IN THE JAWS OF ATHEISM

The Communists considered Catholicism as a reactionary force that ever opposed the "Revolution" --communism. Repression against the Catholics resumed following the takeover of Hanoi after the Agreements of July 1954. It ran high along with campaigns for confiscation of private business and industry property and eradication of the petty bourgeoisie. The Catholic clergy, being regarded the mastermind of the exodus to the South, became the target for vengeance, and the Catholic faithful, the target for suspicion. Catholic priests who stayed and had nothing to do with politics met with difficulties. The priests performed under watch their ministerial duties, and the faithful practiced their faith in fear. Religious intolerance persisted with violence. The administration expelled from the country all foreign missionaries. Among them were the Dominicans and the Jesuits who served faith at the "Missions Etrangeres de Paris" and the Phuc Hung Center. All religious institutions and establishments belonging to the mission were dispossessed. Fr, Dupont was killed at Ke So. Ha Nam, and Fr. Fournier was assassinated in Hanoi.

"Normal church activities were not permitted to continue, albeit they were only conducted in the shadow for fear of repression. The seemingly active normalcy of the religious life of the Catholics was apparent. The Church’s The major part of them were either dispossessed or requisitioned. The autonomy as a social institution was banned The Church was tripped off the authority to operate its own systems of educational institutions and humanitarian establishments --schools, hospitals, dispensaries, social shelters, and orphanages. Priests and nuns were required to devote part of their time to productive labor in agriculture. Nevertheless, officials claimed that Catholics had complete freedom of worship as long as they did not question the principle of collective socialism, spurn manual labor, or jeopardize the internal and external security of the state (Ronald J. Cima, 1989:123-124)."

Catholicism resisted enmity and destruction in silence. Unable to destroy the faith with violence, the Communists diluted the Catholic Church with repressive measures to wear out its clergy and religious Orders and cowed its faithful into submission. In September 1960, the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam proclaimed its official policy to concretize a resolution passed by the Third Party Congress of the Vietnamese Workers' Party. According to the new rulings, Marxism - Leninism should play the dominant role in the moral life of the country. It is the ideology of all the people. It is the basis on which the people build a new morality. To achieve their purpose, the Party created "work teams" to operate within the Fatherland Front. High dignitaries and priests of the Church were targeted with control and isolation from the faithful. The Church’s direction is placed in the hands of State-affiliated priests among whom were Vo Thanh Trinh, Ho Thanh Bien, and Vo Xuan Ky. In the same year, the Liaison Committee of Patriotic and Peace-Loving Catholics was created with an aim to win over the Catholic faithful’ s confidence. The Catholics who had chosen to remain were, in fact, reluctant to cooperate with the Communists. They were slower than the non-Catholics to embrace the political regime that tried with violence to "reintegrate" them into "the great masses of the people."

All through the Vietnam War (1960-1975), the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam suffered tragic losses, materially and spiritually. The clergy was paralyzed in their religious services. The faithful served their faith under rigorous circumstances In the most populated province of Thai Binh, for instance, church attendance presented a picture of loneliness and sadness. In many parishes, Sunday Mass was celebrated without a celebrant. The one-time most-frequented cathedral in Thai Binh Township and the one in Thai Ninh Prefecture were` all dilapidated. The Sa Cat Cathedral and Luong Dong Cathedral were deserted. There were no residential priests, and the followers were like a flock of sheep without a shepherd." To execute the tactics of "civil action," the administration occasionally loosened their grip but kept close watch on the Church. Religious services were allowed but under watch. Texts of preaching. were censured, and religious activities could only performed on prior authorization.

A Protest

Vietnam is a one-party rule. A single ideology, which is communism, governs the entire life of the citizens. The Communist Party of Vietnam, under the aegis of communism, assumes power in all sectors of the public life of v the people, legal, administrative, and judiciary. Democratic centralism allows only Communist party members voice aspirations, concerns, and ideas, commonly predisposed by and actuated with approval of the Party. The people have little voice in the process. They nevertheless seek to manifest aspirations by different forms of protest whenever opportunity presents itself. Witnesses who survived periods of hardship and religious repression in North Vietnam (1956-1960) told a Vietnam Human Rights Watch representative that the Catholic faithful never trusted the Communist Party and State.

Nguyen Duy Nhat, 48, was educated and grew up under Communist North Vietnam. A Catholic of Bui Chu Diocese, Ha Nam Ninh Province, Nguyen and his family survived misery during the Vietnam War. In 1977, the Nguyen family immigrated to the South. They settled in Cai San, Long Xuyen Province, where they sought by all means to escape from their one-time land of dream. The family came to the United States in 1988 and lived in Phillips Ranch, California. Nguyen recalled the difficulties life faithful in Bui Chu Diocese had faced the period following the Communist takeover of Hanoi in 1954:

"The spiritual life in the diocese under the new independent and free Democratic Republic of Vietnam wasn't better. In my childhood, I had learned from my experience that the Communists and the Catholics are incompatible. They are like fire and water; the one cannot exist in the presence of the other. There is no wonder if we, the Catholics, are subjected to Communist control. The local cadres are after us everywhere. Their target us with harm. Like devils and ghosts, they haunt our home day and night .

Bui Chu is one of the largest dioceses in North Vietnam. It is the birthplace of the Roman Catholic Church of Vietnam. The Catholics there are fervent. They serve their faith with resilience under the most extreme circumstances. By the time the Democratic Republic Government of Vietnam returned to Hanoi, there were approximately two hundred parishes throughout the diocese. Bishop Tinh was the Master of the Flock. Every follower, of course, venerated him. His goodness, integrity, and devotion to God were self-evident. The Communists knew that they could not, in any way, disunite the congregation under his leadership and neither could they disband the religious associations in the diocese by denigrating the Church and defaming the bishop. The local Communist cadres then staged up campaigns to denounce "the priests in the parishes to crimes of misconduct." They organized a so-called Congress of Catholic Youths at Quan Phuong Village. They selected "representatives" from the parishes, who, in reality, were the cadres disguising themselves as prominent, pious Catholics to participate in it. Their main objective was to disunite the Church members. They disabled the clergy, asking the Bishop to discharge certain priests.

Perceiving their vile scheme, Bishop Tinh, at the celebration of Holy Mass at Bui Chu Cathedral, pronounced he invalidated the cause of congress. His warning was clear: "Any Catholic youth participates in it will face excommunication." The congress was nevertheless proceeded inside the Main Cathedral. All "representatives" were in attendance. The parishioners quickly unveiled them. Whispering to one another, everyone came to recognize these scabby sheep. The atmosphere became tense. Everyone was furious as their vile intention was brought out. Right after the inauguration Mass, the parishioners, in groups, raked for them and challenged them with fists and feet. The cadres failed to trace out masterminds since the believers from one parish only chose the representatives in another parish as the targets for their furor.

The Communists never easily give in, however. They failed to use the masses to create pressure on the Church, disable, and disorganize it this time. Nevertheless, they bought the time and sought other means to avenge it. Step by step, they pushed forward legal measures, officially applying all rules and regulations on religions such as the resolutions, orders, and notices by the central government or by themselves to put the Church under control. They closed down the seminary at Ninh Cuong, Hai Hau District and the Orders at Trung Ninh, Luc Thuy, and so on, and confiscated the properties and lands of the Church. Father Luong Huy Han, Director of Ninh Cuong Seminary, who resisted the orders, was arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and forced to starve in prison. He set a shining example to all Catholics. He sacrificed for his duties as a servant of God. Short of physical means, the seminary fell to decadence. Later, only 10 of the 29 seminarians that had been ordained were allowed to continue their priesthood; the rest were stopped short of their studies and were to return home. At last, the seminary ceased to operate, and, as consequence, the formation of priests was put to an end.

The shortage of priests became increasingly severe. There were 10 priests replacing the old priests, who passed away as years went by, to serve the Church in the diocese of nearly 200 parishes during nearly 40 years. All of them in their turn became old, but there was still no hope for replacement. In 1955, a priest had to take charge of the ministerial services at an average of 12 parishes at a time. This difficulty deeply affected the religious preaching and services tremendously. Sunday Masses rotated among the local cathedrals. The believers had to walk for miles and miles from the very early morning to go to church and attend Masses. The Communists thought that, by creating difficulties and mounting pressure on the Church, the Catholics would eventually renounce their faith. Contrary to their wishes, the more oppression they exerted on them, the more faithful to God they would become. On the annual celebrations, such as the Diocese’s Patronage Saint Day, the Commemoration Day for the Saint Martyrs, and the Commemoration Day for Our Immaculate Mother, as many as tens of thousands of the faithful came to the Diocese Main Cathedral to profess their faith!

A Vile Trick

Nguyen also said: "We should not underestimate the Communists. They are very cunning in using their artful tactics to destroy their adversaries. They are clever at deceiving people to win the final battle. They know how to wait for the right time to execute their scheme. The right time came with the agrarian reforms in 1956. Seizing this opportunity, the local cadres immediately carried out artful measures not only to wipe out the landlords but also to exterminate those whom they considered the enemies of the regime. Among these "enemies" were the intellectuals and officials of the old regime, the clergy of all religions, and, especially, Catholic priests and the followers of virtues and prestige. Nguyen’ s father-in-law, Dinh Van Tac, a pious and virtuous Catholic of Quat Lam Parish, was one among them. These "reactionaries" were brought to trials before the People's Court, chaired by the cadres themselves and persecuted by their henchmen. In every parish, there were two or more victims sentenced to death and shot on the spot. Father Dinh Quang Hien of Phu Nhai Parish was also brought to trial. Unable to accuse him of any crime, the local cadres charged him with the crime to evade the taxrs: He had not paid land taxes for uncountable years, dating back to the founding of the parish (200 years)! He was imprisoned for 6 years afterwards. This artful trick was certainly a warning on the part of the local authorities and the first step in executing their tactics to destroy religion and silence any opposition that might occur in the future (Trung Tan, VHRW. Interview with Nguyen Duy Nhat, October 20, 1994)."

