Lam Dong provincial People’s Committee Deputy Chairman Nguyen Ngoc Dong said local authorities had never intervened in the clash last year between Lang Mai Zen practitioners with Buddhist followers as it was purely a “dispute between different religious factions.”
At a press briefing in Hanoi on January 11, Dong rejected allegations the local authorities had pressured followers of the French-based Lang Mai ( Plum Village ) to leave Phuoc Hue Pagoda.
“We leave religious affairs to religions,” he said, emphasising local authorities would not intervene in such a dispute until the conflict violated the panel code.
“The compound of Phuoc Hue Pagoda is too narrow to shelter almost 200 Lang Mai Zen practitioners. Additionally, disputes among this group of people and the monks and followers of Phuoc Hue Pagoda, as well as a request from the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, all led the chief monk of the Phuoc Hue Pagoda to ask the Lang Mai Zen practitioners to leave,” he explained.
He repeatedly asserted the incident was a religious affair and local authorities would only have appeared whenever help was needed to ensure public order and security or settle large disputes.
According to the Government Committee for Religious Affairs, before June 2008, a large number of Lang Mai followers arrived at the Bat Nha Monastery with permission of its head, Venerable Thich Duc Nghi, to practise meditation according to teachings of Lang Mai meditation centre, which was established in France by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.
Lang Mai centre, however, interfered in internal affairs of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha by appointing a deputy head of the Bat Nha Monastery and ordaining a Venerable to Most Venerable without asking for permission from the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) and the Monastery’s head.
Displeased with the acts, Venerable Thich Duc Nghi sent a petition to the VBS to withdraw his guarantee for the Lang Mai followers. The VBS accepted the Venerable’s request and asked the Lang Mai followers to leave the Bat Nha Monastery and return to pagodas in their native land.
However, the Lang Mai followers stayed on despite Venerable Nghi’s repeated demands, which led to a clash between them and followers of the Bat Nha Monastery on June 27, 2009.
On September 28, 2009, all the Lang Mai followers moved out of the Bat Nha Monastery to the Phuoc Hue Temple and some of them even returned home. And on Dec. 30, 2009, the remainders voluntarily left the Phuoc Hue Temple for home.
Regarding this issue, the Permanent Deputy Head of the Government’s Committee for Religious Affairs, Nguyen Thanh Xuan, said after the event took place, the Deputy Foreign Minister and Chairman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese had contacted the Lang Mai one month before his working visit to France in late September and early October, 2009.
The deputy foreign minister proposed a meeting with Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh to solve the problem but Hanh declined the request saying he had already scheduled a religious programme in the US , said Xuan.
At the same time, the Lang Mai headquarters allegedly spread incorrect information on the issue of its practitioners at the Bat Nha monastery./.
At a press briefing in Hanoi on January 11, Dong rejected allegations the local authorities had pressured followers of the French-based Lang Mai ( Plum Village ) to leave Phuoc Hue Pagoda.
“We leave religious affairs to religions,” he said, emphasising local authorities would not intervene in such a dispute until the conflict violated the panel code.
“The compound of Phuoc Hue Pagoda is too narrow to shelter almost 200 Lang Mai Zen practitioners. Additionally, disputes among this group of people and the monks and followers of Phuoc Hue Pagoda, as well as a request from the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, all led the chief monk of the Phuoc Hue Pagoda to ask the Lang Mai Zen practitioners to leave,” he explained.
He repeatedly asserted the incident was a religious affair and local authorities would only have appeared whenever help was needed to ensure public order and security or settle large disputes.
According to the Government Committee for Religious Affairs, before June 2008, a large number of Lang Mai followers arrived at the Bat Nha Monastery with permission of its head, Venerable Thich Duc Nghi, to practise meditation according to teachings of Lang Mai meditation centre, which was established in France by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.
Lang Mai centre, however, interfered in internal affairs of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha by appointing a deputy head of the Bat Nha Monastery and ordaining a Venerable to Most Venerable without asking for permission from the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) and the Monastery’s head.
Displeased with the acts, Venerable Thich Duc Nghi sent a petition to the VBS to withdraw his guarantee for the Lang Mai followers. The VBS accepted the Venerable’s request and asked the Lang Mai followers to leave the Bat Nha Monastery and return to pagodas in their native land.
However, the Lang Mai followers stayed on despite Venerable Nghi’s repeated demands, which led to a clash between them and followers of the Bat Nha Monastery on June 27, 2009.
On September 28, 2009, all the Lang Mai followers moved out of the Bat Nha Monastery to the Phuoc Hue Temple and some of them even returned home. And on Dec. 30, 2009, the remainders voluntarily left the Phuoc Hue Temple for home.
Regarding this issue, the Permanent Deputy Head of the Government’s Committee for Religious Affairs, Nguyen Thanh Xuan, said after the event took place, the Deputy Foreign Minister and Chairman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese had contacted the Lang Mai one month before his working visit to France in late September and early October, 2009.
The deputy foreign minister proposed a meeting with Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh to solve the problem but Hanh declined the request saying he had already scheduled a religious programme in the US , said Xuan.
At the same time, the Lang Mai headquarters allegedly spread incorrect information on the issue of its practitioners at the Bat Nha monastery./.
