Followers pay last respects to outlawed Vietnamese Buddhist monk
DPA ,
Jul 7, 2008
Hanoi, Vietnam
-- Followers of an outlawed Buddhist group in Vietnam were permitted to pay their
respects on Monday to their former leader who died over the weekend while under
house arrest, according to Vietnamese authorities.
Members of the Unified Buddhist Church
of Vietnam were allowed to enter the Nguyen Thieu Monastery in Tuy Phuoc since
Monday morning.
The Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang had
been under house arrest since 2003 after he and his deputy Thich Quang Do, 79,
attempted to hold a nationwide congress of the sect's monks.
Quang's funeral began Monday at the
monastery where he died on Saturday at 87 years old. The official ceremony is
planned for Friday, according to Binh Dinh provincial chairman Vu Hoang Ha.
Tin tức từ hanoi, Viet nam
cho biết rằng bởi vì sự kính trọng, đau thương và hâm mộ đối với những người
theo đạo Phật Giao nói riêng và những tôn giáo khác nói chung, ở Vietnam và trên
toàn cầu về sự qua đời của Ðại Lão Hòa Thượng Thích Huyền Quang. Nhà nước
Vietnam sẽ không gây trở ngại về vấn đề tang lễ của Ðại Lão Hòa Thượng Thích
Huyền Quang dưới sự tổ chức của Giáo Hội Phật Giáo Việt Nam Thống Nhất. Nhà nước
Vietnam cũng tuyên bố rằng, họ sẽ không làm khó dể cho tất cả hội viên của Giáo
Hội Phật Giáo Việt Nam Thống Nhất đến tham dự tang lễ từ thứ hai cho đến thứ sáu
trong tuần này tại “nguyen Thieu Monastery in Tuy Phuoc”
Quang was treated at the provincial
general hospital but returned to the monastery on Friday, and died one day later
due to major organ failure.
Thich
Huyen Quang was born in 1920 in An Nhon district, Binh Dinh province. The
International Buddhist Information Bureau noted that he was one of Vietnam's most
loved and respected spiritual leaders.
"He was also a determined opponent of
tyranny in all its forms," the bureau said in a statement.
"For his uncompromising determination to
stand firm, he paid a high price, spending over half his life in prison,
internal exile or under house arrest under a succession of political regimes."
Quang was the fourth Supreme Patriarch
of the outlawed sect, a spiritual movement that grew out of Buddhist groups that
were active in the former South Vietnam
before it was defeated and reunified with North Vietnam in 1975.
The Vietnamese government does not
recognize the sect because its members refuse to accept government control over
their affairs.