　

Glory in Faith

However repressed under control, the Catholic faithful lived their faith’ The Catholic clergy, in particular, showed courage and tenacity, setting the example to the faithful. Fr. Pham Dinh Tung was eminently known for his devotion to the services to the Church. In 1950, he was assigned for the direction of Bach Mai Center of Social Works. In 1955, he was appointed the director of the Little Seminary Saint Jean. He met with difficulties from the authorities who sought to put the seminary under their control. In 1960, the authorities increased control on the Church. He resisted with resilience the instruction of Marxism - Leninism in the seminary. As a result, the institution was closed down, which fact he accepted with bitter grief to maintain independence from the State. In 1963, he was nominated the bishop of Bac Ninh Diocese. Facing regulations and restrictions from the administration, he overcame difficulties in silence, not only to let the religious life of the diocese subordinate to the ciil authorities but also helped to develop it in others. Over 40 years in the jaws of atheism, he humbly devoted himself to the service of the Church. He was nominated the Archbishop of Hanoi and became the second Cardinal of Vietnam on November 11, 1994.

All through the period following the Geneva Agreements of July 1954, the religious life was stifled. In large cities, Haiphong, Nam Dinh, and Hanoi, religious services and activities were paralyzed. The little body of priests who stayed after the exodus to the South became the target of hatred and suspicion. Catholic priests were summoned to interrogation at local headquarters or offices of the administration. They were required to attend meetings at local street wards’ offices to be indoctrinated. Many of them were attributed to as the collaborators with or henchmen of the French. Many were brought to stand judgment before the People’s council. In Nam Dinh, Fr. Quynh was restricted to solitary detention, Fr. Nhan was targeted with harassment, and Fr. Trong was placed under house surveillance. Everywhere, the clergy were in constant insecurity because of their commitment to observance of religious duties and resistance to the interference of the authorities in the Church’s internal affairs.

The resistance to atheism of Fr. Giuse Lasan Nguyen Van Vinh, the pastor of the Main Cathedral of Hanoi Diocese was self-evident. Fr. Ngguyen was born on October 2, 1912 in the village of Ngoc Lu, Binh Luc District, Ha Nam Province. He was Intelligent, pious, and gifted in music. Under the auspices of Fr. Depaulis, he was admitted at his early teens to the ecclesiastic school of Puginier in Hanoi. He attended the Secondary Seminary Hoang Nguyen at Ha Tay in 1928, the Grand Seminary St. Sulpice, Paris, France, in 1935. He was ordained priest on June 20, 1940. A graduate from both the Paris Institute of Music and the University of Sorbonne with a "Licencie en Philosophy." He returned to Vietnam in 1947, after 17 years of study abroad. Bishop Francois`Chaize -Thinh of Hanoi Diocese appointed him the Pastor at the Main Cathedral of Hanoi. After the Geneva Accords Agreements of 20, 1954, the then Bishop Trinh Nhu Khue of Hanoi entrusted him to take the seminarians to immigrate to the South, he nevertheless insisted on asking his superior the privilege to stay in the diocese of Hanoi.

In the capacity of the principal of Dung Lac High School, he and his fellow priests such as Fr. Nguyen Ngoc Oanh, Fr. Nguyen Minh Thong, and Fr. Nguyen Han Quynh organized and conducted courses of catechism for converts. The administration of Hanoi forbade these activities for security reasons and issued an administrative order to ban all religious activities in the school. New rules and regulations were to be executed, instead. A picture of Ho Chi Minh must be hung on the wall in each classroom. The students had to stand at attention and sing Viet Minh national anthem and praise glory to Ho Chi Minh. Fr. Nguyen Van Vinh, in the capacity of the pastor representing the diocese of Hanoi concurrently the principal of Dung Lac High School refused to comply with the order. The Holy Cross on the wall was kept intact. The high school was closed down.

To show to the world that there was religious freedom in Vietnam, on the Christmas eve of 1957, city cadres were sent to the diocesan cathedral to make ground for an inspection. The diocese was fined for extravagant decoration of the cathedral, wasting the time and money of the people on meaningless activity. The following year, the administration renewed the trick. The new pastor, Fr. Trinh Van Can, resolutely protected the Church’s rights to worship, disallowing the civil authorities, who were all plain-clothed security agents, to cause trouble. The cadres resolutely made a row. To protect the cathedral from unlawful intrusion, the pastor had the bell tolled. Crowds of parishioners rushed to the worship place. The two parties exchanged arguments with shouts. Fr. Nguyen Van Vinh successfully prevented the agents from exercising abuse of power.

On Christmas Day of 1958, the civil authority forced Fr. Nguyen Van Vinh to hang the Viet Minh red flags alongside with the Church’s banners around and inside the cathedral. He adamantly had the Church’s banners hung only. Fr. Trinh Van Can, Tr. Nguyen Van Vinh, and several parishioners were brought to stand trial before the People’s Court of Hanoi. The Pastor Trinh Van Can, the organizer of the celebration, was sentenced to 12- month house arrest, Fr, Nguyen Van Vinh was charged with the crimes "to assemble illegally the masses, cause public disorder, calumniate and denigrate the regime, and cause division of the population." The priest was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was imprisoned, first, at Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi then removed from one prison to another. The last destination was Cong Troi (Gate to Heaven), a devastated camp in the Hoang Lien Son Mountains.

Fr. Nguyen Van Vinh lived the Catholic faith, taking side and sharing hunger and misery with fellow inmates. His benevolence was regarded as an act of opposition. He became the target of rancor. He was constantly placed under solitary detention. A senior official from the Ministry of the Interior, on his prison tour, told him that if he willingly cooperated with Fr. Nguyen The Vinh, the President of the Liaison Committee of Patriotic Catholics, which was a satellite organization of the Communist Fatherland Front, he would be released from prison immediately. The priest categorically refuted the proposal. His unbending will made him a lifelong prisoner. He never came back to Hanoi Diocese Cathedral. He died a doubtful death on February 18, 1971.

To Serve Faith in silence

During the Vietnam War, the religious life the South was in bloom. New parishes and dioceses mushroomed, notably in the areas surrounding Saigon.. Pagodas temples, and monasteries thrived. Educational institutions and humanitarian establishments multiplied. Schools, orphanages, dispensaries, and hospitals belonging to various religions extended to the rural areas.. In the North, where communism dominates in every aspect of life of the citizen, the State imposed strict laws, rules, and regulation on all sectors of the social life. The religions were not an exception. Worse still, they became the targets for elimination. Catholicism was regarded as the most dangerous reactionary counter-force. Catholics who survived the periods of hardship and religious repression during land reform talked with fear about the State control. It was such a severity that even the most fervent Catholic could only resign himself to inaction.

In the distant rural areas, religious intolerance became much more rigid. The agricultural commune kept a close watch on the daily life activities of every laborer in it. All was for socialist production. Religious practices were flatly banned from schedules of daily housework. Priests could only perform religious services in the early hours of the days. The followers thus could rarely attend morning masses. In many communes, movement outside of the parish of the priest was forbidden. Celebrations were most often performed in hiding. Cathedrals and chapels were closed down as a result of shortage of priests. The teaching of Bible was outlawed. Assembly for prayers were strictly forbidden. The faithful served their faith in silence.

During the second phase of land reform (1956-1958), the administration confiscated or requisitioned the Churches' properties. Many Catholic cathedrals and Buddhist pagodas were converted into meeting halls or granaries. The religious life was put at risk. The formation and ordination of priests was at a deadlock. Catholicism in the North fell into a decline. Being regarded as a counter-reactionary force that was ideologically detrimental to the "Revolution," the Party and State resolutely stifled the Church’s formation and ordination of priests. In 1955, after the exodus for freedom to the South, there remained only some 300 priests to serve approximately 600,000 followers.

From 1970 to 1975, the various Churches in North Vietnam, especially the Roman Catholic Church, survived the extreme difficulties. The invasion into Kampuchea of the Armed Forces of the Republic of South Vietnam aggravated the war situation. Fearful of a similar invasion into North Vietnam, the Hanoi administration particularly executed stricter control on all Catholic parishes. Those followers who were active in the service of the Church were arrested and sent to the reeducation camps, and a number of them were detained, without trial, and only released until 1985. Until 1990, the number of Catholic priests in the North was still meager. There were only 7 priests for the faithful of 145,000 in Haiphong Diocese, 15 priests for the 72,000 faithful in Bac Ninh Diocese, and 5 priests for the 95,000 faithful in Phat Diem Diocese.

Typical of the religious life in North Vietnam in the postwar period is the case of the Christendom of Khac Can, Thanh Liem District, Ha Nam Ninh Province. This is a small congregation of poor peasants living on the left bank of the Day River, about 60 kilometers south of Hanoi. Their settlement dates back to the second half of the 19th century at the time the French invasion was expanding to the North. It built a chapel and, later, a cathedral. Its members could only recite Sunday Mass once a month due to shortage of priests. They nevertheless served their faith with fervor. They attended Holy Masses and celebrated ceremonies and events at nearby churches all around the year.

