his fearlessness. He did not fear the government’s retaliatory action when he personally wrote to the Prime Minister of Communist Vietnam Pham Van Dong enumerating more than eighty four occurrences when the  his government  interfered to the point of gagging  his religious sect called Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam or UBCV. Expectedly, the prime minister penalized him for questioning his decisions on curtailment. Most Ven. Thich quyen Quang was immediately arrested and thrown in jail in 1977. He was arrested together with five other personalities who were vocally opposed to the prime minister’s policies on running the Vietnam government (Abuza 2001, 192).

     He and the other leaders were held for opposition government policies. The occasion was specifically dubbed as the Seventh Congress of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. This was the last meeting that this church organization had. Consequently, the arrest of the church leaders led to massive street protests by church followers and supporters in downtown Ho Chi Minh City. The government leaders felt that their best recourse to quell the growing street rallies was to arrest the leaders and hold them incommunicado from their followers.  Thus, the government arrested both Thich Huyen Quang and Thich Quang Do on April 7, 1977 with the charge of distorting government policies. In retaliation, Thich Don Hau resigned from all of his government chores (Friedman 2005, 30).

     One of his many achievements is his nomination by two Nobel Laureates for the Nobel Peace prize in 1982. Even in his cell, the religious leader had been issuing pronouncements reprimanding the Vietnamese government to repent and mend its ways. These series of pronounced had placed the religious leader in deeper water as he continued to increasing gain the ire of the Vietnamese Prime Minister. Another of his achievements is the religious leader’s vocal opposition of Communism for repressing the Vietnamese people.  Naturally, his predecessor, Most Reverend Thich Don Hau appointed  Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang  to replace him as the top man to oversee the operations of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam Institute for Propagation of the Dharma. Thich Huyen Quang formally took over the top post in April 1992 at the burial of his predecessor (1997, 30).

   One special achievement that Most Venerable Huyen Quang  gained was his prowess in poetry making. He was able to compose a poem while being imprisoned in his compassion for human suffering. The particular poem below focuses on the emotional devastation that the relatives of jailed prisoners. His poem Pity for Prisoners  is one of the few surviving poems about prison life.  The poem goes “ They write letters with their blood, to send news home. A lone wild goose flaps through the clouds. How many families are weeping under the same moon? The same thought wandering how far apart?” (Zinoman 2001, 25)

       Trainings

  He is a distinguished author and philosopher. He entered the monk ministry at the mere age of thirteen. He rose in rank until his last post which is being the number one man in the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. He is a Buddhist monk (Nguyen 2002, 87).

      Status

      He is a seventy -four year old prisoner of the current government in power. His arrest in 1977 resulted to the December 8, 1978 verdict for simply being against the military service law and the performance of other social duties. His first arrest in 1977 came two years after the communist took over the government. Another reason for his continued arrest is the religious leader’s opposition to the government’s plan of forcibly incorporating his religious sect so that the church policies will tow the line in terms of the prime minister’s government policies on how to run the Southeast Asian country. Hurdling government restraint, he continues to preach that Buddhism must play an active role in the Vietnamese people’s daily lives. He fights against the government’s dethroning of his religious group the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam or UBCV as the true Buddhist religion in Vietnam.  In April of 2003, he was released from prison after being imprisoned for more than twenty years. He immediately called a meeting of the leaders of his religious sect in October, 2003. The objective of this meeting was to elect a new set of religious officers. Expectedly, Thich Huyen Quang was voted as the Fourth Supreme Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. The government immediately arrested the top leaders of their congregation and threw them in jail (Anh 2002).

      He has been detained by the Vietnam communist government leaders since 1982 for preaching what the government interprets as anti – government activities. He had been detained since 1994 for issuing a manifesto to his religious followers and the people of Vietnam that the government should not restrain the people’s freedom of speech as well as freedom of religious expression. The December 1994 siege and arrest of the religious leader included the Public Security Forces’ confiscation of all his religious books, records and seal located in the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam premises (Gelb, and Betts 1979, 12).

