THE UNIFIED BUDDHIST CHURCH OF VIETNAM

The Struggle for Survival

Instances of resistance to repression of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam shrank as the State escalated repression against it. The Church could only operate activities in several large cities, mostly in Saigon and Hue. The authorities restricted even the practice of humanitarian services. The distributions of food to the victims of flood in the in the plains of Bassac River were interrupted by the authorities was a case in point. On the morning of  October 7, 2000, the delegation of Buddhist monks and believers of the Unified Buddhist Church from the province of An Giang that came to rescue the victims of flood was repeatedly stopped and interrogated by the local police. They complicated the situation, impeding the delegation to do their task. They intervened in the distrution of relef aids while Rector of the Institute of the Propagation for the Dharma Thich Quang Do was giving aid items to the flood victims in the commune of Vinh Hoi, district of An Phu. Police stopped the delegation when it was on the way to the destination. All members of the delegation were subjected to an interrogation that lasted from 10 A.M. to 22 P.M. The following day, the Venerable Thich Khong Tanh of Lien Tri Pagoda, Saigon, was repeatedly interrogated. The police blamed the monk, who had been under house surveillance, for having left his residence without permission. The monk was forced to return to Saigon on the morning of October 9. The other members of the group were kept under watch. To such a distress, the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do’s poor health became increasingly deteriorated due to severe weather, the delegation  had to abortrt the  mission. 

        

Under suffocating control of the administration, the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, on September 28, 2000,  in a letter sent to the Buddhist laity, denouncing the suppression of the State, obstructing the Church from giving relief  aids to flood victims. He informed the believers of the difficulties the Church had met in the service for the helpless. The letter noted that during September 21-22, 2000, three delegations had sent and delivered money and food to the flood victims of the three provinces of the western region of the South. One of them had been forced to stop from entering the  province of An Giang by the police of Long Xuyen Township. Regardless of repression, this delegation finally reached the destination and achieved its mission. In an open letter dated September 24, 2000, he informed the authorities of the Church’s mission and requested them to lift up obstructions of the police and their intervention in the distribution of relief aids to the needed of the Church.

  

Spiritual leaders of the Church challenged the authorities’s repression. On October 6, 2000, three other delegations joined in a journey to deliver reliefs aids to flood victims. One of them was forbidden to leave Saigon, but  the others met with no hindranc. These two delegations were combined into one delegation, consisting of the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do  and twelve monks, nuns, and believers. The delegation arrived in Chau Doc. A number of followers, who had come to the province some time earlier, joined it, raising the number of the delegation to 25. On the way, the group was intercepted by the police when a number of other believers came to join it. The mission was aborted.

     

The Police never ceased causing trouble to the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do thereafter. They kept a close watch on him, especially when he planned to pay a visit to the Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang, who had been placed under residence surveillance in Hoi Nghia Pagoda, Quang Ngai Province. On February 2, 2001, the monk and companions left Saigon in a car. The journey was without nuisance. It was stopped by two police agents for unfounded reason. They intercepted the car, communicated to their superior at the Headquarters and let the delegation to continue the trip. Police chek-points were posited  all along the delegation’s itinerary, in Nha Trang, Binh Dinh, and Quang Ngai.  At some locations, the police executed verification of occupation identity cards of the occupants.

Upon arrival at the destination, the delegation was brought to a blind alley.  The local authorities had already encircled Hoi Nghia Pagoda. The delegation had to stay overnight at Quang Phuoc Pagoda. The Most Venerable Thich Quang Do would only meet the Patriarch there. When the members of the delegation prepared to go to bed, a group of policemen came and proceeded a verification of identity of each of the visitors. They stood guard over the monks closely until they took their journey back to Saigon. Police checkpoints were still posited along the delegation’s itinerary.

 A few kilometers away from the departure, their vehicle was stopped by a group of 20 policemen. Under the pretext of searching for the “materials” that might endanger national security, they proceeded a careful corporal search-through of the monks. The drew minutes of a search-through of the vehicle as well. All the doors and tires of the vehicle were dismantled. Many articles for personal use of the monks were confiscated. The search-through lasted three hours. It was not until three o’clock in the afternoon  that  the delegation could resume their journey. And, only after a halt at another pagoda could the delegation continue their trip without trouble.  At nine o’clock in late evening when the delegation arrived in the vicinity of Nha Trang, the police had been waiting for it. They stopped the car and drove the monks to a police checkpoint for a troublesome search-through. The situation became so tense that it made the blood pressure of the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do malignant. A medical doctor was sent for to verify the state of health of the monk. The search-through resumed and lasted until 1 o’clock in the morning. The delegation could spend the night at a hotel in Nha Trang. They came back to Saigon, entirely exhausted. 