A distant and isolated Christendom, Khac Can survived sufferings of the days of hunger of March 1945 and misery after the Viet Minh uprisings of August of the same year. It sustained even more hatred and violence during the Indochina War. Misfortunes fell on the small Christendom in the years of agrarian reform 1952-1956. The impact of campaigns of denunciation of crimes swept away with it the ways of life its members held dear. The agricultural commune with its cooperatives conditioned the peasantry’s life, molding the poor peasants of Khac Can into a new life of slavery.

Like life elsewhere in the country, traditional religious manners were gradually made to disappear. The century-old cathedral was requisitioned and transformed into a multipurpose shed where farm implements of all kinds were stored. Religious groups were disbanded. Religious services and practices were banned, and could only be performed in hiding. The worship of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Malenkov, and Ho Chi Minh replaced the worship of God. On the wall of the central compartment of the house were hung on order the pictures of world Communist leaders. Icons of worship were taken away from the altar for God and the Holy Mother Mary, and a picture of Ho Chi Minh was put in their place. The children of God could only bury their faith deep in their hearts.

The Vietnam War broke out. Young recruits were sent to the B battlefront, and those young Catholics from Khac Can were among them. On the day of departure, they were given each a Holy Cross which they kept with themon the way to the battlefront. The Holy Icon would protect them from all hazards and a certain death in the distant South. All through the war, like the Vietnamese elsewhere in the North, their family members lived miserably, "to bite the grain into four and save one fourth of it for the support of the South." They barely survived the hardships of the war under the rules and regulations of the agricultural commune and its cooperatives.

The Communist takeover of South Vietnam paved the way for revival of God worship. Witnessing the prosperity and freer ways of life of the people in the South, the "liberators" from the North who survived storms of B52 bombs raids along the Truong Son Trail and hopeless hard-fought battles at Khe Sanh, Pleime, Dak To, Dak Sut, .. . came to realize that they deserved a better life. They brought with them the memory about the life in the South on their coming home to visit their families. Curious members of this small Christendom sought with all means to come to the South to see with their own eyes of what they had only heard. On their returning home, they brought with them compassion of their relatives in the South and gifts among which were bibles, icons, priest tunics, and articles of worships. Their love for God that had been buried in their hearts and their faith that had been forbidden to serve revived. To live the faith became a "sina que non" spiritual need. They boldly gathered for prayers and resolutely gained back their worship place. The century-old cathedral was almost in ruins.

Little by little the bird build its nest. Every member of the Christendom clubbed together to rebuild their church, the poor with their labor, the rich from afar, in the South and abroad with money. The whole congregation regained their faith that they had been forced to renounce. A dutiful self-sacrificed priest assiduously formed separate groups of laymen into competent catechumen. Children were taught the Ten Commandments, to say prayers, and sing Holy songs. A group of two, then, three and four Sisters adamantly served and practiced their faith in hiding without fear of threat. By 2008, they successfully built and ran a preschool and a dispensary with financial aids from a generous family abroad. The local administration have sought in vain to attenuate the vigilance in the service of faith of this mall congregation at Khac Can Commune (Nguyen Yen, A letter from the North. Manuscript: March 19, 2001).

On the Path to Socialism

The Geneva Agreements of July 1954 ended the Indochina War but partitioned the country into two zones with two different political administrations, the North came under the administration of the Communists and the South, the Nationalists. In the North, the Communist administration set in motion a "socialist transformation." The new policy aimed at transform the country’s infra- supra- structures into the new systems of socialism in accordance with the Maoist views of human life and society. In this way, not only all base structures of the social, economic, political, and cultural life of the society as a whole but also the behavior of the individual and the masses in every aspect must be transformed accordingly. To move on the path to socialism , the Workers’ Party of Vietnam, first, pushed forward the struggle for what they called the three-dimensional people’s democracy, essentially paving the way for the establishment of a socialist society. These goals were developed into theories, policies, and methods of reasoning and practices destined to level up the eradication of theories of representative democracy, of "imperialist" concepts of private ownership, and social, moral, and spiritual values that elements of feudalism ever cherished.

Eradication of the Bourgeoisie and Petty Bourgeoisie

This socialist transformation is, as conceived by Maoists, total and radical.

Only a few days after it took over the administration in Hanoi, the Ho Chi Minh government carried out with strict measures to eradicate the urban bourgeoisie A special tax was levied on goods "remaining in the store" in Hanoi. Cadres were sent to all the shops to list all goods. Tax-payment in Indochina bank-notes, which largely exceeded the price of the goods, was affected without delay The city petty bourgeoisie mostly went broke. The second measure was to change the bank-notes. The government ordered the entire population to change its Indochina bank-notes for its newly-issued currency. However, they only received a small amount of money in return The measure was applied to every individual. There was no exception whatsoever to any organization or establishment. The measure was a victory of the class of workers over the class of oppressors in a class struggle without violence. Vietnam became a classless society whereby every citizen enjoyed the same social status on an equal footing. The third measure was to collectivize private properties and annihilate the private ownership of private means of production. All came under the possession of the people. Private enterprises, and establishments including all religious and humanitarian institutions of the Churches or humanitarian organizations. The owners were to join the State occupiers and might be kept as managers.

This elimination of the petty bourgeoisie in the cities went hand in hand with the suppression of its "tri, phu, dia, hao" (intellectuals, rich peasants, landowners, notables) in the countryside. and the clergies of all Churches were included. In the countryside, the transformation affected with great changes the life of the people. The traditional village was radically deformed, culturally, socially, and economically. The Maoist-style agricultural commune, which replaced the council of administration, exercised control on every aspect of the peasantry’s social and-economic in conformity with the Maoist doctrine of class struggle. The commune’s agricultural cooperatives, on the other hand, governed all activities of the social and economic life of the peasantry. They conditioned all acts of the villagers who became all their members. Everyone contributed to socialist production. Every activity was devoted to the construction of the socialist fatherland.

Having destroyed the bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeoisie dispossessed all their properties, the Communist administration instituted all means and modes of production in accordance with the principles of the Maoisr - style socialism. State cooperatives formed the backbone of the economy. Subsequent to the land distribution, the agricultural commune system was established (September 1960) to regularize the economy in the rural areas., The Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam proclaimed its official policy to concretize a resolution passed by the Third Party Congress of the Vietnamese Workers' Party. New rulings came into force. One of them specified that Marxism - Leninism should play the dominant role in the moral life of the country. It is the ideology of all the people. It is the basis on which the people build a new morality. The religions and their faithful are not an exception.

Eradication of Religious Beliefs and the Religions

Article 4 of Decree 19/SL of December 19, 1953 stipulated that only superfluous cultivated land, cattle, and farm implement were confiscated. However, landowners were thrown out of their houses, guardian monks out of their pagodas, and pastors, out of their parishes. Many of them were brought to stand trials before the People’s Court for their crimes as the enemies to the people. The Decree on the Protection of Freedom of Conscience of June 4, 1955 stipulated that "the Government shall guarantee the freedom of conscience and freedom of worship of the people. Nobody is allowed to infringe upon these freedoms (Article I, Chapter I," that "churches, temples, pagodas, sanctums, religious institutes, and articles of worship belonging to any religion shall be protected by the law (Article 6, Chapter I)," and that in the process of land reform, a part of land property owned by religious groups which was requisitioned by the Government either with or without reparations for distributions to the peasants, shall be left to the church, pagoda, or sanctum concerned an area large enough to ensure the performance of religious dignitaries in order for them to carry out their religious activities (Article 10, Chapter III)." Contrary to the provisions stated by the laws, geniuses and saints were derided and monks and priests were ridiculed In many villages and parishes dignitaries and priests were executed. Communal houses, churches, pagodas, and temples were prone to vandalism. Many were transformed into offices, classrooms, and granaries. In the villages, neighbors spied on one another. Landlords and their families were mocked, beaten, or killed without mercy.

The new policy with an aim to put into practice the elimination of the "feudal" supra-structure --the old system of social and cultural values and all forms of religious practices and celebrations being characterizedas superstitious. Communal houses, churches, pagodas, and temples were transformed into the communes’ offices, granaries, storage sheds, classes, .and thus ceased to be centers for religious worship and seasonal ceremonies and celebrations. Many fell in ruins, and others were destroyed to the indifference of the authority. Many historical sites were prone to pillage. The centuries-old Tram Gian (one-hundred-compartment Pagoda) in Ha-Son-Binh Province is a case in point. The worship place was sacked. The construction materials and articles of worship were gradually dismantled piece by piece and taken away. It was until the recent years that it was reconstructed for commercial purpose.

The Religious Life

Nearly a million people, Catholics and non-Catholics, left their homeland to take refuge in the non -Communist South. Those believers, especially the Catholics, stayed in the North for one or another reason became the target of hatred and suspicion. Almost all faced difficulty in their religious life. The clergy suffered, in most cases, religious persecution. The Churches in the North were subdued with serious consequences not only as a result of this exodus but also of the animosity as a consequence of hostility. "Religion is the opium of the people." To carry out the policy of religiously inspired assimilation,, the Vietnamese Workers' Party, within 10 years, had eliminated all Buddhist organizations in North Vietnam. It instituted in their place the "Patriotic Buddhists Committees" and subdued them under the control of the Fatherland Front. At the same time, they closed down institutes of Buddhist studies. They prohibited young monks to continue their priesthood. Most pagodas were without monks. Religious education and renewals at monasteries were strictly forbidden. The Buddhist faith could only survive in the family." Even before their takeover of Hanoi, the Communists dissolved outright the Inter-zone V Patriotic Buddhist Congregations (1951), regardless of their great contributions to the Resistance. They forced all Buddhist organizations and followers to join the Lien Viet Front, the predecessor to the present National Fatherland Front. The Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, who was the president of Duddhist Associations of Inter-zone V including the provinces Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh nd Phu Yen, was arrested in 1952 and was only released subsequent to the Geneva Agreements (1954).