   Many persons have tried to do their share to alleviate the inhuman conditions to take care of his basic needs in terms of food and medical help. Chris Patten is one of them. He has launched a massive worldwide aid to come to the rescue of the beleaguered religious leader. Chris Patten is the European foreign affairs commissioner. Patten’s main objective is to awaken those who could share their blessings by helping the imprisoned Buddhist leader in one way or another. Chris Patten believes his purpose is grand because the Buddhist leader should not be treated like murderers, robbers or a plain common criminal. Chris Patten feels that the current Vietnam government has no right to persecute him. For, Vietnam is a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (Ricketts 2005).

      Recent Condition

  He is currently in prison for espousing ideas that anger the current government in place. No one is allowed to contact him since his incarceration. He continues to be heavily watched by guards like a common criminal despite his being a religious preacher.  His long incarceration has resulted to his life being in a delicate balance. His body appears to be thin from lack of vital vitamins, minerals and other necessary daily food supplements. And, he lacks much needed medical treatment. He is being tortured both physically and mentally by the guards on duty. He is under house arrest in Chua Phuoc Quang, Nghia Hanh, Quang Ngai, Vietnam. He has high blood pressure and requires immediate medical attention. He is also prevented from receiving visitors in his prison (Boyle and Sheen 1997, 255).

     The article, The Washington Times stated that “The U.S. ambassador to Vietnam demonstrated American support for the leader of an outlawed Buddhist church by visiting him yesterday at his home, where he has been under virtual house arrest since October. The U.S. Embassy told Agence France-Presse that Ambassador Raymond Burghardt met for an hour for a “private conversation” with Thich Huyen Quang, the 86-year-old patriarch of the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam. Vietnam’s communist government has accused him and other monks of possessing state secrets and organizing an unofficial church.Although the government insists he is not under arrest, Mr. Quang remains confined to his house in the central province of Binh Dinh.”[1]. The above quote states that the Vietnamese government has been using various methods to justify the arrest of The Buddhist leaders above.

     Most Venerable Thich Quang Do  

Achievements

     In 2001, Most Venerable Thich Quang Do was selected as one of the world’s fifteen personalities to win the coveted Champion of World Democracy. This honor was bestowed on him by the European magazine A Different View.  The other world personalities that were chosen were Nelson Mandela of African, Lech Walesa of Poland and Corazon Aquino of the Philippines(Abuza 2001, 192).

     The Most Venerable Thich Quang Do is a Vietnamese Buddhist leader. He was a very vocal critic of the Communist government in Vietnam. He had been awarded the Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize.  One of his best achievements was the brave –hearted but dangerous issuance of the Appeal for Democracy  in Vietnam. Angry, the people in government power silenced him by literally picking him up and unwillingly dumping him into a Vietnam jail. He was placed under detention in Thanh Minh Zen temple. This temple is located in Saigon(Abuza 2001, 192).

     Also, another achievement is his sending a letter to the secretary general of the Communist Party of Vietnam. The letter was dated August 19, 1994. The Secretary, Do Muoi, received the letter which stated that Most Venerable Thich Quang Do was now engaging in the effort to bringing peace and freedom in Vietnam.  In retrospect, Vietnam fell under communist rule in 1975. The Vietnam War involved the United States. Most Venerable Thich Quang Do immediately questioned the communists’ ransacking of the churches and offices of his religious congregation. Likewise, Most Venerable Quang Do strongly contested the government’s curtailment of the Vietnamese people’s right to freedom of religious expression.

     In retaliation, the communist leaders ordered the immediate arrest of Most Venerable Quang Do and some of key leaders of his church.  One of his fellow United Buddhist Churce of Vietnam leaders arrested at this time was Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang. The government charged these religious leaders for obstructing in the work of the government in religious matters.  The arrest of the church leaders of the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do’s sect in Vietnam occurred in April, 1977. There were also similar massive attacks on the leaders and properties of other religious groups in Vietnam. The church leaders were tortured in violation of the international human rights policies and forced to admit that they were spies of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States in October of the same year, 1977.  On the other hand, Most Venerable Quang Do underwent a communist trial in 1978 a lower charge of disturbing the peace and spreading misinformation (Duiker 1989, 80).

