Nguyen
Nga, an overseas Vietnamese living in France, is busy completing her
final
preparations for the 2010 Long Bien Festival to mark the 1,000th
birthday of
Thang Long-Hanoi.
A delegation from the Vietnam Buddhist
Sangha (VBS) Central Committee held Dharma ceremonies for overseas
Vietnamese in several German cities from May 15-16 to celebrate the Buddha’s birthday.
Over 2,000 dignitaries, monks, nuns and Buddhist followers are attending
a
national Dharma conference which began on May 6 in the southern province
of Kien
Giang.
“We are proud of the generations of
Vietnamese, past and present, of the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago,
for overcoming fierce natural challenges and being ready to sacrifice
their lives to protect the sovereignty of the nation’s sea and islands,”
said a FM official.
A central chamber of the Ghositaram
Pagoda, the largest Khmer pagoda in Vietnam, was inaugurated in Vinh
Loi district of the Mekong delta province of Bac Lieu on March 12.
Vice State President Nguyen Thi Doan
and a delegation from the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) were present at
Hanoi ’s main airport on March 3 to receive a sari, said to be that of
the Lord Buddha, brought to Vietnam from India.
The fifth congress of representatives of the Association for Solidarity of
Patriotic Buddhist Bonzes – the 2009-2014 tenure--opened in the Mekong Delta
province of Kien Giang on January 27 with the participation of over 400
delegates.
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.”
Buddhist followers practising teachings
of the France-based Lang Mai ( Plum Village ) voluntarily left the
Phuoc Hue Temple in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong for home
on Dec. 30, 2009, officials said.
In 2009, Buddhist followers in Hanoi raised nearly 7.2 billion VND in
support of poor people, Agent Orange and storm victims, orphans and the
homeless elderly.
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