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM (1954-1975)

                                         

　

THE LAWS

 

In the wake of the takeover of North Vietnam (1954), the administration applied again the methods it had learned from other Communist countries, frustrating the effects of the religions and negating their role in the people's life. On July 22, 1954, prior to the withdrawal of the French Expeditionary Corps from North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh called upon the Vietnamese, regardless of social status, religious belief, and political opinion and all parties irrespective of political tendencies to which they belonged to cooperate with him to work for the Fatherland and struggle for peace, national unity, independence, and democracy. In his 1954 Christmas message to his fellow countrymen of the Catholic Church, he promised that "the Government sincerely respects freedom of religion. As regards deceived Catholics who have gone to the South, the government has issued instructions to the local administration to take under its custody their rice fields, gardens, and other properties and to restore these to them on their return."

On June 14, 1955, before the land reforms resumed, Ho Chi Minh promulgated the decree 234/SL on the protection of freedom of conscience and worship. Among other things, the law stipulates that "... the government shall guarantee the freedom of conscience and freedom of worship of the people. Nobody is allowed to. infringe these freedoms. Every Vietnamese citizen shall have the right to practice a religion or not to practice any (Article 1)," that "In the process of land reform, a part of the land property owned by religious groups which was requisitioned by the Government, either with or without reparations for distribution to peasants, shall be left to the church, pagoda or sanctum concerned with a large enough area to ensure the performance of worship and to provide for living conditions of priests and religious dignitaries in order for them to carry out their religious activities. The size of such allotment is to be determined by peasants in the locality in which such church, pagoda, or sanctum is situated. In rural areas during land distribution, church and pagoda servants are entitled to receive their lots as any other working peasant (Article 10)," and that "the authorities at province level shall not interfere in the domestic affairs of the various religions (Article 13). Freedom of conscience and freedom of worship are the rights of the people. The authorities of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam always respect these rights and help the people in the practice of these rights (Article 15).

Ideological Premises

The official daily Nhan Dan (The People), on July 4, 1955, ran a long article praising the new religious policy of the Vietnamese Workers' Party, saying,

 

" ... the respect for and guarantee of freedom of religion has always been a consistent policy of the Workers’ Party of Vietnam and the Government of Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The Workers' Party is a Marxist-Leninist Party, professing dialectical materialism, which is founded on the scientific analysis of the laws of nature and society. It does not admit the existence of divinities, and it has always propagated its socialism and encouraged patriotism. But, at the same time, on the basis of the Marxist-Leninist outlook, the Party recognizes that religion is a social objective phenomenon, and its appearance, development, or disappearance have deep economic and social origins and are not dependent upon the subjective will of any group of individuals.

 

The Party always recognizes that religion is a matter of freedom of creed and freedom of opinion for the people, which neither force nor coercion can infringe or suppress. The Party entertains unqualified confidence in the scientific accuracy of Marxism - Leninism, but it also admits that such belief must be self-imposed and freely accepted and cannot be forced upon anyone. The Workers’ Party of Vietnam advocates unity with any patriotic Vietnamese, regardless of political tendencies, race, or religion, in the struggle for a peaceful, united, independent, and democratic Fatherland. Historical facts have shown that communists and followers of other political doctrines and believers of different religions may and have come together in a united National Front. This Front is, at present, expanding and being further consolidated. Respect for freedom of religion and the unity policy of the Workers’ Party of Vietnam is a sincere and long-term policy.

The Party’s Declaration has made it clear: "Believers of all religions must have the right to freedom of conscience." Ever since its foundation, the Party has always stuck to this policy. Respect and guarantee of freedom of religion has been also a major policy of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. It is the reflection of the feature of the people’s power, which always looks after the material and spiritual interests, of the people including freedom of religion and freedom of opinion. This policy is embedded in many practical policies and deeds of the Government of Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

 

A resolution passed by the National Assembly in its 4th session, has laid down in clear terms principles for the guarantee of the right to freedom of conscience. Implementing this resolution, on June 14, 1955, President Ho Chi Minh has enacted a decree concerning the guarantee of freedom of religion. This act once more defines in no uncertain terms the main principles of the policy of the Workers’ Party of Vietnam, with regard to religion and to freedom of religion and of worship and at the same time indicates clearly and comprehensively practical steps to guarantee such people’s rights. Article 15 of the decree reads: "Freedom of conscience and freedom of worship are the rights of the people. The authorities of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam always respect these rights and help the people in the practice of these rights." Such are the intents and purposes of the decree. It is a fresh evidence of the concern and care given to the people’s interests in every field by the Government of Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Freedom of religion is one of the people’s rights. It has now been enacted by the laws of the State, and everyone must correctly carry it out. Those who infringe this people’s right contravene the laws and shall be punished in accordance with the law.

The gist of the decree is the guarantee of the people’s freedom of religion and worship. It clearly points out that " ... the Government shall guarantee the freedom of conscience and worship of the people. Nobody is allowed to infringe these freedoms. Every Vietnamese citizen shall have the right to practice a religion or not to practice any." (Article I)." The authorities shall not interfere in the domestic affairs of various religions." (Article 13) On the other hand, the decree underlines that those who use the signboard of religion to serve imperialism by destroying peace, unity, independence, and democracy shall be punished in accordance with the law. This provision is not at all repugnant to freedom of conscience. On the contrary, it constitutes the very substance of the guarantee of this freedom ... (Foreign Publishing House, 1956., pp. 20-23).

The Flip Side of the Coin

 

The flip side of the coin proved to be true as soon as the laws were promulgated. The Geneva Accords of July 20, 1954 partitioned the country into two regions, the one north of the 17th Parallel was the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the other south of it, the Republic of Vietnam. After the withdrawal of the French Expeditionary Corps and the Viet Minh troops took over Haiphong, the city of last hope of the immigrants to the South, Ho Chi Minh, again, made "volte face." The Communist regime carried out oppressive measures against all religions they had learned from the Soviet Union and Communist China to put them under its control.

 

The Workers’ Party of Vietnam, the reincarnation of the Communist Party of Indochina, within 10 years, had made efforts to repress the religions, especially the largest Churches, the Buddhist Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The Party and its administration, step by step, eliminated all Buddhist organizations. They instituted in their place the Association of Patriotic Buddhists and placed them all under the control of the Communist-linked Fatherland Front. hey closed down all institutes of Buddhist studies. They returned home monks and nuns. Only old bonzes were allowed to perform religious services in State-patronized pagodas. Religious education and renewals at monasteries were strictly prohibited. The Buddhist faith could only survive in silence.

 

As regards the Roman Catholic Church, unable to destroy the Church's religious organizational structure, the Communists stroke at the Church’s pastors and priests, diluting their clerical duties with interdiction and restriction. They sought to separate the faithful from the clergy, wearing out the clergy’s prestige, and frustrate their influence among the faithful. Still, they made efforts to prevent the faithful from practicing their religious faith and restricting the priest from performing their religious services. Other measures consisted of cancellation of the formation and ordination of priests, denial of permission to provide monks and novices at abbeys and monasteries with foods and the necessities of life, and the prevention of the faithful from attending masses.

Under the direction of the Party, the authorities and cadres initiated the so-called anti-superstition campaigns to ridicule Christ and saints and deride religious practices and activities. They fabricated incidents of opposition activities, intimidated the clergy and laymen, and placed them under strict surveillance. They even attributed to certain priests or prominent laymen as the reactionary elements to arrest and send hem to reeducation camps. To weaken the Church’s propagation of the faith, they prohibited all religious associations to operate. They created the Association of Patriotic Catholics to direct religious activities. Like its fellow Buddhist association, this organ evolved within the orbit of the Father land Front, trying to replace the bishop as the representative of the Church beside the Communist leadership.

To divert the faithful from their religious practices, the atheists oriented them towards achieving to their purposes --to dutifully serve the Party’s political policies. With a scheme in sight, from 1954 to 1975, the Party tried hard to dismantle the Church and win over the faithful’ s minds. As a result, all through the period after the partition of the country, the Roman Catholic Church suffered tragic losses, both materially and institutionally. The formation and ordination of priests were in alarming decline. There were only 277 priests, including the priests who were ordained in hiding, for the whole North. The total number of priests was lesser than that of the clerical body of Saigon Diocese. In many regions cathedrals and chapels turned into granaries or store houses or became ruined.

 

By a similar approach, the atheist regime neutralized all religious services and activities of Evangelical Christianity. Ministers’ and pastors’ religious services at chapels and houses of worship were restricted. All congregations became the target of suspicion and control, and religious activities were made inactive. Only few pastors were allowed to practice the faith, being used as an instrument in the hands of the administration. Their role as the representatives of the Church was nominal. Bui Hoanh Thu, the President of Hanoi Congregation, was one of them.