     And, he was later freed by the communist government. And, the communist government established its own communist –leaning version of the Church leaders’ congregation in order to diffuse the very strong influence of the church leaders on their members as well as the entire Vietnamese population. This Diffusion intentioned communist church was set up in 1981. The church leader Venerables were locked up for an entire day in order for the incorporation of the communist -inspired church with the same name to succeed in its plan to detour the original United Buddhist Church of Vietnam. This creation caused confusion in the people because the government appointed its own people to man the top posts of their, shall we say fake, United Buddhist Church of Vietnam.

      To make a complete routing, the government announced that the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam had been “revitalized” because it was now following the dictates of the communist leaders and not the like of its original Venerables like Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang and Most Venerable Quang Do. This government church now outlawed the original church sect led by the venerables Thich Huyen Quang and Thich Quang Do. The government defended it stand to incarcerate the venerables like Thich Huyen Quang and Thich Quand Do for being prominent anti –communist outlaws. The two venerables were then imprisoned in separate locations in Vietnam.

     Likewise, another achievement of the Most Venerable Quang Do occurred in 1994. He traveled to Saigon after ten years of imprisonment on March of 1992. His achieved was the writing of a letter to Communist Party General –Secretary Do Muoi enumerating a long list of the abuses that the members of the United Buddhist Church had to endure under the persecution of the communist leadership starting with the installation of the communist party in 1975. Naturally, Party General –Secretary Do Muoi  was instrumental in the arrest and continued detention of Most Venerable Quang Do and the other United Buddhist Church of Vietnam leaders.

     The Most Venerable Thich Quang Do stated “When religion becomes part of the state’s political apparatus, the state wields absolute authority”[2].

   Comment: the above quote is very powerful. For it is the role of religion to check the abuses of government. This is the main reason why there is a separation of church and state policy. Understandably, the communist forcibly installed their type of government on the people without asking for a vote of confidence. It is simply pure trespassing and grabbing of territory. It is sad to note that the United States suffered a great deal in the Vietnam War.  For, the greatest loss is its defeat under the barrage of continuous protracted attacks by the communists.  The communist leaders stepped up its campaign to consolidate political power with by controlling or ownership of religious groups like the Buddhist church of Most Venerable Quang Do’s United Buddhist Church of Vietnam.

  Also, Most Venerable Quang Do and other dissident religious leaders are very concerned about the issues of the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam. He articulately stated that there is a need for religious freedom in order to reverse many of the devastating effects of communism in Vietnam. He stated that “There is the urgent need to stop superstitious practices and social evils as well as the ravaging moral degradation that is hurting us, especially the younger generations.”[3] There is a continuous battle between the Church and the State to win the hearts of the common people in Vietnam. This is a natural side effect of a communist government where its people are very religious.  The main thrust of the communist ideology is to fully implement the teachings of Karl Marx and Lenin in a new revitalized setting. This revitalized setting includes the innovative program of setting up a market economy in a communist or socialist government (Abuza 2001, 186).

    Both Most Venerable Huyen Quang, MostVenerable Quong do and he leaders of the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam reiterated that the Buddhist ethics state that life is dear to all. And, in order to compare one’s person to another, it should be only seek not kill or cause a killing. Whoever harms persons will not be happy in the after life according to Dhammapada 130 -1. Also Buddhist teachings speak of Karma and rebirth.

Likewise, “the highest teachings of early Buddhism and of the Theravāda school. In the Mahāyāna tradition, an increasing emphasis on compas-sion modified the earlier shared perspective in certain ways”[4]

      Trainings

He was also trained to be a monk like the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang above.

