[Buddha-l] Some history on Buddhism in Vietnam

[jkirk]

http://www.hrw.org/reports/1995/Vietnam.htm     (from Human
Rights Watch website)

The Unified Buddhist Church 

Buddhism, Vietnam's majority religion, has been closely tied to
politics and national identify for centuries, but at no time more
so than during the twentieth century struggle for Vietnam's
independence. The Buddhist community of south and central Vietnam
came to world attention in 1963, when it became the catalyst for
mass demonstrations in the streets of Saigon, Hue and Da Nang
that helped topple the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem.
President Diem and his family had alienated the country's
Buddhist majority over the previous decade by giving patronage
and favors to Vietnam's Catholic minority. In 1963, when Buddhist
organizations in Hue began to speak out against this favoritism,
Diem responded by enforcing a ban on the display of any flags
other than the national flag on the anniversary of the Buddha's
birthday. On May 8, 1963, Buddhist flags were flown in Hue in
defiance of the order, and government troops killed nine people
when they opened fire on the celebrating crowds. 

Two days later, ten thousand Buddhists took to the streets.
Diem's government jailed leading monks and their supporters.
Further protests and arrests throughout the summer culminated in
the self-immolation of the Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc on a
Saigon street corner. These protests, among other factors,
impelled the U.S. government to withdraw its support for the Diem
government. 

The junta headed by Duong Van Minh that overthrew Diem freed
jailed Buddhist leaders and allowed a Buddhist conference that
Diem had banned to be held between December 1963 and January
1994.  The conference established the Unified Buddhist Church of
Vietnam (Unified Buddhist Church) at the An Quang pagoda in
Saigon, with the intention of uniting the religious, cultural,
and secular affairs of all Vietnamese Buddhist sects.  Although a
handful of more conservative and ascetic sects declined to join
the group, the majority of southern and central Vietnamese
Buddhists of both the Theravada and Mahayana traditions became
members of the Unified Buddhist Church.   

Social activism was a hallmark of the Unified Buddhist Church
from its inception, growing out of a reform movement earlier in
the century which sought to modernize Buddhism by linking it to
social development and national independence. From the Unified
Buddhist Church's earliest days, however, there were divisions in
the leadership over how to best to promote social change--
through demonstrations, or urban educational programs, or direct
social action at the village level. Despite these disagreements,
the Unified Buddhist Church established many social institutions,
including the Van Hanh University in Saigon, Buddhist hospitals,
orphanages, elementary and secondary schools, and the School of
Youth for Social Service led by Thich Nhat Hanh. 

As the war progressed, the Unified Buddhist Church's continued
calls for peace and its position of neutrality brought it into
conflict with a succession of South Vietnamese political leaders.
In 1964, Gen. Nguyen Khanh banned the use of Buddhist symbols and
outlawed "actions in support of neutralism." In early 1966,
Unified Buddhist Church leaders launched demonstrations
denouncing government corruption, demanding the restoration of
civilian rule, and calling on the U.S. government to withdraw its
support for the government of Nguyen Cao Ky. Although soldiers in
the vicinity of Hue and Da Nang refused orders to squelch these
protests, Ky unleashed paratroopers against Buddhist
demonstrators in May. In the succeeding months, Unified Buddhist
Church members around the country were jailed, forced into exile,
or in many cases disappeared or killed. 

The Unified Buddhist Church continued its peace activities
through the end of the war, but in the face of continued
repression and intensifying war after 1968, its personnel and
resources were taken up in providing emergency aid to casualties
and refugees. 

After 1975, the new communist government quickly took over the
administration of the Unified Buddhist Church's properties and
institutions, prompting protests and demonstrations by church
members. In March 1977, after security personnel came to take
control of the Buddhist-run Quach Tri Trang orphanage, the
Unified Buddhist Church's executive council issued a public
protest, and Buddhists carried out mass demonstrations through
the streets of the city. The government responded to demands for
greater religious freedom and the return of church property by
arresting six members of the Unified Buddhist Church's Executive
Council on April 7 on charges of "having distorted government
policies" and "having received documents from abroad that were
distributed to their followers." 

Two of the monks arrested were Thich Huyen Quang [who just died
on July 4th] and Thich Quang Do, respectively the executive vice
president and secretary general of the Unified Buddhist Church's
Executive Council. Both had previously been imprisoned by the
government of Ngo Dinh Diem. In response to their arrests, Thich
Don Hau, who later became the supreme patriarch of the Unified
Buddhist Church, resigned from positions the government had given
him as a member of the National Assembly and the Fatherland
Front.  

Thich Huyen Quang and Thich Quang Do were tried and released from
detention with suspended sentences in April 1978, after twenty
months in detention. 

In 1980, the government called on Buddhist monks to initiate
meetings to unify all Buddhist organizations from the north and
south. Thich Huyen Quang and Thich Quang Do opposed these
meetings, and were publicly denounced by Thich Minh Chau, a
member of the government-appointed unification committee, for
trying to "sabotage the unity effort" and "openly defy the
government and the Fatherland Front." At the congress, which was
eventually held in November of 1981, the Vietnam Buddhist Church
was established by government-selected delegates. The Vietnam
Buddhist Church's charter defined it as the sole representative
of Vietnamese Buddhism in all of its relations both within and
outside the country.  

At the time of its creation, this church was also designated as
an official mass organization affiliated with the Fatherland
Front. Although the state-supported church had titular authority
over all Buddhists in Vietnam, many of members of the Unified
Buddhist Church leadership refused to recognize its authority. In
February 1982, the government sent Thich Huyen Quang, Thich Quang
Do, and at least four other Buddhist leaders into internal exile
for their continued protests against the establishment of the
Vietnam Buddhist Church. In July of that year, security police
took over and closed the An Quang Pagoda, headquarters of the
Unified Buddhist Church since its founding in 1964.... 
[Thich Huyen Quang is now dead; Thich Quang Do is still under
house arrest to this day. JK]

There is more history in this article than I can excerpt here.
Joanna