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION DURING THE INDOCHINA WAR (1946-1954)

Overview

In May 1945, the Fascist Germany-Italy Axis surrendered to the Allies in Europe. Two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. On August 19, 1945, the Viet Minh seized power in Hanoi by a "coup d’etat," overthrowing the administration of the Tran Trong Kim government in the North. All through the period that followed it, members of national party leaders of all faiths were targeted wit elimination. Religious leaders and the clergy were not an exception. The Communist-led Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi abbreviated Viet Minh sought to destroy all forces they regarded the enemies to the "Revolution" while wooing free-floating party members and credulous believers to unite under their leadership to serve the fatherland.

On September 23, 1945, the French troops with the help of British General Gracey, the commander of the Allied Forces, attacked Saigon to retake Vietnam on the order of De Gaulle, who then headed the French Privy Government in Congo Brazaville. The War of Resistance began in the South and developed into a war of attrition throughout Indochina. For ten years, from September 1945 to July 1954, the Viet Minh led the war and regained national dependence. They drove the invaders out of the country and, at the same time, achieved the elimination of all national party forces and furtively dismantled the country’s religious organizations to which they attributed as the counterrevolutionary elements. The question of religious freedom from then on presents a problematic issue without a solution. The Communist administration resorted to violence, political measures and practices, and the laws but has still failed to subdue the believers under its control. Arrests and imprison clergymen and believers. Instances of persecution persisted though all periods under the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

The Persecution

Having seized power in China, the Government of the People’s Republic of China, in December 1949, declared its recognition of the Republic Democratic of Vietnam led by Ho Chi Minh. In 1950, Red China sent military advisers and arms and ammunitions to North Vietnam to support the Viet Minh. Along with military aids, Maoism was introduced into the country. Beginning in 1951, the Vietnamese Workers’ Party, the incarnation of the Communist Party of Indochina, modified its lines of strategy, pushing forward the people’s struggle from the period of anti-imperialism to that of anti-feudalism. The strategy inspired from the Chinese advisors aimed at the same time to establish a new economic system of the Republic Democratic of Vietnam, destroy the influence of French imperialism and subordinate all sectors of society to the new rule and pave the way for the Maoist-style socialism.

To carry out the new strategy, the Party executed plans for thought reform with which it transplanted methods of agrarian reforms training and thought reform into the minds of party-members and cadres for the performance of the task. In 1952, courses of political struggle were conducted with utmost fervor to prepare ground for a class struggle in the Maoist-oriented revolution. Sessions of crimes revelations and denunciations of the elements of imperialism and feudalism unfolded. The clergy of all faiths were also targeted with elimination. Among the victims were the mandarins of the French regime, rich peasants, members of national parties, Catholic priests and Buddhist monks. Communist cadres and their servile followers spied on these priests and monks. and ransacked their cathedrals pagodas and temples for the least suspicion.

Terror plagued the countryside. The Communists carried out their political struggle with which they vowed to eradicate the remnants of feudalism and destroy the vestiges of imperialism. It was a true class struggle in the rural areas. Village authorities were to submit to the central government a list of at least 5 typical reactionaries consisting of a landlord, a Buddhist monk, a Catholic priest, a laureate Confucian scholar, and a mandarin. This class struggle was a prelude to the performance of the agrarian reforms that took place after the defeat of the French Expeditionary Corps at Dien Bien Phu in Summer 1956.

As in a gale, the struggle blew up and swept away with it all traditional moral and spiritual values. Sons- and daughters- in law denounced false crimes or corrupted manners, treachery, and treason of their parents. Blood relatives avoided contact with each other or stayed away from one another out of fear of being accused of having blood relation with some traitors, wicked landowners or village bullies. Bovine peasants turned out to become fanatic executioners who acted freely and violently against the victims of all ages. There was a total loss of a sense of kinship. Filial piety, traditional social conduct, and the cultural system of values were made to disappear. There existed no respect for the old age, the prestigious intellectuals, and the priests and monks of thought and behavior. Along with the erosion of traditional moral, spiritual, and cultural values, the cult of ancestors gradually declined, and the cult of ancestors and worship of titular genius degenerated.

Before the battle of Dien Bien Phu ended (1954), the Vietnamese Workers’ Party had launched a "sky-splitting" campaign paving the way for the Land Reform (1953-1956). The campaign was, first, preceded by the implementation of the Chinese system of taxes, namely the Land Rent Reduction (1953), whose aim was to carry out social, politico, and economic measures to gradually transform the agricultural Vietnam into a s society in the Maoist-style socialism. Those who evaded taxes were regarded the reactionaries and, were subjected to investigation. Quite a few victims were charged with false crimes such as treason, association with dangerous elements of clandestine political organizations or espionage for the French. A black list was dressed. There had to be from three to five individuals in each village, a landlord, a Buddhist monk, a Catholic priest, a laureate scholar, and a mandarin.. In Thanh Hoa Province, as a case in poit, the landlord Nguyen Huu Ngoc and the Buddhist Monk Thich Tue Chau were given the death sentence, the Catholic priest Mai Ba Nhac, and two compradors were sentenced to 15 years of forced labor. The old mandarin Ha Van Ngoan, and the laureate scholar Le Trong Nhi did not appear before court: they died in prison.

The Buddhist Church

In his memoirs addressed to Party Secretary-general Do Muoi, the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do denounced how the Communists had exterminated the traditional Buddhist Church in North Vietnam. Among other things, he wrote:

"Before the Communist takeover of Hanoi in 1954, the Most Venerable Thich To Lien was the chairman of the Executive Board of the General Association of Buddhists in North Vietnam. He was the leader of the Buddhist Church in the North. The General Association of Buddhism at that time consisted of 6 congregations of "Sangha," including the laity Buddhists throughout the region. The Church was admitted to the membership of the World Buddhist Friendship. In 1957, three years after the [Communist] takeover of the North, a number of monks and nuns, for unknown reasons or possibly out of fear, threat, and personnel interests, assembled at Quan Su Pagoda and denounced with crimes against the Most Venerable Thich To Lien. They then offered the pagoda to the state-affiliated National Salvation Buddhist Association. The Most Venerable Thich Tri Do was invited to live in it. A new Buddhist organization was founded. It was actually the State-created Unified Buddhist Church of [North] Vietnam with the Most Venerable Thich Tri Do at the head. The traditional General Association of Buddhists of Vietnam in the North was consequently absolved.

Not only did the Communists eliminate the legitimate Buddhist organizations, they also destroyed all its affiliated religious institutions and establishments. They expropriated the Duoc Tue Printing House and closed down the Institute for the Studies of Buddhism, the Khuong Viet High School and all libraries and religious establishments belonging to this organization. After having used the very Buddhist monks and nuns of the General Association of Buddhists in the North to eliminate it, the Communists forced them not only to raise pigs as a form of obligatory social contribution but also to kill pigs and poultry to serve the Communist party [to provide it with food] ... The purposes were to disfigure the solemn aura at the worship place and at the same time to destroy the Sangha' s Buddhist spirit of clemency and atomize the most popular Buddhist commandment, which prohibits the killing of living creatures.

At each pagoda, only an old monk was allowed to live and assumed the function of a head of a "ho" (household). Young monks had to return to their secular life in their villages, to work for [economic] production. When an old monk passed away, the pagoda naturally became abandoned. In the cities, empty pagodas were requisitioned by the State. They were used as workplaces for production, instead. In the countryside, empty pagodas were demolished for more land for production. Anyone who felt enthusiastically attached to the religious life or wanted to become a monk had to apply for the priesthood. He had to give a curriculum vitae to the security police. Until he got authorization from it, could he be a student-priest. Many young devotees, who are old now, have had to wait until these days (1995) to become monks; yet, they have not got the authorization from the security police. In Thai Binh Province, fervent devotees would prepare celebrations in hiding at a pagoda to congratulate a relative or friend who entered the priesthood. If found out, they were immediately arrested..

Together with coercive measures on religious practices, programs of religious education were abolished. Worship places in the French-occupied zones communal houses, pagodas, and temples, were demolished under the pretext that they would be easily used as military headquarters of the French. In the rural areas where the Viet Minh were in control, communal houses and pagodas were requisitioned. They became the commune cooperative' granary, warehouse, pigsty, and so on. In other areas, they became a warehouse for craft or handicraft productions, an office for the village People's council or a meeting hall or a place for gatherings for political propaganda. Many pagodas were also used for domestic animal house for the agricultural commune. In the pagodas where the monks were still in residence, the Communists allowed common people to occupy the pagoda's dependent houses. The new occupants dried their clothes everywhere around the worship place, thus disfiguring its solemn and serene aura.

The State-created Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam had its main seat at Quan Su pagoda. The principal task was to serve the Vietnamese Communist Party's political goals, carrying out its political programs. State-affiliated monks fulfilled their nominal role --to participate in the Party conference or religious international in Mongol or Moscow. Until 1991, that is nearly forty years after the Communist takeover of North Vietnam,, most pagodas disappeared. In Thai Binh, the most populous province in the Tonkin delta, there was only a small number of old monks and nuns. They were 70 years old or over.

Most historic sites were in ruins. The famous Hoa Yen Pagoda on Yen Tu Mountain, Dong Trieu District, Hai Duong Province, was burned down. The Phat Tich Pagoda in Bac Ninh Province, which was built under the Ly dynasty (13th century), was destroyed. The Thay Pagoda in Thach That District, Son Tay Province, which was built under the Ly dynasty and in which the legendary Monk Tu Dao Hanh was honored, was very much in ruins. The pagoda was supported by bamboo trees and was doomed to collapse at any time. There was no monk in residence. The sanctum of Phap Vu Pagoda, also called Dau Pagoda, in Thuong Tin District, Ha Dong Province, where the dried bodies of the two legendary monks of the Vu family under the Le Dynasty (15th century) had been honored, was destroyed. There was no monk in residence in Quynh Lam Pagoda.