      Status

       He is widely respected in many countries for his views on religious topics and life in communist Vietnam. He was also nominated to the 2000 Nobel Peach Prize by over two hundred parliamentarians from many highly industrialized countries like the United States, Canada, Australia and many others. He was again incarcerated against his will and questioned on his visit to their incarcerated leader, Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang. After the strenuous interrogation, Most Venrable Quang Do was forcibly brought back to Ho Chi Minh City(Jasper 2002).

     He has been one of the leaders of the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam starting in the year 1960. His continued criticism of the current government had made the people in power angry at him. Consequently, he was arrested and freed several times.  He was shocked to personally witness his head in the Buddhist church that he belongs to murdered. His murdered leader’s name is Most Venerable Thich Due Hai. The murderers were the communists. The murder took place on the day the communists swept the entire Vietnamese government and forcibly took control of the entire Vietnamese territory. This murder occurred in August 19, 1945. Also, Most Venerable Thich Quang Do  saw the murder of another of his fellow leaders. This leader was the Most Venerable Thich Dai Hai the following year, 1946. The reason given for his arrest was because he joined a group that was not classified as having a communist ideology. The non –communist group was the Vietnam Nationalist Party.  He was periodically sent back to jail after he was finally released from captivity in August of 1998. He complained to the outside world through talks with foreign media and world leaders about the glaring human rights abuses that the current communist government imposed with impunity(Jasper 2002).

   In addition, He also stated that “political dissent in Vietnam tends to come from within the Communist Party elite rather than from other political institutions and agents of change, such as labor unions, student groups, or an urbanized middle class, all of which tend to be weak in Vietnam.”[5].

   Comment: He gave this opinion because communist party was trying to suppress the right of labor unions, student groups and the urbanized middles class to do whatever they want provided it does not infringe on the right of other persons, organizations or groups (Jasper 2002).

     Recent Condition

The website www.hrw.org/reports/1995/Vietnam.htm stated that Venerable Quando Do was exiled to his birthplace of Vu Doai in Thai Binh province after the crackdown on the venerables representing the original United Buddhist Church of Vietnam,.  His mother was also exiled together with him. His was exiled at the age of 90 years. She finally succumbed to the cold virus and died in the winter of 1985.

   The same website above stated that Most Venerable Quang Do and some of his fellow Monk leaders underwent trial for the charge of sabotaging government policies and damaging the interests of the state by the People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City. They were convicted of the charges. The evidences that caused their demise were the defendants’ attempt to gather food supplies to be delivered to the flood victims in the Mekong Delta as well as their distribution of their arrested leader’s leaders who was imprisoned to their church members.

  He is currently in prison for voicing his intention to bring back their besieged and incarcerated leader Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang from his prison back to Saigon in 2001. Most Venerable Quang Do is being guarded twenty –four hours a day by gaurds in his cell.

      The above arrest of Buddhist religious leaders as well as religious leaders of other church groups by the communist government of Vietnam is only the tip of the iceberg. For, the arrest of Father Ly, Most Venerable Thich Quang Do of UBC Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, Mr. Le Quang Liem of the Hoa Hao Buddhist organization, Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam who had been held under house arrest for more than twenty years without being brought to trial does not include the thousands of other religious prisoners who are unaccounted for or cannot be located (Jasper 2002).

      Also, in deciding whether to open up relations with the communist leaders of Vietnam upon the request of the Visiting Vietnamese Prime Minister, Sereivurth Prak, a Khmer Krom from California stated in a Washington D.C. rally when Vietnam’s Prime Minister visited the United States that any relationship between Vietnam and the United States must not come at the expense of the ordinary people. Helen Ngo of the Committee  for Religious Freedom in Vietnam stated that economic relations between the United States and Vietnam would only accrue to the benefit of the few leaders of the government as the few people in the urban cities. However, the ordinary people in the countryside would not feel the gains of the relations because there is a very probability that money or improved living conditions would permeate into the countryside where many of the poor live(Jasper 2002).

