[Vnbiz] Trek shows Buddhism is alive and well in Vietnam

[Phan, Tai]

Trek shows Buddhism is alive and well in Vietnam
February 20, 2007 Edition 1 

Grant McCool 

Thuong Yen Cong Commune, Vietnam - Buddhists across Vietnam and abroad gave money, offered prayers and walked hours up and over hills for the renovation of the country's only bronze pagoda. 

It was an impressive demonstration of faith in a country where for decades the communist authorities curbed religious activities and then reorganised them under state supervision. 

The lotus-shaped Dong (Bronze) Pagoda was unveiled in late January with the removal of a huge red silk cover in a daytime hilltop ceremony in northeastern Vietnam by monks and followers chanting prayers, burning incense and gently ringing bells. 

"I felt very happy to see Buddha's site," said Le Thi Su (78), one of many thin, hardy people who walked two hours or longer up a stone path to the pagoda, cradle of a 700-year-old Vietnamese Zen Buddhist sect called Truc Lam. 

The sect is one of three Zen Buddhist sects in Vietnam and it is special because it was founded by Vietnamese Zen masters, while the other two were founded by Indian and Chinese monks. 

Thousands more Buddhists will visit the pagoda in the Yen Tu mountains about 130km north-east of the capital Hanoi - especially this month and early March after the start of the Lunar New Year, called Tet in Vietnam. 

The pagoda is among many visited by Vietnamese Buddhists, whose Communist Party government officially respects citizens' rights "to belief or non-belief" and promotes state-supervised religious activity. 

Buddhists in the south-east Asian country have been organised by the state since 1981 under the Vietnam Buddhist Church. 

Another Buddhist group, the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), to this day refuses state supervision and it is outlawed. Movement of its two principal monks are monitored and restricted. 

"The fact that Vietnam's communist leaders are organising highly publicised, state-sanctioned celebrations, renovating Buddhist sites and making a great show of Buddhism today is very revealing, for it reflects the total failure of Hanoi's policies to suppress religions in Vietnam," Vo Van Ai, Paris-based spokesperson for the UBCV, wrote in an e-mail to Reuters. 

Most of Vietnam's 84-million people are Buddhist followers and believers, and the bronze pagoda that sits 1 068 metres above sea level has become a popular site for Buddhists and non-Buddhist tourists in recent years. 

The renovation of the pagoda into a 4-metre-high structure made entirely of bronze took one year. It is made from 70 tons of bronze, covering an area of 20 square metres. 

It cost $124-million (R880-million), donated by Vietnamese from all over the world, said head monk Venerable Thich Thanh Quyet. Dressed in a golden silk robe, he led the ceremony to celebrate the renovation. 

"The special thing about followers coming here is that they came of their own free will and are here to witness a spiritual project to be completed that has a special meaning to the nation," Thanh Quyet said in an interview on the rocky hillside with a sweeping vista of mountains and forest. 

Buddhists say the Truc Lam sect was founded by Vietnam's King Tran Nhan Tong (1258-1308) after he defeated the Mongols and abdicated to his son. 

He moved to the Yen Tu mountains and formed the sect to serve the interests of both Buddhism and the Vietnamese nation. Over Vietnam's 2 000-year history, Buddhism developed a tradition of activism unique to South-east Asia. 

Vietnamese Buddhist monks played a large role in helping to liberate Vietnam from 1 000 years of Chinese rule. 

Centuries later, when the Communist Party came to power in northern Vietnam by ousting French colonial rulers in 1954, the authorities curbed religion. 

Today's government, which has opened the country to international trade and enjoyed record economic growth in recent years, recognises several faiths and religious organisations. 

In the past, its 1960s/70s enemy, the United States, was highly critical of Hanoi over religion, but last November, Washington removed Vietnam from a blacklist of countries it says are severely intolerant of religious rights. 

While there is discord with the UBCV, the government is discussing the possibility of diplomatic relations with the Vatican. Vietnam has the second largest Roman Catholic population in Asia after the Philippines. 

"The chance to rebuild this pagoda was maybe the only one in a thousand years and we all wanted to be here to witness the event," said 26-year-old translator Nguyen Huyen Chau as she rested along the final section of the path, lined with colourful flags blowing in the wind. - Reuters