The historic site pagoda of Co Phap Village, built by the legendary Monk Minh Khong (729-808) was destroyed. It was a historic site in which the Buddha statue erected by the legendary Monk Khong Lo, the Royal Teacher under the Ly dynasty stood and in which the country's most precious religious relics were preserved. There is a history about the destruction of Co Phap Pagoda. To elude their bad reputation for the destruction of this historic site, the Communists lent their hands to the French invaders to erase the site. A red flag was a good signal for a French reconnaissance agent to identify the target. Fighter planes then launched a bombing raid. The Viet Minh achieved a twofold objective. One, they could easily motivate the people's to take revenge on the invaders. Two, they borrowed the hands of French troops to destroy the pagoda to delude from the crime of destruction of religions. The villagers in the area recalled that, after the bombing, the pagoda was all in flames, and fire continued to flare up for a month. There was no rescue on the part of the Communists.

The Huong Tich pagodas in Chuong My Ha Dong were not an exception. The Thien Tru (Heaven's Kitchen) commonly called Chua Ngoai (The Outer Pagoda) suffered heavy damage. There was no monk in residence at Thien Tru Pagoda. A number of pagodas are listed in the category of historical site. All of them are under the management of the local authorities, most of whom have little knowledge of the humanities. Visitors have to pay for their visit. That's is real deceit. The Communists are real religion mongers. They "kill" Buddha and "sell" Him at the same time. " (Thuy Giao and Ngoc Phuong, 1995: 12-14)

Annual pilgrimages to famous historic sites such as Huong Tich increased considerably. Religious services and activities resumed. Seasonal festivals honoring Buddha attracted large pilgrimages. Believers in all directions, from as far as Ha Bac Province in the high plateau and Ha Nam Ninh Province in the low delta, came in crowds to pray for wealth and happiness. Tourists in crowds came to visit the Tram Gian Pagoda (One-hundred-compartment Pagoda in Ha Tay Province. The temple had been labeled a vestige of feudalism. The temple was destroyed in the way the Great Walls had during the Cultural Revolution in China. The temple’s construction materials were taken away and shared among the local cadres. It was not until after the reunification of the country, for the sake of interests, it was recreated to become tourist site, specifically to attract overseas Vietnamese.

The religious life before reunification fell into a decline Nguyen Thi Diep, aged 64 (1994), a native of Thuong Tam, Dong Hung District (formerly Thai Ninh Prefecture), Thai Binh Province, North Vietnam after her visit to her home town, remarked that, "nowadays, once in a while, the villagers, mostly women, go to pagoda. There are no more monks. There are guardians but they know nothing about Buddha, Buddhism, and Buddhist practices --ceremonies, prayers, rites, and rituals. Before 1954, there were two pagodas in the village, one in the center of the village and one outside of it, in the open fields. In 1956, the local officials had the one in the center of the village destroyed and built in its place an office for the People's Council. Now, only the one in the open fields remains. They didn't destroy it because they can control the access to it and those who come and go. They fear that a pagoda can be a haven for counterrevolutionary elements or a place of reunion for them. The communal house is also a primary target of suspicion. It is to the Communist authorities the symbol of feudalism and imperialism that has to be destroyed. There is always an exception, however. In some areas, the Communist authorities were unsuccessful. In Me So Village, Khoai Chau District, Hung Yen Province, for example, the villagers have persistently resisted the local authorities’ order to demolish their communal house (Thien Nhan, VNHRW,: Interview with Nguyen Thi Diep, 7 (March 1993).

The Roman Catholic Church

During the first phase of agrarian reform of 1952-1953, the Viet Minh launched a new wave of terror in the territory of Thanh Hoa Diocese, prestigious and fervent Catholics were attributed to as members of the Interfaith anti-Communist groups of "Lien Ton Diet Cong." Catholics and non-Catholics were arrested and abducted to unknown whereabouts. In Hung Hoa Diocese, many priests were brought to stand trial before the People’s Court for having evaded taxes. Among them were Phero Nang, Phero Thuyet, and Phero Ngo. They were imprisoned and were released until the Geneva Agreements (July 1954).

In Phat Diem Diocese, in October 1953, the Viet Minh authorities in Ninh Binh held a 5-day congress at Trinh Dong, Village Nho Quan District, executed the decision to order the Catholics to cut off connection with Bishop Le Huu Tu. This congress also denounced the Catholic priests of the Chau Son Order of which Bishop Le Huu Tu was a member as a network of espionage for the French. As a consequence, several of priests of the Order were abducted to unknown whereabouts. Chaos spread. The Viet Minh troops attacked Hoa Lac Parish. Fr. Gioan Huong was abducted. Fr. Phaolo Duc, the pastor of Yen Quy, was abducted, imprisoned, and tortured.

Elsewhere, the Communist administration imposed strict laws, rules, and regulation on all sectors of the social life. The religions were primary targets for elimination. Catholics who survived the periods of hardship and religious repression during 1952-1956 told about the State measures of control that were so severe that even the most fervent Catholics were resigned to submission without the t least resistance. In the distant rural areas, the agricultural commune kept a close watch on the daily life activities of every laborer living in it. Everything was for socialist production. Cathedrals and chapels were closed down. The teaching of Bible was outlawed. Assembly for prayers were forbidden. Religious practices were performed in hiding, and religious activities went underground.

Persecution against Catholicism became increasingly atrocious as soon as the Viet Minh gained control of the self-administrative zones of Phat Diem and Bui Chu. After the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu on May 7, 1954, the Laniel government of France planned the withdrawal of troops from outlining areas of the Red River delta, shortening their lines in order to protect Hanoi, Haiphong, and the connecting Route 5 The withdrawal from Phat Diem, Bui Chu, Nam Dinh, Phu Ly, and Ninh Binh occurred in late June. Laniel’s successor, Premier Mendes France, informed US Ambassador Douglas Dillon on June 2 that the French had offered to provide transportation for those of the local people who desired to move with them. However, many had preferred to stay where they were because since Dien Bien Phu the Viet Minh had behaved very well toward the local people, which might be a temporary policy to facilitate the Geneva negotiations." (Wiesner, 1988:215).

As the immigration was moving on, it attracted along the way increasing crowds of refugees. In fact, many Catholics were persecuted for their faith. Many others feared of the same fate and sought to leave their parishes. The Pentagon Papers reported that ".. as soon as the [1954] truce became effective, the Catholic bishops entered a test of power with the Viet Minh, using their self-defense forces to back DRV occupation. The response was predictably ruthless. Catholic villages were attacked by the People’s Army of Vietnam). In two instances, inhabitants reportedly were massacred, churches were burned, church property confiscated, priests tortured or jailed, and heavy taxes levied on church land and buildings Among the consequences of violence was a Catholic propaganda campaign against the Viet Minh -- the Virgin-had-gone Saigon theme-- and mass migrations of whole parishes (Pentagon Papers, 1972:12)

At the close of the withdrawal of the French and the forces of the National Army from North Vietnam, the executions of Catholic clergy and faithful of the Viet Minh resumed at various parishes. Fr. Phero Dinh, the pastor of Viet Lam Parish and the owner of the Yen Binh farm in Tuyen Quang Province, was charged with crimes of treason and was persecuted on July 16, 1954. The Bible instructor Thuyet of Phu Nhan in Son Tay Province was executed without an explanation. From the end of June 1954, the French troops withdrew from the southern provinces of the Tonkin delta. the dioceses of Phat Diem and Bui Chu fell into the hands of the Viet Minh. On June 30, 1954, the Viet Minh troops from two directions, Phuc Nhac and Dien Ho, advanced to occupy Phat Diem. The self-defense groups "Nghia Dung Quan" had to withdraw. They were disbanded afterwards. The Catholics, one group after another, evacuated to Hanoi and major townships and cities in the delta. The Viet Minh troops stormed into Catholic villages. They destroyed cathedrals, diocesan office buildings, schools and other establishments. Witnesses on either side of the Tra Chinh River saw with horror dead bodies were floating in waves towards the Kim Doi sea-mouth. They were all Catholics, the victims of a blood bath, having failed to resist the Viet Minh massacre.

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

 

　

DECADENCE AND REVIVAL OF POPULAR BELIEFS

　

The Cult of Ancestors

　

In line with the ideological tenets of atheist materialism, the Communist Party and administration in the years following the Indochina War sought to dislodge the traditional Vietnamese popular worship, and replaced it with the cult of Ho, of Marx, of Lenin, of Stalin, and of Mao. In the countryside where the peasants had the least knowledge of politics of any kind the practice of the cult was particularly incorporated in their ways of life. Portraits of Ho and world Communist leaders were hung on the walls of the central partition in replacement of the ancestral altar. Ho was the "Lord,," and his comrades, the "Saints." Blasphemy against them was linked to counter-reactionary crimes and subject to imprisonment or even death. The villagers nevertheless commemorated their ancestors with or without an altar. Filial piety illustrates the popular saying: "Drinking water, we think of its source."

Tran Trung, 68 (1994), a native of Ha Son Binh Province, North Vietnam, had this to say, " ... for many years, the Party has tried to break the family bonds, but it has been not successful. Not every Vietnamese Communist is like Truong Chinh, the Secretary-general of the Vietnamese Workers’ Part who brought his own father before the People's Court to be insulted. Not every Vietnamese is like "Uncle Ho, "who dared address to our national hero Tran Hung Dao with an equal "I" and called Him with an equal "You" when he visited Kiep Bac Temple in Hai Duong."I wonder how Ho would address to his father and ancestors when he bowed his head at the altar for his ancestors."