    “We do not mind seeing an approval of relationships between Vietnam and the Unitd Staes[6]”says Sereivuth Prak, a Khmer Krom who flew from California to attend the Washington rally. “But relations should not come at the expense of the people.” Helen Ngo of the Committee for Religious Freedom in Vietnam, a group formed after the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998, says economic development is important for Vietnam, but right now “it just helps the high-ranking officers in the country. For a few people who live in the city, maybe they can get a little bit of benefit, but the people who live in the countryside cannot.”[7]

  The website http://www.hrw.org/reports/1995/Vietnam.htm stated that both Most Venerable Huyen Quong and Most Venerable Quong Do wrote a report to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention   on the Vietnam leaders’ continued violation of human rights and religious freedom.  These two top Buddhist religious leaders called on the United Stations to force the Communist government of Vietnam to free the religious prisoners in Vietnam.

OTHER Buddhist Religious leaders under incarceration in Vietnam

  There are other Buddhist Religious leaders who are members of the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam that are in prison in Vietnam. They include

♥ Thich Tri Luc. He was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City for his involvement in the United

    Buddhist Church of Vietnam relief fund for the Vietnamese flood victims.

♥ Thich Tri Tuu. He is the head monk of the Linh Mu pagoda in Hue. He is a disciple of Thid Don Hau.

 Works Cited

Abuza, Zachary. Renovating Politics in Contemporary Vietnam. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2001.

Anh, Nguyen The. “From Indra to Maitreya: Buddhist Influence in Vietnamese Political Thought.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 33.2 (2002): 225+.

Boyle, Kevin, and Juliet Sheen, eds. Freedom of Religion and Belief: A World Report.  London: Routledge, 1997.

“Celebrating Israel.” The Washington Times 29 Apr. 2004: A16.

Dinh, Quan Xuan. “The Political Economy of Vietnam’s Transformation Process.” Contemporary Southeast Asia 22.2 (2000): 360.

Duiker, William J. Vietnam since the Fall of Saigon. Athens, OH: Ohio University, Center for International  Studies, 1989.

Friedman, Rachel Zabarkes. “Righteous Protests: When the Vietnamese Prime Minister Came to the United States, He Heard from Vietnamese Americans.” National Review 18 July 2005: 30. Questia. 4 Feb. 2008 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5011208952>.

Gelb, Leslie H., and Richard K. Betts. The Irony of Vietnam: The System Worked. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1979.

Harvey, Peter. An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics:  Foundations, Values, and Issues. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Jasper, William F. “Victims of the Hanoi Gulag.” The New American 2 Dec. 2002: 21+. Questia. 4 Feb. 2008 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002504385>.

Nguyen, Viet Thanh. Race & Resistance:  Literature & Politics in Asian America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Ricketts, Rita. “Post-Modern States: Rita Ricketts Interviews

. Vietnam Joins the World. Ed. James W. Morley and Masashi Nishihara. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1997.

Zinoman, Peter. “One Reading Revolutionary Prison Memoirs.”  The Country of Memory:  Remaking the Past in Late Socialist Vietnam. Ed. Hue-Tam Ho Tai. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001. 21-39.

WEBSITES:  

Most Ven. Thich Huyen Quang, retrieved February 4, 2008,

            http://www.fva.org/bios/thquang.htm

Vietnam, suppression of the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam

     Retrieved Feb 4, 2007, http://www.hrw.org/reports/1995/Vietnam.htm

[1] Thich Huyen Quang is not free to exercise Buddhism “Celebrating Israel” 2004, A16

[2] Separation of church and state creates a check and balance(Abuza 2001, 183)

[3] The communist state leaders wants to shut the Buddhist leaders’ anti –government criticisms a(Abuza 2001, 186)

[4] Buddhism is a very old religion (Harvey 2000, 8)

[5] The communists invaded the democratic Vietnam  uninvitedly (Abuza 2001, 183)

[6] (Friedman 2005, 30)

[7] Life is economically difficult in Vietnam (Friedman 2005, 30)