    

In his letter to the four supreme leaders of the Communis Party and State on the occasion of the Lunar New Year, the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do reaffirmed the fulfillment of all duties towards the country of Buddhism since the August 1945 Revolution. Nevertheless, the Communist Party and have never honored the legal legitimacy of the Unified Buddhist Church; nether have they respected the rights to religious freedom of the Buddhist laity. The Church’s faithful had associated with the Fatherland Front and served with loyalty the national cause in the struggle by the people against three enemies; hunger, illiteracy, and foreign invasion. He requested the Communist Party and State to materialize the respect for religious freedom, which obligation they have ever assured to fulfill.

In his open letter to the Buddhist laity of Saigon, he affirmed that Buddhism could bloom veritably only with national independence. Referring to the engagements in the fight against the three enemies by the late leader of the Communist Party, tHo Chi Minh, the dignitary affirmed that one of the three enemies, the invaders, had departed. However, The other two engagements that Ho Chi Minh had committed to fulfill has not been realized. Worse still, by a hostile religious policy, the Communist Party and State have executed repressive measures to eliminate the Unified Buddhist Church.  Instead of promoting the respect for human rights, the Communist Party and State persistently repress it. Ho Chi Minh once addressed to the Buddhists: “If you want to save human beings from misfortunes, you must sacrifice yourselves and fight.” Nevertheless, this forceful statement of “Uncle Ho” has  proven to be an empty rhetoric!

  

 After this introduction destined to call on the Buddhists to remain faithful to their commitments, the dignitary clarified the meaning of the term “Unified.” which is the definite content of the appellation “Unified Buddhist Church.” The term is destined, in his view, to remind the faithful of the commitments that traditional Vietnamese Buddhism had translated into practice in the 1960’s. For the first time in history, together with world Buddhists, the Vietnamese Buddhist community undertook the unification of the Buddhist Small and Great Vehicles, incorporating them into a unified organization.  The term also designates the elimination of all erroneous and discriminatory aspects of separation between the Shanga and the laity, thus filling up the gap separating  the sacred  and the profane.

    

In his letter to the government on the celebration of the Lunar year Canh Thin (2001), the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do presented problematic issues that entangled the State and the Church in a riddle without an answer. Evoking the traditional religious tenets observed by previous ancient dynasties, the dignitary, mentioned, first of all, the State.s abuse of power and requested the Communist rule to release prisoners of conscience incarcerated for their ideas of dissidence, of faith, or of religion. He asked for the levy of residence surveillance imposed on the Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church, the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, who had been under administrative detention for 18 years. The amnesty should necessarily be accompanied by a reduction of taxes for the peasants that constitute 80% of the population.

   

The dignitary further stressed that the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam should be given back all its rights, including the rights to free conduct its normal religious services and activities. Of equal importance, the Church must be entitled to legal rights to function as a religious institution. The letter put forward  the responsibilities of the Unified Buddhism in its divine mission to redeem people and brave social plague and moral decadence that devastate miserably the country nowadays. Finally, the dignitary requested the abolishment of death penalty. 

Repression rolled on, and the Buddhist leadership was subject to stricter control. The Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang was not an exception.  On July 6, 2000, two cadres of the section of religious affairs and the police of Quang Ngai came to see and “work with” the Patriarch at Hoi Nghia Pagoda. The ailing monk was interrogated on the letter he had issued on the occasion of the anniversary of April 30.  He was questioned about who was the true author of the letter and who signed it under his name. The Patriarch said that the opinions expressed in it were his, and they reflected the aspirations of his Church. The interlocutor blamed him for his pessimism about the Vietnamese society. The Patriarch said that his views were only based on information from governmental sources. A policeman who, without courtesy, treated him as a criminal. He asked him, if this was such a case, why had the police have to come to subject him to an interrogation.

   

Instances of harassment occurred elsewhere in the country. In July 2000, the pagodas in Saigon that sheltered members of the Institute of the Propagation for the Buddhist Faith were besieged by the police. In Da Lat in the highlands, in Quang Nam, and Quang Ngai in Central Vietnam, dignitaries and prestigious members of the Buddhist Family were subjected to interrogation. Eventually, two Buddhist monks in Fourth District, Saigon, the Venerable Thich Quang Hue and the Venerable Thich Tam Minh, the superiors of the pagodas Thanh Tuyen and Linh Son, respectively, were convoked for interrogation, In August 2000. The Venerable Thich Quang Hue, who was the responsible for the Commission of Social Welfare of the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church, was interrogated on his journey for charitable  works he had accomplished in various regions in Central Vietnam damaged by flood. The Venerable Thich Tam Minh was interrogated on the reasons for which he had disengaged from the official Church. In his answer, the monk presented his case: “The Buddhist Church of Vietnam is a member of the Fatherland Front and an instrument in the hand of the Vietnamese Communist Party.” He added that, had religious freedom existed in Vietnam, the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam would not have the need to organize its Eighth Congress in the United States. He equally ascertained that the movement of unification of the Buddhist Churches was purely religious and did not bear any political ambition. It did not seek to overthrow the actual political regime.