Tran further argued that the Communist Party had not officially forbidden the belief practices of ancestral worship. but they were practically regarded all the forms of superstition. To an ordinary Vietnamese, to perform the rites and rituals of traditional popular beliefs was common religious behavior. The Vietnamese, however poor they are, will still offer an incense stick, a bowl of steamed rice, and a boiled egg to commemorate a departed parent. Old customs and manners often prevail. Local authorities, in principle, do not allow any assembly of any kind or celebration at home without prior authorization. However, in the village where everyone knows everyone else, the laws and regulations of the State often give place to sympathy between and among people of the same village. The villagers are all relatives in one way or another. Besides, an anniversary is a good opportunity for all to have a good meal with meat and rice wine. In the villages where the cadres or party members strictly observe the rules, they are either given bribes or isolated, and the villagers will go ahead with their celebration. The cult of ancestors still has a religious coloration and retains some of its moral, spiritual, and cultural character.

According to a staff editor of the official journal Tuoi Tre, who asked anonymity (December 20 2000), " ... the cult of ancestors still plays a role in the social and cultural life of the Vietnamese people. The results of an investigation into the religious life in Vietnam by a State researcher shows that ancestral worship is practiced in almost all families that do not adhere to Christianity. The percentage of the practitioners is very high, with 92,25%, in the urban area of Hue, 84,.3%, in Ho Chi Minh City, and 82.2&, in Hanoi. The number of families that occasionally pay respect to the ancestors in Hue is 4.8%;, in Ho Chi Minh City, 11%, and in Hanoi, 17.4%. The number of families that do not practice ancestral worship of in Hue is 3%, in Ho Chi Minh City, 4.7%, and in Hanoi, 0.6%’

The cult of ancestors is truly powerful. It is even practiced in the interior of the homes of pious adherents to various religions. It is an inspirational source of exaltation. Catholicism that began by refusing to accommodate the practice of it now accepts some forms of veneration of the cult. In 1992, in Hanoi, only 14.7% of the Catholic population did not have an alter of ancestors; 6.3% in Ho Chi Minh City, and 6.5% in Hue. Practically, the Catholics performed the ancestral veneration l in different practices of the rites and rituals.

　

The Worship of Titular Genius

　

At the beginning of the Resistance War (1945-1954), most communal houses in the war zones throughout the country were destroyed as a consequence of the Viet Minh' s scorched earth tactics. After the war, the worship of Titular Genius at the communal house was undermined by the Party's hostile religious policy.. The worship of the Titular Genius was interpreted as a legacy of feudalism. The rites and rituals in the celebration commemorating the merits the village’s "patron saint" were all the vestiges of absolute monarchy. In many areas of the countryside these worship practices were derided, and the worship place was neglected. The scenic "dinh" (communal house) of Quang Ba Village near Hanoi, for instance, was destroyed.

Historically, until the 1940’s the villages in Tonkin were still close communities strictly impermeable to outside cultural influences. Living within their bamboo hedges, the villagers hung on to their land, cherished their homes, honored communal and ancestral cults, and perpetuated filial lineage. The villages were organized according to a sociopolitical hierarchy and a system of spiritual and cultural values that they held dear. The cult of ancestors and the worship of village benefactor were practiced with ceremonious rites and rituals. Traditional customs and manners were preserved. Respect for the notables and the seniors was keenly observed. All these characters formed the backbone of the religious, social, political, and cultural life of the village. (Porter Gareth, Vietnam: The Politics of Bureaucratic Socialism. Cornell University Press. Ithaca and London, 1993:2).

The worship of the Titular Genius at the "dinh" symbolizes the spirit of solidarity and democracy and reflects the respect for order and the sense of duty of the village. It was the siege where the villagers worshipped their benefactor or protector genius. In the old days, "dinh" was a hall for public meeting place where the villagers congregated or elected their representatives to the council of notables to attend to the village ‘s titular genius and communal celebrations and take care of administrative matters of the civil life. It was the headquarters where the council of notables met and discussed the village’s affairs and solved the village‘s problems and settled the dispute between and among the villagers. The village was, in essence, a self-administrative unit whose authority was recognized by the Royal Court. Emperor Tu Duc of the Nguyen Dynasty (1847-1883), as a case in point, had edicts specifying the respect for the villagers’ rights to choose their communal representatives exercise communal authority, practice the communal worship and preserve the village’s customs and manners.

Under French domination, the colonialists, throughout almost a hundred years, managed to attenuate the role and function of the council of notables in the conduct of communal affairs. For political purpose, they colonial regime gradually abrogated the village notables’ role and authority. They established the Hoi Dong Cai Luong Huong Chinh (Council of Reform of Rural Administration) to work side by side the council of notables. With this new policy, the colonial rule sought to do away with the traditional social and political communal life and gradually efface the notables’ prestige over and influence on the villagers while lending hand to their followers to exercise real power over the villagers to serve to the best interests of the colonial rule.

The colonial administration executed with flexibility a policy of acculturation, to gradually reform the village administrative system while preserving its cultural legacy. They uprooted the very political base of democracy which the Vietnamese people cherished throughout successive imperial dynasties. They nevertheless showed respect for most traditional ways of life of the native. Rarely did they interfere in the internal affairs of the religions and the worship practices of the indigenous population.

Tragic social and political disorders expanded with the rise to power of the Viet Minh. In the first years of the war of resistance (1947-1950), the Viet Minh government carried out the anti-imperialism struggle, traditional social and cultural values and institutions gradually perished. In the Viet Minh- controlled zones, the village Council of Resistance and Administration replaced the Council of Notables and the Council of Reform of Rural Administration to manage the village’s administration. Satellite organizations of the Lien Viet (Viet Minh League) helped to shape new modes of life in line with the Marxist ideology. The members in the new body of administration was totally composed of the Viet Minh cadres or Viet Minh-linked elements. Most members in it, however, were the opportunists or Viet Minh followers who only knew to carry out the orders of the Viet Minh local cadres.

Together with traditional customs and manners, the cult of the Village Titular were regarded as backward. Everyone must devote oneself to the service of the resistance, and every task must be fulfilled for the cause of independence. Disobedience in this case meant treason. Communal activities other than those permitted by the Viet Minh were considered as uncivilized. Gatherings to denounce war crimes by the French troops and meetings to support the Government of Resistance at the communal house were encouraged. Worship services, seasonal celebrations, and the annual festival at the "dinh" were all regarded as corrupt performances --the vestiges of feudalism. Consequently, the traditional system of village administration and cultural values and merits, and ways of life were exterminated, and the cult of the Village Titular Genius gradually disappeared.

In many cases, a "dinh" was razed to the ground simply because the village Communist party members and cadres wanted a share of its construction materials for their own houses or courtyards. In most rural areas, "dinh" was transformed into an office for the village People's Councils of Administration, a classroom, a hangar, a barn, and even a place for entertainment. Centuries-old communal houses were not maintained and became ruined. In the old days, every village had a communal house. Nowadays, very few communal houses stand. We walk for kilometers in the Thanh Nghe Tinh Province, Uncle's Ho native province and cannot see even one.

Other communal religious practices, celebrations, and festivals fell into oblivion. The worship of Buddha at pagodas, the veneration of heroes, saints and deities at shrines, and the commemoration of national heroes and heroines at temples suffered decadence. Except for the worship of Christ at the cathedral, in which place the Church maintained independence from the Viet Minh, the clergy performed religious services with persistence, and the followers served their faith with resilience. mostly in hiding. The atheists tried in vain to place the Catholic Church under their despotic control.

　

The Revival of Popular Beliefs

Until the 1940"s, on the first and fifteenth days of every month of the lunar calendar, men went to the communal house to offer sacrifices to the Titular Genius, and women went to pagodas to pray respects to Buddha and prayed for happiness and favors. Such traditional religious practices were no longer observed in the North until the later years of the 1980’s. To guard against sabotage and subject the population to control, the authorities kept a severe eye on any activity or act that might cause loss of prestige or physical damage to the regime, the authorities never hesitated to apply whatever measure they regarded as necessary to oppress or eliminate the reactionary.

In Hanoi, the Van Mieu (Literature Temple) at Cua Nam (South Entrance) of the old Capital Thang Long lost its centuries-old beauty thousands of generations of Vietnamese had preserved. The city authorities had all the picturesque walls surrounding the site broken up under the pretext of securing the place from sabotage: " Bad elements may use the site for a secret reunion to plot sabotage against the regime." The Go Dong Da (Mount Dong Da) a historic site on the route to Son Tay, west of Hanoi, where the defeated Chinese Governor-general Sam Nghi Dong committed suicide by hanging himself on a bough of a pagoda-tree. The governor and the army under his command were routed out of the city by the Vietnamese army of Emperor Quang Trung of the Tay Son Dynasty (1778-1802). The site was destroyed as it was a site of reminder of an odious defeat the Chinese invaders had suffered. (Then Nhan, VHRW, 7 (March 1993)..

