[Buddha-l] Bat Nha Dispute: update

Sun Aug 2 08:46:10 MDT 2009

 Re-sending
X-posted from Vietnam studies Group list an AP article received
yesterday JK ===================================

Vietnam's dispute with Zen master turns violent By BEN STOCKING
(AP) - 1 hour ago

HANOI, Vietnam - Communist Vietnam's sometimes edgy relationship
with religious freedom is being tested in a dispute over a
monastery inhabited by disciples of Thich Nhat Hanh, one of the
world's most famous Zen masters.

For four years, the Buddhist monks and nuns at Bat Nha monastery
in central Vietnam have been quietly meditating and studying the
teachings of the 82-year-old Vietnamese sage who is perhaps the
world's best-known living Buddhist after Tibet's Dalai Lama.

But lately, they are in a standoff that could test the patience
of even the most enlightened.

First, local authorities cut off their power, water and
telephones.

Then, a mob descended on their compound with sledgehammers,
smashing windows, damaging buildings and threatening occupants.

Communist authorities have ordered the 379 Vietnamese monks to
leave the monastery in Vietnam's Central Highlands. They say the
standoff stems from disagreements between two Buddhist factions
at the monastery.

But Hanh's followers believe they are being punished because of
Hanh's praise for the Dalai Lama and his call to broaden
religious freedom in Vietnam.

The affair represents a remarkable turnaround from four years
ago, when France-based Hanh returned to his native land after 39
years of exile during which he developed a philosophy called
"Engaged Buddhism" and sold more than a million books in the
West.

In 1966 he had been forced out of what was then U.S.-backed South
Vietnam for criticizing the Vietnam War. His return in 2005 made
the front pages of state-owned newspapers, and he met with the
prime minister.

The abbot at Bat Nha, which belonged to the official Buddhist
Church of Vietnam, invited Hanh's followers to train monks in
their brand of Buddhism at the temple there.

Many saw all this as evidence that the Communist government was
easing restrictions on religious freedom. Hanh's supporters spent
$1 million to buy land for new buildings and a meditation hall
that holds up to 1,800 people.

But the harmony began to unravel last year, Hanh's followers say.
Chinese officials were upset about published comments he made in
support of the Dalai Lama and pressured Vietnam to bar the Zen
master from addressing an international Buddhist gathering in
Hanoi, they say.

In an interview with Italian TV, Hanh had said that Vietnam
should allow the Dalai Lama to attend the Hanoi gathering and
China should allow the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet to meet with
his followers there, just as Hanh was allowed to return to
Vietnam.

"I'm sure he knew that speaking out would bring him problems,"
said Sister Dang Nghiem, a close Hanh associate who spent six
months at Bat Nha.

And soon enough, problems began.

On Oct. 29, 2008, the chairman of Vietnam's national Committee on
Religious Affairs wrote a letter accusing Plum Village, Hanh's
monastery in southern France, of publishing false information
about Vietnam on its Web site.

Without mentioning specifics, the letter said the information
distorted Vietnam's policies on religion and could undermine
national unity.

The letter also said that Hanh's followers should leave Bat Nha
and stressed that Abbot Duc Nghi, the property's original owner,
wanted them to go.

Nghi could not be reached, and committee members declined to
comment, saying they needed several days to arrange an interview.

Sister Dang said the Plum Village followers were taken by
surprise when Nghi told them to leave because the abbot had
visited the monastery in France two or three times and seemed to
respect Hanh.

She theorized that Nghi must have been pressured from above to
ask the Plum Village practitioners to leave. Otherwise, she said,
any tensions between the two camps could have been resolved.

However, according to Hanh's supporters, some of Nghi's followers
and other local residents have harassed them intermittently over
the last year.

On June 27 the power was cut. Then the compound was raided, and
two days later a mob threw rocks and animal excrement at a
delegation from the local branch of Vietnam's official Buddhist
church that came to investigate, members of the group said.

Local authorities said it was the abbot who asked for the
electricity to be cut, and that it was restored two weeks ago.

But Phap Hoi, a monk at Bat Nha, said in a telephone interview
this week that the power was still out.

The animosities may predate last year's row over the Dalai Lama.
A provincial police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity,
accused Hanh of breaking Vietnamese law during a 2007 visit when
he suggested to President Nguyen Minh Triet that Vietnam abolish
government control of religion.

"He should focus on Buddhism and keep out of politics," the
officer said, adding that the monks have until September to
relocate.

Hanh's followers say they're staying put.

"We just want to practice and do good works," said Sister Dang.
"We want to live together in harmony."

Hanh denies trying to stir up trouble. In a July 20 letter to his
Bat Nha followers he praised them for remaining peaceful and said
any notion that they harbored political aims was a "delusion."

"If you can master the anger in you," Hanh wrote, "you can give
rise to understanding and love."