Soon after the reunification of the country, the religious sentiment of the population revived as the route communication between the two regions partitioned by the war became wide open. Curiously enough, like a fresh breath of wind fanning throughout the country, coincidences of love for the country and religious sentiments were warmed up and thrived. Soon after the "liberation" of the South. the cult of ancestors, the veneration of geniuses and deities, and the worship of Buddha reemerged. The traditional ways of spirits worshipping all regained activities. Beginning in 1995, popular demands for religious worship began to reappear. Venerable old men at Can Huu Village in Son Tay Province voluntarily took an active part in the repair and maintenance of the communal house and village pagoda instead of giving a free hand to the State. They managed themselves the project. The initiative helped them stop worrying about the interference from the village Communist Party's secretary The result was the loss for the construction expenses was reduced to 10%. In the Duong Lieu village, Ha Dong Province, the villagers themselves were in charge of the reconstruction of Huong Tra Pagoda, where, in 1994, the Ministry for Culture inflicted the construction losses amounted to 50% due to poor management. In the suburban area of Cam, Haiphong, formerly the Gia Vien Village, the local resident voluntarily contributed to rebuilding the dilapidated "Tho Xuan Dinh." The worship place is dedicated to King Ngo Quyen and his two generals Nguyen Tat To and Doan Thuong who had helped him to rout the Chinese invaders on the Bach Dang River.

In many villages, the thirst for having a worship place enlivened the villagers' enthusiasm. They boldly claimed back their rights to ownership at the communal houses and pagodas, even though these worship places were in ruins or turned into crumbled worship vestiges with some forms of foundation. The Canh Phuc Pagoda in the village of Dong Van, Duy Tien District, Nam Ha Province, which was built in 1665, was a case in evidence. In many villages in the countryside, people were concerned with the rebuilding of worship places. In addition to the reconstruction the communal houses and pagodas, they were also concerned with reconstructing temples, shrines, and ancestral worship places. In the Yen So Village in Ha Dong Province, venerable old men contributed to the reconstruction of the village's communal house, neutralizing all intervention from the authorities (Tieu Huyen, Phong Trao Doi Hanoi Tra Lai Chua, Nguoi Viet, December 23, 1996).

A research on the on the religious life of the Vietnamese notes that the religious feature that is characteristic of the Vietnamese is the expression of gratitude to their ancestors and benefactors inherent in ancestral cult and the worship of Titular Genius. All Vfamily members venerate their ancestors, who acquire the merit to beget the offspring. All villagers render homage to their benefactor, a patron of a profession, a national hero or heroine, and to the legendary Kings Hung. No profane power could ever destroy it. (Trung Tan, An Interview with a Staff Editor of Tuoi Tre. December 20, 2000)

　

The Practice of Superstitions

　

Tieu Huyen, in an article on the practices of popular beliefs in North Vietnam in the recent years, reported on the Nguoi Viet Daily in Southern California:

" Besides organized religions, there exists a mixture of beliefs without an institutional structure. They nevertheless have enduring impact on the Vietnamese life well into the 1980's. These beliefs, which were derived partly from Confucianism with emphasis on filial piety, family solidarity, and ancestral veneration-- all central to the family system of the ancient society. Taoism, another popular belief from China, which emphasizes the importance of the mystic mutual illuminating communication between the individual and the universe, also plays a role.

Despite the official disapproval of superstitious practices, most Vietnamese, regardless of their professed religion, level of education, or ideology, are influenced at one time or another in their lifetime by such divination practices such as astrology, geomancy, and sorcery. Diviners and other practitioners in the occult science remain on demand. Quite a few Vietnamese believe that they have illuminating power, and with it they are able to diagnose causes of illness, establish lucky dates for personal undertakings, or predict the future. Still, many others believe that individual destiny is guided by astrological phenomena. By consulting one's horoscope, one could make the most of auspicious times and avoid disaster. It is not unusual, for example, for a couple to consult an astrologer before marriage. A divine teller would determine if the betrothed were suitably matched and even fix the date of the wedding ceremony.

Animism antedates all organized popular religious beliefs in Vietnam. It permeates through the life of the society. People in the rural areas or the highlands especially hold the belief that the divine spirits control all phenomena on earth and supernatural forces in the universe and that the souls of the dead are instrumental in determining the individual's destiny. If propitiated, they provide the living with protection; if ignored, they bring misfortune. Although officially condemned as superstitious practices, these practices s continue to proliferate in the rural and highland areas as well as in the cities in the 1980's. (Tieu Huyen, Phong Trao Doi Lai Chua. Nguoi Viet, December 23, 1996).

In the heydays of the "August Revolution" when the Hoi Nghien Cuu Chu Nghia Mac-xit Viet Nam (Society for the Study of Marxism) came into force in replacement of the Communist Party of Indochina, the followers of Marxism held themselves bound by it. Communism to them is not a political doctrine, but a religion,. They firmly believe that no other religion but communism should exist in Vietnam. A Communist lives for it and dies as a martyr for it. Communism is an all-powerful miracle that emancipates humanity from serfdom and imperialism. It brings Vietnam full independence, freedom, and happiness, making it a paradise on earth. Addicts to communism in those days ever believed that the communists would soon govern the world and that the world communities would all soon stand under the ever-victorious banner of communism.

Hoang Hoa, a student at the School of Pedagogy, Ho Chi Minh City (1998), disclosed his heart: " The collapse of the Eastern European Communist Bloc liberated quite a few communism addicts from utopia. Marxism-Leninism has become a subject-matter which he teacher is reluctant to teach and which bores the student to learn. It becomes a clothe-doctrine, even to one-time ardent Communists. The worship of Marx, of Lenin, and of Mao is on the wane. Various study circles of communism have died out n the recent years. Quite a few of them think that communism has dissipated. Its painted appearance is worn off, and its brazen face is exposed under the sunlight. It is no longer "A Book of Miracles" as Uncle Ho had firmly predicted .Corrupt party members cease to believe in it and look for new modes of worship or come back to traditional beliefs and faiths in search for peace of mind or beseeching geniuses and deities for luck, interests, and hope for a happier life. Quite a few of them consult a diviner to how to modify an office building in the way that is best suited to the laws of "fang-sui." An enchantress is entrusted with the task of searching for and identifying the remains of the "Viet Cong" MIA’s in Kampuchea. Cadres and common folks alike believe in some forms of superstition. Fortune and divine tellers sit in rows before the temples and pagodas. Witchcraft is practiced without inhibition."

Sorcery practices appear more superstitious than religious. The spirits worship in many places is commercialized. Most guardians at the temples and state-designated. They assume the function of state cadres and have full authority and act according to their whims and wishes. Superstitions practices are allowed and performed in broad daylight. At many temples and pagodas in Hanoi. rites and rituals for religious services and those for sorcery practices are practically the same. They are performed by the guardians or even monks who have little knowledge of Buddhism and the Buddhist laws. Many do not observe celibacy. They have a family life as do the common believers. They can be seen worn as a charm at a pagoda or temple such as Quan Su Pagoda, Tran Vo Pagoda, Ngoc Son Temple, or Hai Ba Trung (The Two Trung Sisters) Temple. Rarely can people see a monk or guardian at a pagoda or temple in the outskirts of the Capital where pilgrims rarely come to visit, and money contributions for offertories are meager.

True religious worship presents a different picture, however. Many pagodas and temples were either destroyed became ruined due to lack of or poor maintenance reconstructed and repaired.. In the areas where the villagers are rich enough, the believers begin contribute to reparation of an old pagoda or temple or build a new one. The pagoda at Thanh Oai in the Ha Son Binh Province was on repair. The Boi Pagoda at Quoc Oai in the former Son Tay Province was restored. On the annual anniversary of the Founder Monk at Boi Pagoda thousands of believers from all directions came to pay respects to Buddha and attend the festival. Nevertheless, contributions to and offertories for reconstruction of pagodas and temples are to be administered through lines of the State authorities. Being asked if such services as restoring or rebuilding the worship places came out as a result of "coi mo" and "doi moi" (openness and renovation). common folks in the North, like their fellow countrymen in the South, actually don't know and don't care about what "coi mo" and "doi moi" meant to them.

After the "liberation of the South," people in both regions happened to have close contacts with one another. The Northerners have heard and seen so many things that are contrary to what the Party and State lied to them about the people and their life in the South. Now, the people in both regions ignore what the Communists propagandize, even with threats. They have overcome fear. They do things that are unauthorized. The local authorities oftentimes dare not lay hands on them. Why? The North Vietnamese had sacrificed everything: their properties, labor and sweat, and even their lives and those of their beloved for the country in the Resistance War, on the battlefronts in the South, along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and in Kampuchea in the Vietnam War.. What do they get in return? Nothing but poverty and misery! The Party and State blind their eyes on certain things. What the authorities’ main concern is collect money. At every celebration, there is a contribution-to-building-socialism offertory box. That is really a kind of tax, and that is the most important task for which the State really cares (Quang Nhan, VHRW, December 1992)."

The revival of popular beliefs nevertheless brings with it corrupt practices. Sordid superstition by religion mongers is often seen in the performance of some sort of witchcraft that appears to be some form of religious practices to a foreign observer. These corrupt religious practices flourish even in the heart of Hanoi. The practitioners are allowed to perform even with a special permit and encouragement from the authorities, who are really those who pull the string behind the scene and who take most interests. These odious practices bring them a lot of money from the malicious practitioners and innocent lookers-on. The most common performances are the wild witchcraft dancing with traditional music on a flowery boat sailing to-and-fro on the Great Lake in Hanoi. A man or woman clad in old-style motley clothes is seen going into a trance, swinging arms and legs to the wild rhythmic ancient music. The performer acted as if he or she were possessed by evil spirits amidst a throng of "believers" who bow their heads murmuring prayers. They are free to practice their job, and the authorities take it for granted (Viet Tan, A Report on Religious Practices, 1992).